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In this episode of the Sports Marketing Machine podcast, host Jeremy Neisser explores one of the most powerful (and underused) Meta Ads tools: Lookalike Audiences. As part three of the Meta Ads 101 series, this episode unpacks how sports teams can find new, high-quality fans by targeting people who are most similar to those already engaging—like video viewers, past ticket buyers, and website visitors.
Jeremy walks through how to build these audiences, when to use them, what mistakes to avoid, and how to combine them with smart exclusions for even better performance.
🧠 Takeaways
- Lookalike Audiences let you find new fans similar to your best existing ones.
- Use high-quality source audiences: video viewers, past purchasers, website visitors.
- Avoid low-quality sources like general followers or homepage visitors.
- Target hot, warm, and cold audiences separately for better optimization.
- Combine Lookalikes with exclusions (from Ep. 108) to avoid wasting ad spend.
- Update your source audiences regularly to keep your targeting fresh.
- 1% lookalikes = most accurate match, 5% = broader but less precise reach.
- Run A/B tests across multiple audience “buckets” to identify top performers.
- Categorize video viewers: 25% = warm, 75–95% = hot leads.
- Track landing page views and conversions, not just clicks.
🔊 Sound Bite
“If someone’s watching 75% of your video—they’ve already watched a commercial about you.”
⏱️ Chapters
00:00 – Introduction to Lookalike Audiences
01:10 – How Meta Tracks Behavior
02:50 – Building Lookalike Audiences from Video Viewers
05:32 – Better Sources = Better Results
08:24 – Layering Location, Demographics & Exclusions
10:46 – How to Organize Campaigns by Audience Type
13:20 – Cold vs. Warm vs. Hot Audiences
17:15 – Recap & Best Practices
📺 Want to see Jeremy build a lookalike audience live?
YouTube tutorial link.
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