Audience targeting in Meta Ads is simply the process of deciding who should see your adverts. Meta uses information such as; age, location, interests, online behaviour and previous interactions to group users together.
When you choose an audience, you are telling Meta which group of people is most likely to find your advert useful or relevant. This choice has a direct impact on how much your ads cost, how often they are shown and how people respond to them.
It is worth separating targeting from creative. Targeting decides who sees the ad, while the copy and visuals decide whether they care. Even strong creative can underperform if it is shown to the wrong audience.
Meta Ads offers three main audience types. Each serves a different purpose and none of them is better by default.
Saved audiences are built using demographics, interests, behaviours and location. These are often used when starting out or when you want to reach people who may not know your brand yet.
Custom audiences allow you to reach people who already have some connection with your business. This might include website visitors, email subscribers, or people who have engaged with your content.
Lookalike audiences help you reach new people who share similarities with an existing audience. Meta analyses your source audience and finds users who behave in similar ways.
Choosing the right audience type depends on whether your goal is awareness, engagement, or conversion.
Custom audiences are one of the most useful tools within Meta Ads. They focus on people who already know your brand in some way, which often leads to stronger engagement.
Common sources include website traffic, customer lists, video viewers and social media engagement. These audiences are often used for remarketing, such as reminding someone about a product they viewed or encouraging a return visit.
Keeping custom audiences accurate matters. Old data or incomplete tracking can lead to wasted spend. Reviewing sources regularly helps make sure your ads are reaching people who are still relevant to your business.
Lookalike audiences are designed to help you reach new people without starting from scratch. Meta compares users in your source audience and looks for others with similar patterns.
The quality of a lookalike audience depends heavily on the source you choose. A list of recent customers usually performs better than a broad group of website visitors.
Meta allows you to control how closely the lookalike matches the source audience. Smaller percentages tend to be more similar, while larger ones offer more reach. Testing different sizes often gives clearer insight than guessing.
Lookalike audiences tend to work well once you have reliable data to build from.
Meta provides a wide range of targeting filters, including age, gender, job roles, interests and online activity. These tools can be helpful, but they need to be used with care.
Adding too many filters can limit reach and make it harder for Meta to deliver ads efficiently. In many cases, broader targeting combined with clear messaging performs better than tightly restricted audiences.
A useful approach is to start simple and add layers only when there is a clear reason to do so. Reviewing performance data helps you see whether changes improve results or limit delivery.
Broad targeting allows Meta to use its delivery system more freely. This can be effective when your offer appeals to a wide group and your creative clearly communicates who it is for.
Detailed targeting gives you more control but can sometimes work against performance if it becomes too narrow. Overlapping audiences across campaigns can also lead to higher costs and reduced delivery.
Testing both approaches helps you understand what works best for your account. Small changes and steady review often lead to better outcomes than major shifts.
One common mistake is relying on assumptions rather than performance data. What seems logical does not always reflect how users behave online.
Another issue is overlapping audiences. When multiple campaigns target the same users, ads can compete against each other.
Ignoring audience size warnings can also limit results. Very small audiences may struggle to deliver consistently.
Finally, setting and forgetting targeting is rarely effective. Regular review allows you to adjust based on what the data shows.
Audience targeting plays a central role in how Meta Ads perform. By choosing the right audience can help you control costs, improve relevance and give your campaigns a better chance of reaching people who are likely to respond.
Rather than aiming for perfection from the start, it often works better to begin with a simple setup and refine it over time. Testing different audiences and reviewing performance helps build a clearer picture of what works for your business and what does not.
If you want support with planning, setting up or improving your Ads, the team at Bold Online Marketing can help. Get in touch to talk through your goals and see how a clearer audience strategy could improve your results.
