How to target niche interest-based audiences no longer available on Meta

"My target audience is vegetarians but Meta no longer lets me target vegetarians; this will impact my donations, help!"

If you've been spending time in Meta Ads Manager, or heard the complaints of those that do, you'll know that Meta recently removed a load of targeting options. This was done for a good reason in that it removed the possibility of targeting people with ads based on their personal attributes. But what it means for charities is that they are now limited in some of the options they relied upon before.

Each individual non profit - as with all brands - has a specific type of person that would be interested in supporting them - their 'ideal supporter' whose aspirations can be fulfilled and pain points lessened by engagement with this specific charity. So if your ideal supporter is someone whose demographic is no longer covered by Meta targeting, take a breathe - there are still strategies you can implement to reach your people. Try these...

Go back to who you ideal supporter is. They aren't just vegetarians, or Christians, or readers of the Daily Telegraph. They are fully rounded people with busy lives, goals and frustrations, and they will have other things that they dedicate time and energy to other than shopping for pulses, going to church or doing the crossword. For instance - if your charity works with young children and you know that your key audiences are predominantly parents of young children, think about other things this demographic would be thinking about. Primary schools, activities for kids, children's clothing brands, family friendly recipes - all of these are targeting options available to test. Remember: the targeting you choose doesn't have to be exactly the same as what you do as a charity, but it needs to be relevant to the audience's life as a whole.

Test using lookalike audiences. Lookalikes allow you to show your ads to people who demonstrate similar behaviours to people who already engage with your brand. This could be your Instagram engagers, your website visitors, your Facebook page fans, your email list, your previous donor list and so on. If the people in those groups already have the characteristic or interest you used to target, so will the lookalikes, so this will help you spread that net to relevant people.

Call the audience out in your copy. The messaging in any campaign should be looking to create an emotional connection with the reader by telling a story. So it makes sense to reference the value(s) that connects your charity to their ideal supporter. For instance, if you're a non profit working to promote plant based eating, it would be very natural to include reference to your audience already being aware of the environmental benefits of cutting out meat, or a 'vegetarians unite!' type call to action, that would draw your ideal supporter to you.

As with everything; where there's a will, there's a way!