The idea behind Lookalike Audiences is that marketers can target an audience that has similar interests to or shares the demographics of its existing customers.

Facebook said that by using Lookalike Audiences, advertisers could expand their reach to specific geographic areas or to audiences who are not already fans of the company on Facebook page.

Lookalike Audiences has been created out of a targeting feature Facebook launched last autumn called Custom Audiences. That allows marketers to take their existing customer lists and show ads to those people on Facebook.



The social networking service said that advertisers could serve any type of Facebook ad to these new groups of people potential customers.



"We've seen this new type of targeting drive a wide range of success metrics for direct response companies like Fab, including lower cost per checkout, lower cost per acquisition, larger purchase size, and faster and increased return on investment," said Facebook