Broad targeting can unlock explosive growth, but you must follow crucial steps to maximise ROI and avoid ad fatigue. We break down the key considerations before you hit “go” on your audience expansion.
Here’s a simple formula to follow:
Precise targeting + smart expansion + advanced optimisation = high-performing campaigns and ideal customers
What is broad audience targeting on Meta?
Imagine shouting your “buy my awesome product” message across a crowded stadium or think of old-school TV commercials. Everyone hears it, but some don’t care, some can’t hear you well, and some are already wearing the awesome thing! That’s an example of broad marketing.
You reach a lot of people, but many aren’t interested. Still, some are, and the brand becomes familiar (even if not everyone loves it).
That’s the good and bad of broad marketing.
Why Should You Go For Broad Targeting?
Remember when advertisers had mountains of user data? They could target anyone for anything! But then Facebook tightened things up, limiting what advertisers see and who they can target. Fancy data tricks won’t bring back those specific interests and behaviours.
So, what’s an advertiser to do? Many are turning to a new approach: broad targeting.
Here’s why:
- Less data, less hassle: Broad targeting doesn’t rely on specific user info, making it simpler to navigate the new rules.
- Wider reach: Cast a wider net and potentially reach hidden gems not found in niche targeting.
- New audiences: Discover unexpected customers who might find your offering perfect.
Of course, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows:
- Wasteful spending: Reaching uninterested folks can burn your ad budget.
- Fine-tuning challenge: Measuring success and optimising campaigns gets trickier.
Broad targeting is like fishing with a big net. It isn’t a guaranteed win, but it’s a new way to do things in advertising. Before jumping in, remember the upsides and downsides!
3-Step Formula To Unlock Broad Audience Targeting
Broad targeting puts your ad in front of potential customers our algorithms think will love it, even if you don’t know them yet. Sometimes the best customers are the ones you didn’t expect. Broad targeting opens the door to exciting new audiences you might not have known existed.
Unsure who your ideal customer is?
Take a look at Meta’s top tips for using broad targeting below.
Step 1: Master The Basics Of Broad Targeting
The bigger the audience you pick, the more chances Meta’s AI has to show your ad to people who are actually interested in your business.
So, don't be afraid to open the door wide. Even if your audience ends up being too broad, Meta will automatically optimise your ads to reach the most relevant people.
- Set your audience to reach at least two million people: The bigger your audience, the better Meta’s targeting system works. Aim for at least two million people and target as wide as your business needs.
- Only use age, gender and location targeting: Use only age, gender, and location for now. These will reach the most people without you being too specific. These parameters help your ads get the widest reach possible.
- Turn on Advantage Detailed Targeting: Think your brand can benefit from interest-based targeting parameters? Turn on this option. It lets Meta show your ad to similar people beyond your initial targeting, potentially lowering your costs.
- Avoid audience overlap with similar ad sets: Combine similar ad sets into one bigger one. This will make sure people don’t see the same ad twice and waste your budget.
Step 2: Maximise Connections With Expert Strategies
By switching to broad targeting, you can show your ads to more people. Once you’ve made up your mind, improve your targeting strategy by including more sophisticated audiences such as custom and lookalike audiences.
Here’s how you can get seen by more (the right way):
- Go Big Picture: Start by casting a wide net with broad targeting to reach new faces. But if you want to connect with the perfect crowd, it’s time to level up!
- Think Outside the Box: Dive into custom and lookalike audiences – like building a squad of fans or reaching people similar to your existing customers.
- Size Matters: Advanced audiences shine when they’re at least 1,000 strong. Not sure if you’re there yet? Test the waters with an A/B experiment. Run one campaign with just broad targeting, then another with the powerhouse combo of broad + custom & lookalike. See who your true fans are!
Ready to use more advanced targeting? Here’s a step-by-step guide by Meta:
Engagement custom audiences
Target people who have engaged with your content on Facebook or Instagram.
How to set up an engagement custom audience:
- Navigate to your Audiences.
- Select the Create audience drop-down and choose Custom audience.
- Select Facebook Page.
- Set a page section. Start with including more people.
- Include or exclude people below Page sections as desired. You can have up to five total page sections per audience.
- Give your audience a name.
- Select Create audience.
- When finished, select this custom audience during ad set creation.
Website custom audiences
Target people who visited your website, and match them with profiles found on Facebook or Instagram using the Meta pixel.
How to set up a website custom audience:
- First make sure that your Meta pixel is active.
- Navigate to your Audiences.
- Select the Create audience drop-down and choose Custom audience.
- Select Website traffic.
- Choose a rule section, either a standard rule or a pixel event rule. Add more inclusive or exclusive rule sections as desired.
- Give your audience a name.
- Select Create audience.
- When finished, select this custom audience during ad set creation.
App activity custom audiences
Target people who have taken a specific action in your app, such as installs or sign-ups.
How to set up an app activity custom audience:
- First make sure that your app is registered, set up the SDK (software development kit) and log app events on the Meta for developers site.
- Navigate to your Audiences.
- Select the Create audience drop-down and choose Custom audience.
- Select App.
- From the drop-down menu, select which app events you'd like to base your audience on.
- Add details to the app events that you base your custom audience on by selecting Refine by and choosing the type of details that you want to specify.
- Give your audience a name.
- Select Create audience.
- When finished, select this custom audience during ad set creation.
Customer list custom audiences
Target people whose information you've already collected, such as an email address, phone number or address.
How to set up a customer list custom audience:
- Navigate to your Audiences.
- Select the Create audience drop-down and choose Custom audience.
- Select Customer list.
- Review your customer list and confirm that you mapped your identifiers correctly or check that all errors are resolved.
- The green tick symbol means that your identifiers were mapped correctly and are ready.
- The yellow exclamation symbol means that you chose not to include certain identifiers, or that some identifiers need to be manually updated.
- Upload your customer list. Once it's ready for use, select Upload and create.
- Give your audience a name.
- Select Create audience.
- When finished, select this custom audience during ad set creation.
Lookalike audience
Use a custom audience as the source to build a lookalike audience to find new people who share similar characteristics with your original customer lists.
How to set up a lookalike audience:
- First, make sure you're an admin for the Page that you're creating your lookalike audience from.
- Navigate to your Audiences.
- Select the Create audience drop-down and choose Lookalike audience.
- Select your custom audience as the source.
- Tip: Consider using a group of 1,000 to 50,000 of your best customers based on lifetime value, transaction value, total order size or engagement.
- Choose the country or countries where you'd like to find a similar set of people.
- Choose your desired audience size.
- Select Create audience.
- When finished, select this custom audience during ad set creation.
Step 3: Play With Advanced Targeting Tricks
You’ve built a bigger audience, but that doesn’t mean you can just invite everyone. In the third phase, use precision targeting with pro moves to boost campaign performance.
Combine broad targeting with custom and lookalike audiences. Use the broad targeting best practices listed on this page as a starting point. Then, add lookalike and custom audiences to your campaign targeting.
Double Play: Combine broad targeting with custom and lookalike audiences. Think big picture (millions of peeps) with broad targeting, then add precision with your tailored groups like website visitors or fans. This combo punch increases purchases, as The Red Wagon discovered with a 77% boost!
Stage Specific: Not all audience members are created equal. Use time-based retargeting to tailor ads to specific customer journey stages. Talk to folks who checked you out recently (14 days ago) differently than those who browsed a month ago. More relevant ads, happier customers!
No Duplicates Allowed: Don’t waste money targeting the same folks twice. Use exclusions to keep previous purchasers or VIPs out of general campaigns (unless it’s a loyalty party!). This avoids ad bidding battles and stretches your budget further.
Experimentation Station: Not sure what works best? A/B test different targeting strategies! Compare a group based on website visits with another focused on social media engagement. Or, let the platform optimise across multiple audiences with the Advantage budget. Testing unlocks your ideal audience recipe.
With these advanced techniques, you’ll attract the right crowd and turn them into loyal fans.
Need a fresh perspective? Let’s talk.
At 360 OM, we specialise in helping businesses take their marketing efforts to the next level. Our team stays on top of industry trends, uses data-informed decisions to maximise your ROI, and provides full transparency through comprehensive reports.
