Marketing & Paid AdvertisingLAL

Lookalike Audience

A targeting feature reaching new people who share characteristics similar to your existing customers.

1 min readLast updated Apr 2026

A targeting feature reaching new people who share characteristics similar to your existing customers.

Why It Matters

Lookalike audiences let you scale prospecting by finding people similar to your best customers. Instead of guessing interests and demographics, you leverage platform algorithms to find users who match conversion patterns. Lookalikes often outperform interest-based targeting at scale.

Practical Example

Scenario

A supplement brand creates a 1% lookalike of their highest-LTV customers (3+ purchases, $300+ total spend) instead of lookalikes based on all purchasers.

Result

The high-LTV lookalike delivers 40% lower CPA and 25% higher AOV than the all-purchaser lookalike. Quality seed = quality expansion.

Pro Tips

  • 1Seed with quality, not quantity—lookalikes of high-LTV customers outperform lookalikes of all purchasers
  • 2Test different lookalike percentages: 1% for quality/low scale, 3-5% for balance, 5-10% for scale
  • 3Create separate lookalikes for different customer segments—your best product line may attract different people

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Using website visitors as seed instead of actual purchasers—visitors include lots of non-buyers
Creating lookalikes that are too broad (5%+) before mastering narrow lookalikes (1-2%)

Frequently Asked Questions

Related Terms

Seed Audience

The foundational group of people used to create a Lookalike Audience.

Custom Audience

A targeting option reaching people who have already interacted with your business.