Meta Ads Targeting Guide

Welcome to today’s post by Bizmartek. I am your host, Shotade Oluwafemi.

Today, we’ll be talking about Meta Ads targeting.

A lot of you have been asking, “How does Meta targeting work?” You have been hearing about target audiences, but you need to know how targeting works, how it impacts your ads, and how it impacts your business.

That is the main point of today’s episode: to explain the types of targeting, what Meta targeting is all about, how to set it up, and other important questions you need to know.

If you run a small business in Nigeria, you might have spent money on Meta Ads but received few messages, poor-quality leads, or no sales at all.

One major reason is often poor targeting.

What Is Meta Ads Targeting?

Meta Ads targeting simply means choosing who sees your advert on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, or the wider advertising network that Meta provides.

Instead of showing your adverts to everyone, everywhere, you are telling Meta the type of person most likely to need your product or service.

That is the core idea behind targeting.

You are not showing your ads to everyone. You are telling Meta, “I want this type of person to see my ad.”

Targeting helps you focus your budget on people who are more likely to become customers, not just random people.

For example, a real estate business in Jos can target adults in specific locations in Jos who have shown an interest in property or property investment.

Good targeting does not always guarantee sales.

The fact that you got your targeting right does not mean that you are going to make sales. But it gives your advert a better chance of reaching the right kind of people.

A lot of things go into the sales aspect. Your pricing, timing, offer, marketing strategy, communication, and follow-up are also important.

It is one thing to get leads and another thing to follow up and convert those leads.

So, targeting is the bedrock, but everything has to work together.

Your targeting works together with your ad creatives, graphics, videos, ad copy, budget, landing page, website, and WhatsApp messages.

For example, if you are selling real estate investment, your audience will determine the kind of content you use, your budget, and where you send people.

You can’t be talking about buying property and then send people to an unrelated e-commerce store.

How Does Meta Ads Targeting Work?

When you create an advert, Meta uses the audience settings you provide to decide who sees your ad.

Meta also uses its own system to learn which people are more likely to take the action you want.

That action could be sending you a message, filling out a form, buying a property, or buying a product on your website.

You choose basic parameters such as location, age, gender, and language.

The fact that you are running an ad does not mean that you have to run it across all of Nigeria.

You can select the specific states or cities that are important to your business.

You also look at age, gender, language, interests, behaviours, and demographics.

Meta can also expand delivery beyond your selected targeting. This is where Advantage+ detailed targeting comes in.

Meta can use behavioural signals and other information to find people who may be relevant to your business beyond what you initially selected.

Types of Meta Ads Targeting

1. Location Targeting

Location targeting means choosing where your target audience stays.

You can target countries, cities, and specific areas. You can also target by radius.

For example, you may want to target Wuse II, Maitama, or Garki in Abuja rather than the whole city.

That is location targeting.

2. Demographic Targeting

Demographic targeting means targeting people by characteristics such as age, gender, language, education, job title, or relationship status.

Depending on what Meta currently makes available, you may also be able to target people based on other characteristics, such as device-related attributes.

3. Interest and Behavioural Targeting

Interest and behavioural targeting allows you to reach people based on their interests, activities, and interactions on Meta.

People follow particular topics, content, and creators.

You can use relevant interests and behaviours to reach people who may be interested in your product or service.

4. Custom Audiences

Custom audiences are audiences that you create based on your own business data or interactions.

For example, you can create a custom audience of people who visited your website in the past 180 days.

You can also create audiences from people who engaged with your Facebook or Instagram content.

This requires relevant tracking and audience sources, such as the Meta Pixel for website activity.

Custom audiences are particularly useful because they are connected to your own business and previous interactions.

5. Lookalike Audiences

Lookalike audiences are an extension of your custom audiences.

You can tell Meta to find people who are similar to an existing audience.

For example, you can create a custom audience of people who visited your website and then create a lookalike audience based on them.

Meta will look for people whose behaviour and interactions are similar to those people, even though they have not necessarily visited your website.

How to Create Interest-Based Audiences

Interest-based targeting helps you reach people based on their activities or preferences on Facebook and Instagram.

For example, someone interested in real estate investment, agriculture, fashion, or fitness may be relevant to a business operating in those areas.

In Ads Manager, go to your ad set and open the audience section.

You will see detailed targeting options and a search bar where you can search for relevant interests.

If you are selling real estate, you can search for interests related to property, property investment, housing, or other relevant topics.

As you type, Meta will bring up suggestions.

Select the options that are most relevant to your business and leave out those that are not relevant.

How to Create Custom Audiences

When creating a custom audience, Meta asks you for the source.

This means where you want to create the audience from.

Possible sources include customer lists, website visitors, social media interactions, apps, and other available sources.

For website audiences, you can target people who visited your website.

For Facebook and Instagram audiences, you can target people who visited your profile, engaged with your content, sent you a message, or interacted with your ads.

You can also upload a customer list containing information such as names, phone numbers, and email addresses, subject to Meta’s matching and privacy requirements.

These audiences are particular to your business.

How Targeting Affects Ad Performance

Your targeting can affect how many people see your advert, how much you pay, and the quality of leads you receive.

However, targeting is not the only factor.

Your offer, content, ad copy, creative, website, and follow-up process are also important.

If your audience is too narrow, your ad may circulate quickly among the same people.

This can contribute to ad fatigue, which happens when people repeatedly see the same advert and become tired of it.

If your audience is too broad, you may reach many people who are not relevant to your business.

Meta may charge you for those impressions, but the quality of the results may be lower.

This is why you need to monitor your audience and campaign performance.

Look at how many people your ad reaches, how many click, and how many take the action you want, whether that is buying, sending a message, or filling out a form.

Common Meta Ads Targeting Mistakes

Targeting Everyone in Nigeria

If your business only serves one city or region, you do not necessarily need to target the whole of Nigeria.

Target the locations that are relevant to your business.

Using Unrelated Interests

The fact that many interests are available does not mean you should select all of them.

Use interests that are relevant to your business, product, and service.

Ignoring Custom Audiences

Do not focus only on cold audiences.

People who have already interacted with your brand can be valuable warm audiences.

Custom audiences can include website visitors, previous customers, and people who have engaged with your social media content.

Changing Targeting Too Frequently

Constantly changing your targeting can affect campaign performance.

Give your campaigns enough time and data to understand what is working.

Expecting Targeting to Fix a Poor Ad

Good targeting cannot fix poor creative, weak ad copy, an unattractive offer, or a slow website.

Everything has to work together.

Sending Everyone Directly to WhatsApp

Direct-to-WhatsApp advertising is easy to start, but it may produce many low-quality enquiries.

People may simply ask, “How much?” without being properly qualified.

A pre-qualification process can help improve lead quality.

What You Should Do Next

Start small.

Choose one business goal and define your ideal customer.

Who are you targeting?

What are you offering them?

What do you want to achieve from your ad?

Whether you are doing it yourself or working with an agency, you need to understand broad audiences, custom audiences, interest-based audiences, and when to use them.

You also have to track your results.

Do not set up an ad once and leave it.

You have to keep optimising.

Look at the data, identify what is working and what is not working, remove what is not working, and double down on what is working.

If you need to set up Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok ads for your business, reach out to Bizmartek at www.bismatek.com.ng

We help businesses grow their brands online and get better returns from their marketing budgets.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Meta Ads targeting?

Meta Ads targeting is the process of choosing the people who should see your advertisements on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and other Meta advertising placements.