Decrease Junk Leads from Meta Lookalikes With Primer

Keep algorithm reach, ditch algorithm drift

As a largely B2C company, Meta's advertising capabilities are not tailored to B2B campaigns. The functionality does not always enable you to narrow down the target audience to users who are ready to convert. Even with lookalike audiences, Meta finds people who behave alike, not those who buy alike. Users submit forms, but few of them are qualified.

That's why you may need B2B precision targeting platforms like Primer to minimize junk leads from Meta lookalikes. Primer enables you to build a quality seed list, exclude unnecessary people, and only then create a lookalike audience in Meta. This audience is much more specific than native Meta audiences and better suited for B2B campaigns.

Read on to learn more about this Primer use case and find configuration instructions.

What is Narrowing Meta Lookalikes with Exclusion Audiences

Let's first clarify what a Meta lookalike audience is. A lookalike audience is an audience you create to reach new people who share similar characteristics with your current customers. Meta uses information such as interests, demographics, and behaviors from your source audience to generate an identical one. You can choose the source audience from Meta options or upload a custom list, and this is where Primer can be particularly helpful.

Primer allows you to create lookalike audiences by using more advanced settings, and then constrict them with another anti-persona audience to direct the algorithm. Such a campaign combines two audiences to exclude user categories that are not your target.

Why Do You Need Primer for Filtering Meta Lookalikes

Meta's lookalike engine scales fast, but without guardrails, it hunts for cheap clicks — students, hobbyists, and <50-employee firms. These leads rarely convert despite having related interests.

Primer enables you to target C-level managers who actually make decisions in B2B domains. By creating a custom target audience and adding an anti-persona suppression list, you fine-tune the algorithm, so reach can grow while maintaining quality. With Primer, you can direct Meta towards the desired ICP audience and target people who are ready to pay for your services.

Stage of the Funnel to Run Ads with Filtered Lookalike Audiences

Meta ads with filtered lookalike audiences are best suited for the top of the funnel. You target people who resemble your existing customers and share some common features, but may have never heard of your company. Your goal is to reach as many potential leads as possible to tell them about your services without compromising targeting accuracy.

3 Signs You Need Primer to Make Meta Audiences More Precise

Not everyone needs to use Primer for boosting Meta lookalike marketing campaigns. In some cases, standard Meta functionalities are perfectly enough. Here are the main signs that you can achieve better results by adding Primer.

Inflated lead volume

If Meta campaigns generate high volumes of leads but few of them convert into customers, your pipeline needs to be refined. Primer custom and exclusion audiences can make your ad efforts better focused and help reach the right people.

Low qualification rates

Without anti-ICP segments created in Primer, your Meta lookalike campaigns may drift into cheap but unqualified leads. If you notice that your current campaign is generating junk leads, consider filtering them out with Primer. It will increase the quality of your incoming leads and save the advertising budget.

High cost per lead

Without anti-ICP segments created in Primer, you can have lots of impressions that never bring qualified leads. It increases the cost per lead, since all your marketing efforts fall flat. Primer audiences enable you to reach specific audiences with an over 60% match rate. These ads convert much more often, reducing the CPL.

Note. You should use this when your audience is broad enough for lookalikes. It shines for product-led or mid-market SaaS motions that need scale on mobile social without sacrificing SQL conversion. A solid anti-persona fence prevents Meta's algorithm from drifting into cheap hobby segments once budgets grow.

How to Run Meta Campaigns With Lookalikes Using Primer

You will need to make several configurations in Primer and Meta, and that's it. No complex integration or coding. Here are the five steps to build Meta lookalike audiences with exclusion criteria:

Step 1. Go to Primer and create an audience.

Select company size, industry, and seniority of desired leads to filter customers. Choose Meta as your destination.

Use the historical win rates feature to check the attributes with the highest closed win rates. Select the most suitable attributes and click Finish & Run to create a seed list audience.

Note. If you build a list outside of Primer, you can enrich it with personal emails for matching with Meta's identity graph.

Step 2. Build an anti-persona audience.

Use Primer to build an anti-persona list. Exclude students, career-page visitors, tiny

companies, and irrelevant roles. These are the people you don't want to serve your ads to.

Step 3. Sync the audience and launch 1% lookalike.

Push your seed audience and exclusion audiences to Meta, go ahead and create a 1% lookalike audience out of that seed list.

Step 4. Add lookalikes and exclusions to ad settings.

Configure ad settings by adding lookalikes & exclusions to the ad set. You must apply exclusions at the ad-set level and turn off Advantage+ Expansion.

Step 5. A/B test lookalike audiences

Run two sets of ads — both with the lookalike audience, but one with exclusion and one without. Monitor CPL, MQL, and SQL conversions after 7 days to see the difference.

Results You Can Get By Filtering Leads with Primer

We always encourage Primer users to measure the real impact of various ad settings to make informed decisions regarding their marketing campaigns. By adding exclusions to lookalike audiences, you can considerably reduce the cost per MQL, generate more leads, and improve the match rate to grow your customer base.

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FAQs

• Why do Primer-enriched lookalikes deliver better results?

Without Primer, Meta lookalike audiences often include people who behave like your existing audience, not those who buy. It undermines the effectiveness of your advertising campaigns, resulting in high CPL and low-quality leads. Primer enables you to specify the target audience better and achieve a higher match rate with your ICP to make more people convert.

• When not to use Primer for Meta lookalikes?

If you target specific companies with an ABM go-to-market campaign, creating lookalike audiences and exclusions with Primer is not for you. Exclusions typically only work for customers with a very large addressable market that needs to be narrowed down.