How To Target Business Owners on Facebook Ads in 2024

Think LinkedIn is the ONLY channel for B2B?

Think again! 🙂

We use both Facebook and LinkedIn for lead generation and Facebook ads (believe it or not), most of the time, perform better when targeting business owners using paid ads.

Are you wondering how on earth you can find business people with Facebook ads?

THEN WAIT! 

BEFORE you even think about targeting business owners on Facebook, you need to have the right strategy.

I see so many people waste thousands of dollars each month on Facebook ads because they can’t convert any leads.

Hint: It’s not because Facebook ads doesn’t work. It’s because the strategy they are using doesn’t work.

So, before you target business owners on Facebook, you need the right strategy.

What is the best strategy to target business owners on Facebook?

Click here to watch a free training video I’ve recorded that goes through, step by step, the best strategy you can use on social media to generate 10, 15, 30 or more predictable high quality leads and sales appointments with your ideal clients – every single month.

This strategy works especially well when targeting business owners using Facebook ads.

Finished watching the video?

Great…

Now that you’ve seen the strategy…

Let’s dig into the *details* of how to target business owners on Facebook.

Is Facebook good for B2B?

These days it isn’t so much B2B or B2C. It’s more about business to people.

And people (including business owners) use social media, such as Facebook and Instagram.

So, yes, you can target B2B people on Facebook Ads!

And yes, in my experience, Facebook ads is good for B2B lead generation.

In this article, I’m going to show you fifteen of the BEST ways you can target business owners using Facebook ads.

Note: Since Facebook owns Instagram, whenever I say “Facebook Ads” this includes Instagram ads too. Targeting business owners on Facebook ads and Instagram ads work exactly the same way.

If you prefer, you can also watch the video version of this article here:

1. Target business page admins

This first one is a hidden gem. It’s so simple, yet a lot of people don’t know it even exists. In the “detailed targeting” section within your Facebook ads business manager, you can target people who are business page admins on Facebook.

Most business owners have a Facebook page that they’re an admin of. So this is a really quick and easy way to find people who are likely to own a business.

You can also target “Business page admins” on Facebook too.

When targeting business owners on Facebook, make sure you send them to a high converting funnel with a video sales letter so that you can learn more about your services.

Watch this free training to learn how to do this in more detail.

2. Target magazines or online publications business owners read

If the business owners read a particular magazine that has a large readership, you can search for it on Facebook ads manager and target people who express an interest in that.

An example of online publications or magazines with large readerships are “Entrepreneur” and “Inc”.

If you select “Entrepreneur” you are likely to target entrepreneurs and similar business owners.

For best results, try to find magazines or online publications specific to the type of businesses you’re targeting. For example, if I wanted to target investment businesses, I’d focus on finding online magazines and publications for investors.

3. Target people with an interest in business

One of the easiest ways to target people on Facebook who are interested in “business” is to type in business-related keywords into the Facebook targeting search box.

As you can see from the screenshot above, there are multiple types of interests, all related to business. See if any are relevant or related to your type of business. For example, “business-to-business” is a good option if you’re looking to target B2B.

See also: How to target business owners with TikTok ads

4. Target specific types of businesses based on industries

Targeting every and any business owner is most likely going to be too broad. So it’s best to drill down even further and pick out a specific industry type of business person to target.

For example, Facebook’s interest targeting gives you the option to select a wide range of business categories for you to find people. With this feature, you can target business owners in specific industries of your choice.

5. Target specific types of job titles

You can also use Facebook to search for different job titles of the people you want to contact.

Be sure to add multiple job titles. For example, business owners might use the job title “CEO”, “Founder”, “Director” and so on. So, it will be a good idea to target all possible job titles that match your criteria.

Top tip: You probably won’t get many results for some job titles so click on the “expand interest” checkbox on Facebook ads (under the “detailed targeting expansion” section in your FB ads manager) and you can find more people similar to the ones who have the job titles you’re looking to target.

6. Retarget business owners that visit your website

If your website is attracting traffic from word of mouth, Google, LinkedIn or any other places, you can retarget them so they see your content the same day or a few days later.

This is a cost-effective way to keep bringing in more traffic and take that traffic to the next step of your sales process.

I’ve found retargeting people who visit your website within the last 60 days works well. You can also create a lookalike audience from people who visit your website and test that too.

See also: How to retarget people that visit your website on social media

7. Create lookalike audiences for your clients

If you have a large enough warm audience (of traffic going to your website or a database with your best leads/clients) you can upload those to Facebook, and Facebook will find other similar people.

For example, imagine you have a database of 1,000 of your best clients.

You can upload that database to Facebook, and Facebook’s algorithm will find more similar people just like the ones you uploaded. This feature alone is incredibly powerful if you have enough data at your disposal for Facebook to use

8. Target tools used by business owners

If there is any online software or tools you know business owners are using, you can search for these in Facebook’s interest targeting feature.

For example, if you want b2b accounting leads you can target people interested in Xero (accounting tax software for business owners). This is especially useful if you’re an accountant who specializes in Xero.

What online tools are the business owners you’re looking to target using?

Search for them in Facebook’s ad manager and see if you can target them.

9. Target business owners who go to business networking events

Are there any well-known business networking events or seminars your ideal clients are interested in? You can target these business owners with Facebook ads.

For example, a popular business networking and referral marketing event that some business owners go to is BNI. You can search for business owners interested in BNI and target them on Facebook ads.

10. Target local business owners

You can select a specific geo-location in Facebook ads to only target business owners and professionals within your local area (such as zip codes, city or state).

You can exclude certain zip codes if you don’t want to target business owners in specific locations.

This can all be done by editing the Facebook location settings in your Facebook ad sets.

The cities with large populations are the best cities to target business owners on Facebook ads. The larger the population in the city, state or area you are targeting, the more likely Facebook’s algorithm will find your ideal clients.

11. Combine business interests

To target business owners on Facebook ads, it’s a good idea to combine different business interests together in the Facebook ads manager.

For example, don’t just target people based on job titles alone. Combine job titles with other interests to narrow down and find the best type of people.

In the above image, you can see how to target b2b businesses interested in lead generation.

12. Make sure the audience size is balanced

Facebook will tell you how many people you can potentially reach. You will run out of potential leads if the audience is too small. If the audience is too broad, you might not get enough leads.

Try to find a good balance of not too small or too broad.

If your audience is too specific or broad, Facebook will tell you in the “Audience Definition” section.

13. Split test different business audiences

You must test different business audiences against each other to see which will perform the best and generate the best leads. Never stop testing.

Above are some examples of audiences (or Facebook interests) I’ve tested in my Facebook ad campaigns to find the best-performing one.

Spoiler alert: The best-performing Facebook ads audience for my lead generation company was the ‘lead generation’ interest (no surprises there!)

14. Be different

If you’re trying to reach business owners, it’s easy for your message to get lost in a crowded marketplace of advertisers.

So, it helps if you can stand out as different when targeting business owners.

What are most advertisers advertising to your target audience saying? Is there anything you can do differently to stand out?

For example, in my line of business, there are a lot of marketers who use fancy graphics and hyped-up videos to try and get the attention of other business owners.

So, to stand out, I created an ad that was the opposite.

One of the ads I created was very simple (I created it using paint!) to prove that you don’t need “fancy” images or videos for business ads to convert well.

All you need is a good (unique) message that resonates with your target audience.

Tip: You can also use Facebook dynamic ads to see what kind of ad copy, headline and ad creative (image or video) works best for targeting businesses.

15. Call out specific business owners in your ad copy

When you do this, the right kind of people will engage with your ad, and Facebook will be able to know what kind of business owners are the most likely to be interested in how you can help them.

For example, I created an ad to get financial advisor leads.

As you can see, the ad specifically calls out financial advisors:

This makes it so that only those who are financial advisors will see and click on the ad. This helps Facebook’s ad algorithm better optimize your ads so that you target the right people.

16. Get help from a professional (bonus tip!)

When targeting business owners on Facebook ads, you have two options.

Option 1: You can spend thousands of dollars advertising on Facebook, make lots of mistakes and learn from them through trial and error.

Option 2: You can work with someone who specializes in targeting business owners on Facebook ads, make fewer mistakes, save money and get faster results vs doing it all on your own.

If you need help with targeting business owners on Facebook ads, then be sure to check out the free training video I recorded here. This free training explains how my Facebook ads automated appointment funnel works in more detail. It also shows you how I can help you get faster results if you want me to help you do everything.

FAQs about Facebook B2B Advertising

Here are some common questions and answers about b2b advertising on Facebook.

How much does it cost to target business owners?

There are a lot of variables that can affect the costs of advertising on Facebook ads to B2B business owners. These include variables such as industry, location, audience and your message.

The only way to know for sure what the costs will be is to spend $1,000 to $2,000 on Facebook ads and then see your cost per lead.

After you have your cost per lead, you can reduce it by split-testing additional ads and testing other variables to see if you can lower your cost per lead (CPL).

On average, we see a cost per lead when targeting business owners ranging from $10 to $20. But in some cases, it can be less, with the right audience and message combination in your ads.

See also: How much do Facebook ads cost?

How can you target high net worth and wealthy individuals on Facebook ads?

To target high-net-worth individuals on Facebook ads, select people who live in the “Top 10% of ZIP codes” based on Household income in the Facebook ads audience manager.

This will increase your chances of targeting wealthy individuals with Facebook ads.

Another way you can target rich people on Facebook ads is by calling out the type of person you’re looking to target in the ad itself.

For example, suppose you’re targeting people with over $1 million in investable assets. In that case, you can say in your Facebook ads, “Many investors with over $1 million in assets are looking for [a solution to the problem you solve].”

By doing this, those who have over one million dollars in assets will read the ad, and those who don’t will skip it. Facebook’s ad algorithm will look at who engages with the ad the most and show your ads to more people who match that audience.

Can you target business owners on Facebook using lists?

Facebook allows you to upload email lists and databases to retarget them. However, Facebook only allows you to do this if you own the data in the list and have full permission to advertise to these people.

Can you target specific business owners on Facebook?

Facebook allows you to advertise to business owners using their detailed business targeting options. This means Facebook can successfully target business owners and even very specific business owners.

Can you target by company size on Facebook?

Yes, you can target by company size on Facebook ads. However, company size is limited to only really large employers. LinkedIn might be a better option if you want to target small business owners on Facebook. On LinkedIn, you can target smaller company sizes.

Can you target small business owners on Facebook ads?

Yes, under Facebook’s detailed targeting section, there are multiple options to target “Small business owners” on Facebook in Facebook’s audience manager. Using the FB detailed targeting section, the best way to use FB to target small business owners.

How do I target rich clients on Facebook?

On Facebook, you can target rich or wealthy individuals by targeting people who live in the top 5-10% of most expensive zip codes. You can also target people who spend money on luxury items. And finally, you can target high-net-worth individuals through Facebook’s interest targeting options.

How do I target eCommerce store owners on Facebook?

In your Facebook audience manager, under the detailed interest targeting section, combine the interests “e-commerce”, with “business owner” and the eCommerce tool or CMS they are using (such as Shopify).

Can you target company employees on Facebook?

Yes, if the employer is big enough, you can target Facebook users who say they work with this company or organization on their profile. To see if you can target employees from a certain company, search for the company name on Facebook and see if it comes up as an “Employer”. If so, you can then target employees in that company. You can even filter it down further by targeting certain job titles within a company.

How do I target a specific business on Facebook?

You can only target a specific business if the business is large enough. If the business is small, you won’t be able to target that specific company.

Instead, you must target a wide range of business owners who fit in the same category.

For example, you can’t target a local coffee shop business owner, but you can target “coffee shops” within a certain zip code, which will most likely include the specific business you want to target.

How do you target professionals in Facebook ads?

You can target professionals by searching for the keyword “professional” in the Facebook audience manager. You can also search for specific professional job titles or interests in Facebook’s ads manager, such as “lawyer”, “accountant”, etc.

Can you target CEO’s on Facebook?

Yes, you can target CEOs, directors, founders and many other job titles within your Facebook ads business manager when creating your audience in your Facebook ad set.

Can you target business owners on Instagram?

Yes, because Facebook owns Instagram, you can target business owners on both Facebook and Instagram by selecting Instagram as a placement in your Facebook ads manager.

Is it better to target business owners on Facebook or LinkedIn?

It depends on how detailed you want to be when advertising. For example, if you want to target a wide range of small business owners in a specific industry (or multiple industries), Facebook would be great.

But if you want to target a very specific company, company size, or job title, LinkedIn allows you to dive deeper and target people on a much more granular level.

See also: LinkedIn vs Facebook ads: which is best?

How do you target restaurant business owners on Facebook ads?

To target restaurant business owners on Facebook ads, it’s a good idea to use the combined audience of people who work in the food and restaurant industry with people who are business owners.

Here’s an example of how you can do that:

When targeting restaurant business owners on Facebook, you must also use a high-converting funnel with a video sales letter explaining how you can help your potential clients. Watch this free training to learn how to do this in more detail.