How to Target Muslim Audiences on Facebook – A Quick Solution

FOR THE LATEST UPDATE ON A SOLUTION FOR FACEBOOK ADS GO TO: 7 Benefits of Serving Ads to Muslims Using Muslim Ad Network vs. Google Ads & Facebook Ads

So you want to know how to target Muslim audiences after Facebook removed the ability to run ads based on religious interests and politics?

As a result of a series of Senate hearings regarding documents leaked by whistleblower Frances Haugen, Meta – the company that now stands behind Facebook – faces increased scrutiny. This is the main reason why Meta took such drastic measures.

As a business that targets Muslim consumers, you may be grappling with this issue. We wanted to reassure you that there is still an efficient way to target Muslim audiences on Facebook.

Solution: Target Muslim Consumers Through Facebook Custom Audiences

FOR THE LATEST UPDATE ON A SOLUTION FOR FACEBOOK ADS GO TO: 7 Benefits of Serving Ads to Muslims Using Muslim Ad Network vs. Google Ads & Facebook Ads

You can use three different  sources of data for your Custom Audiences:

• Your customer lists
• Visitors to your website
• Your App users

Your Customer List

Facebook will create target audiences based on your existing customers when you upload or connect your existing lists.

Upload a list of your customers and run a campaign to encourage their next purchase. You can use this same list to recruit new Muslim customers by creating campaigns that reward your list members for bringing in new customers.

For first-time customers think about what they would typically buy next and when they tend to do so. Use this data to advertise their next product within that time frame.

So if your first-time customer bought kitchen accessories for Ramadan and you have established a pattern that your typical customer usually buys dining sets as presents for Eid-ul Fitr, use this data to create ads for the product in the days leading to Eid-ul Fitr.

Easy Steps to Upload Your Customer List on Facebook Ads:

1. Go to Ads Manager
2. Click on “Audiences”
3. Click on “Create a Custom Audience”
4. Select “Customer List”

Make sure you format your customer list correctly.

Your Site Visitors

You can target Muslims on Facebook who visited your website or specific pages on your website. This targeting option is referred to as “website custom audiences”. You can also dig into site behavior data such as page depth, time spent on the site, and bounce rate. This, of course, makes sense if you are a typical Muslim business or organization and if the overwhelming majority of website traffic is made up of Muslims.

Facebook Pixel

Adding the Facebook Pixel to your website is the first step in creating and running your campaign. With the Facebook Pixel, you can track user behavior on your site, as well as specific audience segments that you can target with future Facebook ads.

Abandoned Carts

The average shopping cart abandonment rate for desktops is  69.57% and 85.65% for mobile. Given the fact that most visitors to your site are probably on their mobile phones, you may have a relatively large audience to retarget on Facebook.

Abandoned carts are excellent opportunities since your potential customer has already done all the work to get your product in their cart. It may be easier to recover abandoned carts than to attract new customers since the website visitor already has knowledge of your brand, is interested in your products, and just needs a little extra nudge.

You can customize product recommendations based on the visitor’s cart or offer discounts on abandoned products.

Sequential Retargeting

Through Facebook ads, you can target your audience with a series of advertisements based on their website behavior. Facebook ads using sequential retargeting are effective because they acknowledge the stage of the buying journey of your website visitor. For example, a visitor to your halal restaurant reservation page is far more likely to commit than someone who only visited your homepage.

Your Facebook App Users

Target Muslim audiences who have engaged with your Facebook app or have taken specific actions on your Facebook app. Your brand is already familiar to them, so it’s mostly just a matter of nurturing and sealing the deal.

Before we move further, make sure you download The Ultimate Guide to Understanding and Marketing to the Muslim Consumer. Your brand’s guide on breaking into one of the fastest-growing untapped consumer markets in the world.

Lookalike Muslim Audiences

You can create Facebook Lookalike Audiences by selecting segments of people who have similar characteristics to your existing users. We ask you to do this with caution because so far we have talked about audiences from your customer list or website visitors. The lookalike audience you end up with highly depends on the interests they share with your customer list and site visitors.

The lookalike audience should really be specific to products that most probably only Muslim consumers would buy. Lookalike audiences are however a  great ad targeting option to expand your reach to new potential Muslim customers. 

Since they share similar characteristics to your Custom Audiences, you already have an idea of what works and what does not—so you only need to repurpose and optimize as needed.

Easy Steps to Create a Facebook Ads Lookalike Audience:

1. Go to your Audiences. 
2. Select the Create Audience dropdown and choose Lookalike Audience
3. Choose your source. 
4. Choose the country/countries where you’d like to find a similar set of people
5. Choose your desired audience size with the slide.
6. Select Create Audience 

Source: Meta Business Help Center

Conclusion

These are frustrating times for those who have targeted Muslim audiences on Facebook for many years. Facebook’s decision to close off options for targeting religious interests has come at a high price for many.

However, if we are talking about a warm Muslim audience there are still a few options to target them on Facebook as we have demonstrated in this article.

So what do you do if you want to advertise to a new Muslim audience that has not warmed up to you yet? The answer to that is you partner with the largest, most experienced ad platform for targeting Muslim consumers in the world.

For more than a decade, Muslim Ad Network has helped brands, businesses, and organizations reach over 250 million Muslim customers online globally, and has served over a billion ads.
Feel free to contact Muslim Ad Network today and we will help you reach Muslim customers in the most efficient manner.

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