How to segment specific mobile devices on Facebook and Instagram

The objective of making a market segmentation is to identify those users who may be interested in an offer. In this way, products such as the protective case of a certain mobile device will only be relevant for users who own that device.

For this reason, the ads need to identify what model of cell phone, tablet or computer the user owns, in order to show them those ads that are relevant to those products they have. 

To help search for these audiences, the Facebook ad platform has a variety of targeting options based on user devices, although it can sometimes be confusing to know which variables to choose for a given scenario.

For this reason, in this article I will cover some tactics for targeting, based on device type, with the Facebook Ads tool.

Tactic 1: Device usage targeting via locations

The most explicit option for targeting specific devices is available at the Administrator Ad Set level in the Locations section:

Once configured on which platforms you want your ad to appear, (Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and Audience Network), you must enter the option "Show more options".

By hovering over this section you will find the option to edit the devices on which you want your ad to be displayed.

By clicking on the edit button, a drop-down window will open where you can select by device groups.

If you select any of these options, for example "Android devices only", an area will appear where you can choose specific devices. In the example below, I started typing "Samsung Galaxy s10" and the options that can be selected appeared.

You can choose multiple devices for Facebook to show your ads there, however some models may not be available. 

Exclude devices

Just as you can choose certain devices, you can also exclude them. Continuing with our example, we will exclude certain devices, within the group of Android Smartphones.

Other device options

If you select to have an ad appear in a specific device category, such as Android Smartphones, you also have the option to define the range of available operating systems. This option can be important, if, for example, you advertise a type of software that is only compatible with a certain version of the device's operating system.

Keep in mind that you can also choose to have your ad only be seen by users who are connected to Wi-Fi. This option has several functions, but one of them is to ensure that users have a better experience with your ad, when, for example, it has a link to a website and therefore needs a higher loading speed.

Considerations for using general locations

Two things to keep in mind when using this ad placement option:

• By choosing where your ads are displayed, you can select that they appear in the Facebook news section for a specific device and in the Instagram news section for the same type of device.
• You cannot target specific Android devices and specific iOS devices within the same ad set. To achieve this you must create separate ad sets and within each one select the devices you want.

Option 2: Behavioral targeting

We know that a user can have multiple devices. This is how it is possible to segment people who own, for example, a certain smartphone model regardless of whether they are using it when they see your ad.

Facebook has a targeting category available that can be used in this way to identify users who own certain devices.

For example, if we start typing "Samsung" in the Detailed Segmentation area, we can see how the "Owners" criterion appears.

Keep in mind that the S10 option we used in the previous example is not explicitly available in the "Owners" option. Instead there is only the Galaxy S9 + option.

However, Facebook does make occasional updates to offer better targeting, so if you use this feature regularly, it's worth checking what updates are available. 

In addition to typing the words you want to segment with, you can also access these groups through the "Explore" option, followed by the "Behaviors" criterion and finally by clicking on "Mobile device user".

Option 3: Interest targeting When entering a keyword in the Detailed Segmentation section, you will see the list of options that appears in the drop-down menu, where you can find other options that are not related to the Property of the device.

Notice how Facebook refers to these categories as "Interests" but not as "Behavior." From the description we can see that this segmentation is not from users who own a Samsung Galaxy, but on the contrary, they have interacted with pages related to this topic.

Conclution

These 3 ways to segment users by device type will allow you to better define your audience based on the product you want to communicate. I recommend that you define the objective of your campaign and what is the criterion that best represents your audience. In the same way, I invite you to try various combinations of inclusion and exclusion of variables so that you have a much more specific audience and that in this way you can optimize your budget.