One of the most common questions in Meta advertising is whether to use broad or narrow targeting. The answer, as with most things in marketing, is: it depends. But there's a clear framework for making this decision.
Strategic Takeaways
- 1The Spending Threshold
- 2Creative is Your Targeting
The Spending Threshold
If you're spending less than $5,000/month on Meta, narrow targeting usually wins. You don't have enough data for Meta's algorithm to optimize broad campaigns effectively. As you scale past $10,000-$20,000/month, broad targeting becomes increasingly viable and often outperforms narrow approaches.
Creative is Your Targeting
In the Advantage+ era, creative has become the primary targeting mechanism. Your creative acts as a filter — the right creative will attract the right audience even within a broad targeting setup. This means investing more in creative diversity and less in audience segmentation.
