AdAce AdsSnapchat lookalike audiences: build from your best customers
A lookalike audience asks Snapchat to find people who resemble a group you provide. The quality of the seed decides the quality of the audience, so the useful question is not how to build the lookalike but what group deserves to be copied.
How a Snapchat lookalike is made
In Snapchat, a lookalike is built from a seed that is a customer list segment. The documentation lists three types: Balance (the default), Similarity and Reach, and one or more countries to look in, given as country codes. The retention period is capped at 180 days. The lookalike refreshes when new identifiers are added to the seed.
The type is a trade-off between precision and scale. A similarity-style audience stays closer to the seed but is smaller; a reach-style audience is broader and less alike; balance sits between. For a small business with a modest budget, a more similar and smaller audience may be easier to read, but check the estimated size so that delivery is possible.
Choose the seed with care. A list of every person who ever clicked is a poor seed. A list of people who completed the result you value, such as hired drivers or repeat buyers, is a better one. If the list is tiny or mixed, results will be unclear. Snapchat's documentation does not publish a minimum seed size, so rely on the account to tell you whether the segment is usable.
Test a lookalike against a plain geography and age audience, same creative, same budget and same period. The comparison tells you whether the extra complexity helps. Do not assume it does.
What a good lookalike gives you
- You can reach new people who resemble your best customers, not just everyone in an area.
- A clean seed gives a clear test: lookalike against broad.
- A lookalike can be refreshed as the seed list grows.
Build and test one in five steps
- Choose the group you want more of and export them as a customer list.
- Upload and wait until the segment is processed and usable.
- Create the lookalike from that seed, set the type and the country or countries.
- Check the estimated audience size, and then attach the lookalike to its own ad squad.
- Compare it with a broad geography ad squad using the same creatives and budget.
Good to know
- Do not use a seed built from sensitive categories or from people who did not agree to this use.
- AdAce Ads reads audiences available in the account and can attach them to targeting as a proposal; creating the audience itself is done in Snapchat. Early access.
Sources and further reading
Try it on your own accounts
Create a workspace, connect Google or Meta in a couple of clicks and see your accounts clearly. Changes follow your approvals or the policy you configure.
Create your workspace