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  • Writer's pictureKelly Alica Liman

How to Use Facebook Audience Insights (Meta Audience Insights)

If you want to understand the ideal target audience for your business, or if you're curious about who your Instagram and Facebook page followers are, then, you're on the right article as we will be showing you how to use the Meta / Facebook Insights Tool. You'll learn how to understand your market potential, gain insights for better ad targeting, and also know the size of your current following with the total market potential. All-in-all, there's plenty of information to dig through this tool which you can use to improve your digital marketing strategy. Sounds awesome? Then read on and stick around to the end of the article to find our best tip on using the tool to supercharge your digital marketing campaigns!


Also, if you're more inclined towards a video tutorial, here's an 8-minute tutorial you can follow from XYZ Lab's Youtube Channel!


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Step 1: Navigate to Facebook Audience Insights


There are two ways in which you can access Facebook Audience Insights:





2. Navigate to your Meta Business Manager and choose Audience Insights under the Analyse & Report column







Step 2: Click on Potential Audience


You will see two audiences: Current Audience and Potential Audience.




1. Current Audience


The current audience is relevant to the page that you manage and shows those who are currently following your Facebook and Instagram pages. If you manage more than 1 page, you can click the dropdown menu to see and change the pages that you want to focus on.



Some of the insights you can find in this tab are:

  • Number of Followers

  • Age and Gender Distribution (distribution of different age groups and male vs. female followers)

  • Top Town/Cities/Countries (where your followers are located/coming from)





2. Potential Audience


Potential Audience is an exploration tool that can be very helpful in determining market potential. We will be exploring the tool in the next section, so click on the Potential Audience.





Step 3: Click on Filter and select your market of interest




As an example, we will be using Indonesia as the market of interest. Click on Filter and enter Indonesia (country) in the Location section.




As the results show, you can see the Estimated audience size of the people who are using Facebook and Instagram in Indonesia. In this case, there are an estimated number of 135,700,000 to 159,600,000 Facebook and Instagram users in Indonesia. It also shows the demographic distribution of the users (ie. the amount of male and female users and what are the age groups that these people belong to). You can repeat the same steps for other countries.





Step 4: Click on Filter and choose the interest you would like to explore




Example 1: Yoga Pants


We will be using Yoga pants as the Interests we'd like to explore. Click on Filter and enter Yoga pants in the Interests section.




As the results show, you can see the Estimated audience size of the Facebook and Instagram users in Indonesia who are interested in yoga pants; with an estimated number of 2,000,000 to 2,300,000 users. It also shows the demographic distribution of the users, of which it is slightly skewed towards women, with the main target demographics being millenials between 25-44 years old, and the majority of users located in Jakarta.




You can repeat the same steps for other interests. Let's do a second example!




Example 2: Gaming computer (computer hardware)


We will be using Gaming as the Interests to explore. Click on Filter and enter Gaming computer (computer hardware) in the Interests section.




As the results show, you can see the Estimated audience size of the Facebook and Instagram users in Indonesia who are interested in gaming computers; with an estimated number of 28,200,000 to 33,200,000 users. It also shows the demographics is massively skewed towards men, with a young audience that is well distributed across the entire country. Scroll down and you'll find information about the top pages that these users follow.






Now that you know how to use the filters to get the insights you need, here are some crucial tips on how you can use the tool better!


 

Tip 1: Never mix the interests together


For example, if you mix Yoga pants and Gaming computer interests, the results you get is an OR condition and not an AND condition. What this means is that the system has given you results that are relevant to users who have interest in gaming computer or yoga pants individually (not people who have interest in both simultaneously). In this case, the total audience size is relevant to both gaming computer or yoga pants, and you are blending the interests instead of narrowing it down.



Our recommendation is to use the tool to investigate interests one at a time and not altogether. If you want to get even more insights, you can narrow down to certain genders and age. For example, we can narrow down users who are interested in Gaming computers who are Male between 18-24 years old. As usual, you can find information of where these users are located and the top pages that they like within Facebook and Instagram. You can then use these insights for collaboration, targeting, budget allocation and get a better understanding of your target audience.






Tip 2: Compare Potential Audience vs Current Audience


You can also use the tool to compare your potential audience size with a number of people who are currently following your Facebook and Instagram, in order to know the demographic distribution in the market and how much of these audiences you are capturing. You can present this information to your shareholders and make data-driven decisions.




 

As you can see, there is a trove of insights you can find from the Meta Audience Insights tool. All this information is very useful when you set up a Meta Ads campaign so you can target the right demographics and budget accordingly (eg. split campaign between male and female, locations to target, etc).


In a nutshell, here are some things you can use the tool for:

  • Understand the size of the market

  • Decide which demographics to target

  • Decide which locations to target

  • Understand which pages your audience is following

  • Compare your following to your target demographics


On that note, getting the insights is only half the mile run. It's how you use the insights you found that will actually help you improve your digital marketing strategy. Most importantly, have fun and experiment lots with it, and you'll be on your way to better and greater digital marketing performance, cheers!








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