How to Find Your Best Keywords for Facebook Ads

You can find keywords using Facebook’s Detailed Targeting suggestions, keyword research tools, and audience insights.

Facebook isn’t like Google ads or Amazon ads, you don’t bid or add keywords or specific search terms to your campaigns. 

Instead, it uses Detailed Targeting. Detailed targeting allows Facebook to understand who your ad is designed for so it’s shown to the right audience. 

We’ll look at how to choose keywords for Detailed Targeting. As well as which keywords to include ads in your copy to catch the attention of your audience.

Let’s dive in.

Key Takeaways

• Facebook doesn’t use keywords in the same way search engines or marketplaces do.
• You don’t enter a list of keywords to target. Instead, you enter the demographics, interests, or behaviors of your target audience. 
• To find the demographics, interests, or behaviors of your target audience, you can use Facebook’s suggestions or browse the categories.
• You can add keywords to your Facebook ad copy, media, headline, and description to attract customers.

5 Ways to Find Your Best Keywords for Facebook Ads

The five best ways we’ve found keywords for our Facebook ads are the following:

• Facebook’s Suggested Keywords in Detailed Targeting
• Browse Categories in Detailed Targeting
• Facebook Audience Insights
• Keyword Research Tools 
• Google Trends

Facebook ads don’t use keywords like ads on search platforms. 

Let’s have a quick look at the difference. Then, we’ll know why we’re finding keywords for Facebook ads and what we’ll do with them.

On search platforms like Amazon and Google, customers type in what they’re looking for. In basic terms, when you create ads, you add specific keywords or search terms. Then, when someone searches for that keyword, your ad will appear. 

The audience on Facebook isn’t searching. Instead, they’re scrolling. So, Facebook asks you to describe your perfect audience. This includes demographics, interests, and behaviors. Your ads will then appear on your perfect audience’s news feed based on the information you enter.

The keywords we’re looking for for Facebook ads are the demographics, interests, and behaviors of your perfect audience. Therefore, before you start, you need to know who your target audience is. 

You can also add keywords to your ad copy, images, videos, headlines, and descriptions. These can help attract your audience's attention to increase your conversions.

These methods will show you how to find demographics, interests, and behaviors to add to your Detailed Targeting. And how to find keywords to add your ads.

Let’s get into it.

1. Facebook's Suggested Keywords 

Summary:

• Use the suggestions offered when you add a demographic, interest, or behavior to Facebook’s Detailed Targeting.
• Adding the demographic, interests, or behaviors will show your ad to those who match.
• Select the keywords that apply to your target audience.

When you create an ad campaign, you select the criteria that your audience needs to meet for your ad to be shown on their Facebook. This includes the following:

• Location
• Age
• Gender

You can also use Detailed Targeting to help Facebook identify the exact users to target. 

Note: Facebook has advanced technology to help show your ad to other audiences that they think it matches, as well as the audience you select with Detailed Targeting. This helps improve its performance.  

When you use Detailed Targeting, you can type in the demographics, interests, and behaviors of your target customer. As you type, Facebook offers suggestions to help you find keywords. Almost like an auto-fill search bar.

To do this, you need to locate Detailed Targeting in your Facebook ads manager.

You can do this in an existing campaign, create a new campaign, or select Audiences. 

In this example, we’ll use Audiences.

1. Click Create a Saved Audience

A saved audience allows you to add all the information about your perfect audience and use it in multiple campaigns.

2. Add an audience name and complete the other details. Including location, age, gender, and language.

3. Scroll down to Detailed Targeting.

To the ‘Include People Who Match’ box, start typing in the characteristics of your perfect audience. 

For example, if you’re selling a Sleep Mask, you might want to add a word like ‘Travel.’

As you start typing, Facebook will suggest keywords. These keywords will be behaviors, interests, and demographics.

Hover over the suggestions, and Facebook will give you insights into the keyword. This includes the following information:

• Whether it’s a behavior, interest, or demographic and which category it fits into.
• Size - This is the size of the audience to which the behavior, interest, or demographic applies.
• Description - This describes the keyword.

Look at this information to find keywords that match your perfect audience. 

You can also use the Exclude People Who Match suggestions to make sure your ads don’t reach the wrong audience.

2. Facebook Categories 

Summary:

• You can Browse through demographics, interests, and behaviors to identify ones that fit your ideal audience.
• You can do this through Detailed Targeting, like with Facebook’s Suggested Keywords in the previous section.

This method is very similar to the one above. But instead of typing in keywords and looking at the suggestions, you browse the keywords available. 

You access the categories through Detailed Targeting. Follow steps 1 to 3 in the previous section.

Then, instead of typing, use the Browse button.

When you click the Browse button, Facebook will show you three options.

These are:

• Demographics - Click through the demographics to find those that match your target audience. Available demographics include:some text
  • Education - Select their education level, school, university, and fields of study.
  • Financial - Select their household income.
  • Life Events - Select users based on their anniversary, date of birth, new jobs, new engagements, new relationships, and other life events.
  • Parents - Choose whether you want to target parents. And the age of the children.
  • Relationship - Target your audience based on their relationship status.
  • Work - Search by employer, industry, and job title.

Note: Some demographic data is only available in the US.

• Interests - Find your audience based on their interests, activities, pages they’ve liked, and closely related topics. Available interests include:some text
  • Business and Industry - Select audiences that have shown interest in a specific business or industry. Such as Aviation, Banking, Design, Sales, Small Business, and more.
  • Entertainment (Leisure) - Choose an audience based on games, events, movies, music, reading, and TV. You can choose the type of games, events, movies, with the advanced dropdown options.
  • Family and Relationships - Find your audience based on their relationship and family interests. E.g., friendship, marriage, motherhood, fatherhood, and more.
  • Fitness and Wellness (Fitness) - Target your audience based on their fitness and wellness interests, including bodybuilding, running, weight training, yoga, and more.
  • Food and Drink (Consumables) - Select your audience based on their food and drink interests. This includes alcoholic beverages, cuisines, cooking, restaurants, and more.
  • Hobbies and Activities - Target audiences on their hobbies and activities. Such as arts and music, current politics, home and garden, pets, social issues, travel, vehicles, and more.
  • Shopping and Fashion - Help your audience find your ads based on their shopping and fashion interests. This includes beauty, clothing, accessories, and shopping.
  • Sports and Outdoors - If your audience is interested in sports or outdoor recreational activities, you can choose them here. Options include American football, camping, fishing, hunting, skiing, swimming, tennis, and more.
  • Technology (Computers & Electronics) - Target your audience based on their computer and consumer electronics interest. Options include cameras, smartphones, televisions, hard drives, computer monitors, and more.

• Behaviors - Target your audience based on their recent purchase intent and behavior, device usage, and more. Available behaviors include the following:some text
  • Anniversary - Find an audience with an anniversary within 61-90 days.
  • Behaviors - Target users who have accessed Facebook on a new smartphone.
  • Consumer Classification - Find users based on their country and whether they prefer high-value or mid and high-value goods.
  • Digital Activities - Target customers based on their digital activities. Including early technology adopters, Facebook payment users, food and drink creators, health and wellness creators, etc.
  • Ex-Pats - Find customers based on whether they have moved abroad by country. 
  • Mobile Device Users - Target your audience by the device they use, network connection, and more. 
  • Mobile Device User/Device Use Time - Find a specific audience based on the length of time they’ve had their mobile device.
  • More Categories - Find any categories that you’ve requested access to here.
  • Purchase Behavior - Choose how engaged they are as a shopper.
  • Soccer - Find an audience of football fans based on their engagement with soccer. 
  • Travel - Target an audience based on how they travel. Including commuters, frequent travelers, and how long ago they returned from traveling. 

Note: Some of the behaviors are only available in the US.

You can expand each option to find keyword suggestions. 

E.g. if you’re looking for travel suggestions, you could follow these paths:

Interests > Hobbies and Activities > Travel (travel & tourism) > Adventure Travel

Behaviors > Travel > Returned from Traveling Two Weeks Ago

After you select your first demographic, interest, and behavior, Detailed Targeting will suggest other related keywords. 

This makes it easy to find keywords to add to your Detailed Targeting. Which can help improve your ad performance.

3. Facebook Audience Insights 

Summary:

• Audience insights let you find those who engage with your Facebook page.
• Use this information to create campaigns targeted at them.

If you have a Facebook page, you can use Facebook Audience Insights.

Audience Insights gives you information about the audience that is connected to your Facebook page. 

This is super valuable as it’s solid data about the real audience your business is attracting.

The insights Facebook provides about your audience are the following:

• Age and Gender
• Top Towns and Cities
• Top Countries
• And more 

There is also a Potential Audience tab. This allows you to find users that will likely be interested in your products.

You can add these demographics to your Detailed Targeting. 

Check out the first two sections of the article for more information on Detailed Targeting.

4. Keyword Research Tool 

Summary:

• There are plenty of free keyword research tools. These tools give you popular keyword suggestions based on search volume.
• You can add keywords to your ad’s text or media to boost interest and conversions.
• You can also use keywords to understand your perfect audience. Then, use this information to target them more accurately using Facebook’s Detailed Targeting.

There are lots of free keyword research tools available. Most of them work by typing in a keyword. Then, based on the keyword you entered, the tool will suggest other popular keywords.

A keyword research tool is essential if you’re a copywriter or creating your ad’s text, image, or video. As the suggested keywords can be added to your ad’s copy. This will help you reach your target audience and capture their attention.

Top Hint: Although there is no evidence, many people believe that Facebook scans ads to gain a deeper understanding of the target audience. Therefore, it’s important to add keywords to your ads.

There are several free tools you can use. Our favorites include the following:

Ahrefs

Search for popular keywords on Google, Bing, YouTube, and Amazon. To do this, you type in a keyword. Ahrefs then provides a list of keyword ideas.

Ahrefs shows the following information for each keyword search:

• Phrase matches

• Questions that include the keyword

• Difficulty of each keyword
• Search volume of each keyword
• How recently the keyword list was updated

There are also paid Ahrefs accounts that allow you to access more insights into the keywords.

SEMrush

SEMrush has the free Keyword Magic Tool. 

Enter a keyword. And it suggests millions of broad, phrase, and exact match keywords. Along with related keywords. 

For every keyword suggestion, you will see the following:

• Search intent
• Volume
• Keyword difficulty 
• Cost per click
• SERP features
• When the keyword was last updated

Answer the Public

Answer the Public is a site that allows you to discover what people are asking based on a product or keyword. 

It gives you three daily searches if you register for a free account.

You can see questions that include the product or keyword, search volume, and cost per click.

5. Google Trends

Summary:

• Find the interest over time of your product or keyword.
• Google Trends will suggest related topics and related queries.
• Find keywords from the related topics and queries to use in your Facebook ads.

Google Trends analyzes the popularity of search queries made on Google. 

You can see related topics and related queries. These include top and rising topics and queries. 

Look at the related keywords. These can help you find keywords to add to your ad copy. They might also help you understand your audience better.

How To Use Keywords In Facebook Ads 

Detailed targeting is likely how you’ll want to use your keywords. 

This will help you reach your perfect audience to help increase your ad’s performance.

You can also add keywords to your ad’s text, image, or video. Using the right keywords in your ads can attract your dream customers and increase conversions.

1. Use Detailed Targeting - Facebook Audience Targeting 

The keywords you find will give you a deeper understanding of your perfect customer.

When you create your ads, you need to add the demographics, behaviors, and interests of your audience.

This is done in Detailed Targeting. You can enter the information for those you want to target your ads at. As well as those that you want to exclude from your campaigns. 

2. Add Them To Your Ad Creative

Your ad creative is the information that’s shown to your audience. It’s made up of the following:

• Media - This is your image or video. You can use text overlays with your keywords when creating your image or video. The media aspect is the largest portion of Facebook ads. So, it needs to capture your audience’s attention.
• Primary Text - This is the main ad copy that appears above the media. This is where you’ll add the majority of your keywords. Use the space to explain the product you’re advertising and its benefits.
• Headline - The headline is underneath the ad and is in bold. You can use it to reinforce your offer or push your biggest benefit. This is a small space, so use one concise and clear sentence. 
• Description - Underneath your headline, there is space for a description. Again, this is a small space and can be used to tell your audience why they should click on your ad.

Let’s look at an example of an ad that uses multiple keywords to attract its audience.

Babybub sells maternity pillows. 

The ad uses a customer review to promote its products. Using a review in a Facebook ad helps increase your brand’s social proof. 

The review also contains lots of keywords and phrases. These include:

• Third trimester
• Rib and back pain
• Support
• Back and tummy
• Roll over in the night
• Happy mums
• 40% off

The image also includes keywords. 

These include a badge that looks like a reward in the top right-hand corner. The badge tells the audience it has a 90-day risk-free return policy. A risk-free purchase can increase brand trust and boost sales.

Underneath the image is the description and heading. The description states that the pillow was voted number one. And the description reinforces the 90-day risk-free offer. 

All of these keywords and phrases can help persuade customers to click on the ad and checkout.

Which Keywords Should I Add and Avoid For Facebook Ads? 

Every ad and its intent is different. 

So, it’s impossible to say the exact keywords you should add and avoid when creating Facebook ads.

However, there are general recommendations for every ad you create. 

Keywords to Add to a Facebook Ad

Provide the Solution

‍Tell your audience what problem you’re fixing with your ad. Is your ad a sleep mask? Tell your audience of poor sleepers how your mask will give them a quality night’s sleep. 

In this ad by C&P Yomkey, they guarantee ‘Consistently Restful Slumber.’

Product Benefits

‍Tell your audience why your product is better than your competition and why they need to buy from you. 

This advert by Sevy tells the audience the product benefits. Such as, banishes blemish-triggering microbes, minimizes acne, and boasts anti-aging benefits.

Action to Take Next

Tell your audience what they need to do next if they want to continue their journey with your brand. This could be clicking a link, shopping now, checking out your listings, signing up for an exclusive offer, or anything else.

Special Discount or Offer

Adding an offer to your ad can prompt your audience to click. Your audience won’t want to miss out on an offer, and once they scroll past an ad on Facebook, it can be difficult to find it again. 

You can also include words that prompt customers to act on your offer. Some popular ones include:

• Now
• Time-limited
• Exclusive
• Just for you

This ad by BionicGym uses a holiday-themed discount code. As it’s holiday-themed, we assume it’s time-limited. And they use phrases like ‘don’t miss this rare opportunity.’ Which increases customers' urgency to check out the offer.

The offer is also in the main copy, as well as repeated in the image. This helps reinforce the offer and catch your audience’s attention.

Statistics, Research, or Studies  

If your product is backed by scientific evidence, it can increase your product’s credibility. This can help the audience trust you, which can increase sales. 

This essential oils ad uses information from a study to highlight the product’s benefits.

Quotes and Reviews

‍Your audience is more likely to trust your products if they see other customers have bought them and had positive experiences. Your audience will relate to other customers and use their reviews to help them decide if the product is right for them. 

This will boost your social proof and increase your conversions.

Manta Sleep has two quotes in its main text. Before the first review, there are five gold stars. These instantly jump out to the audience. The stars also show that the quote is a review from a happy customer. One of the key comments from the review is added to the image. Again, this will instantly attract the attention of anyone it applies to.

Keywords to Avoid Adding to a Facebook Ad

Profanity

‍Facebook doesn’t allow you to use swear or curse words in your ads. We’ve seen some brands use swear words cleverly in their marketing campaigns. But for Facebook ads, it’s a no-no.

Misinformation

‍You can’t lie. You need to be honest with your audience about your products. You can’t make false promises to increase your sales. 

It’ll only end up in poor reviews and high returns anyway.

Personal Attributes

You choose whom you direct your Facebook ads to. So, you know your audience's personal interests, behaviors, and demographics. 

However, adding information that refers to these personal attributes should be left out of your copy. Because - let’s be honest, it might seem like you’re spying on your audience, and that’s creepy. It can be off-putting to your audience and reduce engagement.

Personal attributes that are prohibited in your ads include the following: 

• Race
• Ethnicity
• Religion
• Gender
• Family status
• Medical conditions
• Sex
• Sexual orientation
• And several more

Frequently Asked Questions 

How Do I Find Popular Keywords On Facebook? 

Facebook users don’t search like they do on marketplaces or search engines. So it’s a bit more difficult to find popular keywords. 

However, you can find keywords for your Facebook ads using keyword research tools and Facebook suggestions on Detailed Targeting.

Can I Do Free Facebook Ad Keyword Research? 

Yes! All of the keyword research methods in the article are free to do.

Check out free keyword research tools like SEMrush and Ahrefs. Facebook also suggests the interests, demographics, and benefits of your target audience when you create your ads.

Final Thoughts

We hope that you’ve managed to find the best keywords for your Facebook ads using the five methods above. 

If you want to spy on your competitor’s Facebook ads for inspiration for your own campaigns, Dropship has an ad spy tool - Ad Spot. Ad Spot is a searchable database of Facebook ads. Use the advanced filters to find your competitors, spy on their ads, and check out how much engagement each ad receives. 

There is currently a free seven-day trial for Dropship. So you can sign up and spy on your competitors without paying anything!