#084: Facebook Ads Targeting [An Update]

Read Time: 2 Minutes

The Facebook Ads landscape is consistently changing; the sands are always shifting.

This is why I'm always testing.

In last weeks newsletter I shared the results of a recent test I ran about cheap Facebook Ads and why they aren't always all they're cracked up to be.

This week, I'd like to share my findings on Facebook Ads targeting.

Specifically: Advantage+ Audiences vs Unrestricted Targeting.

For a long time now, I've been seeing great results from Advantage+ Audiences (Facebook's default targeting option).

But over the past 4-6 weeks, I've been testing Unrestricted Targeting (Location, Gender and Age only).

N.B. You may have heard Unrestricted Targeting referred to as Open Targeting or Broad Targeting. It's the same thing.

Facebook (Meta) would prefer that every advertiser uses Advantage+ Audiences and let their algorithm and machine learning handle the targeting.

This is why they've made Advantage+ Audiences the default targeting option, as you can see from the screenshot below.

Recently though, I've been testing Unrestricted Targeting (which I used from the beginning of 2022, all the way through to Spring 2024).

The reason for running some tests with Unrestricted Targeting again was due to seeing a definite drop in performance with Advantage+ Audiences.

CPCs (Cost-Per-Clicks) were fine, CTRs (Click-Through Rates) were fine.

But CPMs (Cost Per 1,000 Impressions) and Frequency (how often individual people are seeing the Ads) were steadily on the rise.

I wouldn't normally mind these rising numbers too much if sales and page reads were staying consistent, and cost-per-sale was steady.

But they weren't.

Sales and page reads were dropping, and cost-per-sale was rising.

So, it was time for a shift.

After a few weeks of testing, things began to improve again; the only difference in the Campaign setup... the targeting.

I switched from Advantage+ Audiences to Unrestricted Targeting, which I did by clicking Switch To Original Audience Options, as highlighted in the screenshot below.

I've found recently that with Advantage+ Audiences, Facebook seems to keep showing the same people the same Ad, because clicks are cheaper to reach a warm audience than a cold audience.

This is why the Frequency metric inside the Facebook Ads dashboard increases.

With Unrestricted Targeting, I find Frequency is lower, winning Ads can be scaled more sustainably and performance remains stable and consistent for longer periods of time.

Before we wrap up, I just want to caveat everything I've said here with a couple of things:

1. The Ads themselves are 100x more important than the targeting options.

2. Your book sells your book. It doesn't matter what Campaign structure you use or which targeting strategy you choose, your book needs to sell your book (cover, blurb, reviews, etc.).

So, if Advantage+ Audiences isn't working too well for you, I recommend you give Unrestricted Targeting a whirl; it could just unlock things for you.

That's it for this week.

Thank you for reading, enjoy your weekend and see you next week.

To Your Success
– Matt