What Meta says
On 9 October 2026 we read the Meta Business Help Centre page "About lookalike audiences". Meta uses the name lookalike audiences. It says they let your ads reach new people who are likely to be interested in your business, because they are similar to your existing customers.
- Meta's system uses information such as demographics, interests and behaviours from your source audience to find similar people.
- You choose a percentage range. Smaller percentages match your source more closely. Larger percentages make a bigger, broader audience.
- The quality of the source matters. Meta says you may get better results from an audience made from your most valuable customers than from all of them.
- Lookalike audiences are limited or unavailable for some ads about financial products and services, employment or housing.
- Targeting options are limited for audiences that include people under 18.
The same page links to guides on value-based lookalike audiences and Advantage lookalike. We did not read those. Meta changes its tools often, so read the live page before you set up a campaign.
A made-up example in rupees
Say an online store in Surat has a list of 1,200 repeat buyers. This is a made-up example. It runs two ad sets, each with ₹10,000 for one week.
- Ad set A targets a lookalike audience built from the repeat buyers. It brings 14 orders. Cost for each order: ₹10,000 ÷ 14 = about ₹714.
- Ad set B targets people by interest alone. It brings 9 orders. Cost for each order: ₹10,000 ÷ 9 = about ₹1,111.
One week of results is small. The store repeats the test before moving more money. Always compare the cost of each order with what a customer is worth, as in CAC (customer acquisition cost).
How it works for an Indian business
A good source is your own record: buyers, repeat buyers or leads who became customers. A list of people who never bought is a weak source. Keep the list clean and make sure you have permission to use the data. Rules depend on the platform and the country, so check the platform's terms.
Common mistakes
- Building the audience from a tiny or messy list.
- Using all contacts, including people who never bought, as the source.
- Choosing a very wide range and then wondering why results are weak.
- Never refreshing the source as new customers come in.
- Using it for ads that fall under a restricted category and getting blocked.
Lookalikes find new people. To bring back people who already visited, read about retargeting.
Related terms
- Retargeting: ads for people who already visited your site.
- CAC (customer acquisition cost): what you spend to win one customer.
- Attribution: deciding which source gets credit for a sale.
To plan the audiences for your Meta campaigns, see our Meta ads work.
Sources
- Meta Business Help Centre, "About lookalike audiences" (facebook.com/business/help/164749007013531), read 9 October 2026.
