How Do You Find Facebook Hidden Interests?

If you have already run ads on Facebook, you understand what types of audiences it provides and how ad targeting works. In this article, we’re going to deliberate on Facebook interest targeting specifically and how to enhance it with the help of so-called hidden interests.

 

What interest-based targeting is

Interest targeting is based on interests that Facebook assigns to people. It depends on what users like or comment, what groups they’ve joined, and many other factors. This system is very useful for advertisers as it gives them a chance to find people interested in their product or service.

 

You can simultaneously target different people with different interests or, on the other hand, those who like several options at the same time. Also, there is a way to exclude specific groups of interests. These are great features for building a truly accurate audience for targeting Facebook ads.

Despite all of these facilities, some marketers and small business owners struggle to sell specific and niche products as they simply can’t find the appropriate interest filters to target. It doesn’t mean that such interests don’t exist. It means that they have been hidden by Facebook and there is still a chance to access them.

 

What Facebook hidden interests are

Hidden interests are the interests that are not auto-suggested by Facebook when you type in a keyword in the Detailed Targeting section of your ad campaign. The thing is, Facebook shows only 25 search results even if there are many more. You are able to find them only by typing in the exact name of a keyword. 

 

Of course, even among these 25 interests shown by Facebook, there are those that will fit for creating an audience. Yet keep in mind that the same 25 interests are shown to every other advertiser that is looking for the same keyword. It raises competition level significantly and, subsequently, affects the ad costs. Moreover, these are the broadest interests that consist of a large number of people so you’ll be risking targeting people who are not interested in the topic.

 

Knowing how Facebook targeting works and what hidden interests are, let’s discuss why exactly you would need them to run ad campaigns on Facebook.

 

Why use Facebook hidden interests

There are several reasons why hidden Facebook interests are worth attention. Here are some of the most important ones:

• As we’ve already mentioned, the 25 interests Facebook shows us are the broadest interests that consist of a huge number of people. Targeting large audiences is a good approach when you want to spread your reach and increase brand awareness. Still, showing ads to people that are not truly interested in the product may lead to poor ad results and excessive budget losses. With hidden interests, you can build smaller yet more specific audiences consisting of people willing to buy your product.
• Every business has competitors. These competitors use the same marketing channels as you do, meaning they target the same interests that are shown to you. When a lot of advertisers target the same interest, it increases costs in the ad auction, making it much more expensive for you. By targeting hidden interests, you lower ad prices significantly as these interests are used by fewer people.
• If you sell a specific niche product, it may be difficult to find the appropriate interest directly on Facebook. Or maybe, the ones shown by Facebook are not a perfect match for you. In such a case, with hidden Facebook interests research tools, you will be able to find the interests that will be more relevant to your product.
• In case you have already used all the saved, custom, and lookalike audiences possible and have shown your ad to literally anyone or even faced ad fatigue, hidden interests is the best solution to reach untapped audiences that you weren’t able to approach earlier.

As you see, there are a lot of reasons. More likely, you’re already considering creating your first audience based on hidden interests. So, how to do it?

 

Ways to find Facebook hidden interests

There are several options for how to look for hidden interests. You can do it manually, with the help of Facebook API, or by using third-party services. Let us describe how all of them work:

• It may seem odd and unusual, but you can approach a hidden interest by a so-called alphabet method by adding letters after the keyword in the detailed targeting search bar. For instance, you sell products for dogs and have already used all the dog-related keywords Facebook has shown you. Try searching for such combinations as “dogs a”, “dogs b”, “dogs c”, and so on. This way, you’ll see interests that weren’t initially shown while typing in just “dogs”, like “rescue dog”.
  
  By using this method, you are able to reach niche interests. However, it is quite time-consuming.

• The next option will fit more tech-savvy marketers. The point is, Facebook allows all the developers to get access to use Facebook API. With its help, you can approach all the features Ads Manager provides, including the Facebook interest list. What you need to do is to inspect the Ads Manager page, find the necessary token in the code, and use it while sending a request to the Facebook API, pointing out the keyword and the language.
  
  Once it’s done, you will get access to the code that displays all the relevant interests. Their titles can be copied in the “name” string and then pasted to the ad set.

The ways mentioned above are not particularly convenient. The first one may take too much time and effort while the second one demands some technical knowledge. That is why we are convinced that the following method is the easiest to use:

• ConvertBomb offers a special Facebook interests explorer feature. With it, you’ll get access to all hidden interests within just a couple of minutes. All you need to do is to type in a keyword and you’ll see the list of all the interests related to the topic. What’s more, you’ll be able to check out additional suggestions, i.e. ideas for what else you might target, that are likely to be relevant for your ads as well.

 

Conclusion

As you see, hidden interests are a great way to make your targeting more diverse, approach new people, and increase the number of conversions. There are several options for how to find Facebook interests and you can test them all. Still, we are sure that in the end, you’ll admit that the ConvertBomb’s Interests Explorer is the most convenient of them all.