Stop Targeting "CEOs Who Like Golf": Why Broad Targeting + Specific Creative Wins Every Time

The era of "Micro-Targeting" is dead. Here is why your obsession with "Interests" is strangling your algorithm and how to let the AI find your customers for you.

Open any Facebook Ads Manager account from 2018, and you will see the same thing:

• Ad Set 1: Men, 25-40, Interest: "Luxury Cars", Exclude: "Students".
• Ad Set 2: Women, 30-50, Interest: "Yoga", Behavior: "Frequent Travellers".

We used to treat Facebook and Google like sniper rifles. We thought we knew who the customer was better than the machine did. We spent hours building "Avatars" and trying to map them to interest checkboxes in the back end of Ads Manager.

In 2025, that strategy is not just outdated; it is expensive.

If you are still restricting your audience based on "Interests," you are paying a premium to show your ads to the wrong people.

The new rule of Paid Media is simple: Creative is the new Targeting.

The Algorithm is Smarter Than You (And It Hurts to Admit)

Meta (Facebook/Instagram), TikTok, and Google have thousands of data points on every single user. They know what you buy, when you buy it, and even what you are thinking about buying based on your scroll speed and video watch time.

When you force the algorithm to target "People who like Golf," you are limiting its power.

• You might be missing the guy who hates golf but loves your product.
• You might be excluding the woman who didn't update her profile to say she likes "Yoga," even though she buys yoga pants every month.
• You might be paying double because every other advertiser is also bidding on the "Golf" audience, driving up the auction price.

When you switch to Broad Targeting (No interests, just age and location), you unlock the algorithm's true potential. You give it permission to find buyers in places you would never have thought to look.

How "Creative Targeting" Works

So, if you don't tell Facebook who to target, how does it know who to show the ad to?

You tell it with your Creative.

Your Image, Video, and Headline act as a "Dog Whistle." They should call out your specific customer and repel everyone else. This is the mechanism of modern scaling.

A Real World Example: Selling High-End Solar

Let's say you are selling R200k solar systems.

The Old Way (Restricted Targeting):You set the audience to "Homeowners" + "Interest: Sustainability" + "Net Worth: High." You run a generic ad that says "Best Solar Panels in SA."

• The Result: You compete with 50 other solar companies for this tiny pool of people. Costs are high.

The New Way (Broad Targeting):You target "All South Africa, 30-65+." You leave the interests blank.

• Your Ad Headline: "Tired of Load Shedding ruining your dinner? Get a Premium 8kVA System installed. Starting at R200k."

The Magic:

• A student sees "Starting at R200k" and scrolls past immediately. (Good! You didn't pay for a click).
• A tenant sees the ad and scrolls past.
• A wealthy homeowner sees "8kVA" and "R200k" and clicks because they have the problem and the budget.

The Click is the Signal.When the right person clicks, the algorithm says: "Aha! This type of person likes this ad." It analyzes that user's profile (their spending habits, their location, their browsing history) and goes out to find 10,000 more people just like them.

The Creative did the filtering. The Algorithm did the finding.

Why Broad Targeting Scales (and Niche Targeting Dies)

1. Lower CPMs (Cost Per 1,000 Impressions)

When you target a small, specific audience, you are competing in a small pond. Supply is low, demand is high, so the price (CPM) goes up.When you target "Broad," you are fishing in the ocean. There is infinite inventory, so your CPMs drop drastically. You get more eyeballs for less money.

2. Combating Ad Fatigue

If you target a small audience of 50,000 people, they will see your ad 4 times in a week. They get bored. They stop clicking. Your results crash.If you target 10 million people, you can run the same winning ad for months without "burning out" the audience. Broad targeting is the key to consistency.

3. Finding "Hidden" Buyers

Maybe your best customer isn't a "CEO." Maybe it's a "Senior Manager" who actually holds the credit card. Maybe it's the CEO's assistant doing the research."Interest Targeting" misses these people because they don't have the "CEO" tag. "Broad Targeting" finds them because they exhibit the same behaviors as buyers.

The "Testing Phase" Framework

You can't just throw junk into a Broad audience and hope it works. Because the Creative is doing the heavy lifting, the Creative must be excellent.

Here is the Convertico framework for testing:

1. Launch Broad: Set your Ad Set to "Broad" (Open).
2. Test 3 Hooks: Run 3 different angles (e.g., one focusing on "Savings," one on "Convenience," one on "Status").
3. Read the Data: Don't look at Cost Per Click. Look at Purchases or Leads.
4. Kill the Losers: If an ad spends 2x your target Cost Per Acquisition without a sale, kill it.
5. Scale the Winner: Once an ad gets consistent sales, increase the budget. The algorithm now knows who to look for.

The Verdict

Stop trying to outsmart the trillion-dollar AI. You can't.

The machine learns faster than you. It works 24/7. It processes millions of signals per second.

Your job is not to find the needle in the haystack.Your job is to build a magnet (Your Creative) so strong that the needle flies out of the haystack to you.

Stop targeting. Start creating.

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