<aside> <img src="/icons/bullseye_blue.svg" alt="/icons/bullseye_blue.svg" width="40px" /> Welcome to Audiences & Targeting
In this video, we’re going to cover the different types of targeting that are available to use on Meta. We’ll cover where you can find and setup each of these targeting options, whether we recommend using them and the best practices for using each type of targeting. Let’s get into it.
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Meta Targeting 🎯
You may already be aware of Meta’s targeting options, but I would still recommend watching this video. There may be changes & insights that you are not aware of.
There are 6 targeting options that you can use on Meta:
I’m going to explain each of these targeting options now, show you how to set them up inside the ad manager and share our insights on what we’ve seen working best for our clients.
**Advantage+ Audiences 🏆
Advantage+ audiences** use Meta’s algorithm to find your audience automatically.
It works by using machine-learning to analyze your existing user data, ad creatives and conversion objectives to find the best audiences for you.
Over time, the algorithm will continue learning based on the user interaction and further optimize the audience selection.
You can also provide Meta with audience suggestions to help the algorithm find the right audience for you. If you do this, it will prioritize these audiences before going broader.
We’ve tested this targeting feature extensively. Overall, it works well, both with and without using the audience suggestions feature.
However, we suggest testing this feature once you have a decent amount of conversion data in your account. I’d recommend at least 50-100 calls booked. This is because when launching a new account with limited data, Advantage+ less likely to work well.
Advantage+ audiences should only be used for cold traffic and NOT for retargeting.
Let’s jump into the ad manager, and I’ll show you where this is.
Broad Targeting 📍
This is the traditional way of ****targeting on Meta.
It includes 3 types of targeting options:
Demographics → Target people based on education, employment, household & lifestyle details.
Interests → Target people based on interests, activities, pages they like & closely related topics.
Behaviors → Reach people based on purchase behaviour or intent, device usage and more.
When you set up a campaign, it will select Advantage+ audiences by default. You have to click “further limit the reach of your ads” to access the traditional targeting options.
These audiences work very well and they’re a great place to start. We’ll cover how to use them in more depth in Launching Campaigns.
Let’s jump into the ad manager, and I’ll show you where this is.
Use as a suggestion ✨
If you want to be precise with what age and/or gender you target, you need to untick ”Use as a suggestion” under each. If not, Meta will hit people who are outside of your age and/or gender audiences if Meta thinks this will improve performance.
When first launching your account, it’s best to have advantage detailed targeting turned off (i.e. you should ensure these boxes are unchecked and click “Further limit the reach of your ads”).
Over time, as your account collects more conversion data, you can test switching it on. We generally suggest waiting until you have profitable campaigns with 100+ calls booked.
Layered Targeting 🍰
Layered Targeting is where you target a set of interests and then further define the audience with another interest. This means that your ads will only show to people who match both interests, not just the first set of interests you’re targeting.