Top Tools for Facebook Audience Targeting and Interest Research

For anyone running Facebook ads, you know how crucial audience targeting and interest keyword selection are for ad optimization.

1) Precise Audience Targeting

The core of ad optimization is reaching high-quality audiences. Poor audience targeting wastes everything. Precise targeting can directly determine the success of your ad campaign.

We usually select audiences based on our experience and the product on the landing page, considering factors like location, gender, age, and financial status.
Besides Facebook’s built-in audience options, we use interest keyword tools to dig deeper into potential audiences—this is the main focus of this article.

2) Budget Optimization

If audience targeting and interest keyword selection are inadequate, it can lead to wasted budget and poor ad metrics, such as high CPC or CPM.
For example, in the counterfeit e-commerce niche, CPC should ideally be under $0.50, with the best campaigns aiming for $0.30 to leave room for ROI. Without precise targeting, even achieving ROI of 5–8 becomes impossible.

Interest Keyword Tools

Previously, I recommended a tool called InterestExplorer for interest keyword research. For example, for luxury products, you might start with the core keyword “LUXURY” and then discover related terms to optimize your audience.

However, due to frequent Facebook algorithm updates, this tool is struggling. For instance, searching for “Luxury Bag” may no longer yield high-quality related keywords. Many advertisers have reported the same issue.

The official response from InterestExplorer this year was:

“Due to a sharp decrease in the number of available Facebook interests, we have decided to stop selling access to our software. The application will remain available to existing users.”

In short, the tool can no longer keep up with Facebook’s updates.

What can we do?

Switch to a new tool! Sometimes, simplicity is the best solution.

Today, I’ll share a few practical tools for audience targeting and interest keyword research for your reference:

1. Facebook Official Tool – Audience Insights
   Access here: https://www.facebook.com/business/insights/tools/audience-insights

2. Audtools
   A tool developed by Chinese developers, very easy to use.
   Access here: https://www.audtools.com/users/register.html?yqm=27038

3. Connectio
   A great tool with powerful features, though the price is higher.
   Access here: useconnectio.com

Regarding how to use and optimize these tools in combination, you can explore and experiment on your own.