Mastering Facebook Ads Targeting: Expert's Guide to Reaching the Right Audience

After a decade of running Facebook Ads across countless industries—eCommerce, SaaS, coaching, real estate, and beyond—I can confidently say this: your audience targeting will make or break your campaign.

You can have the best ad creative in the world, but if it’s shown to the wrong people, it’s dead on arrival.

In this article, I’ll walk you through advanced, experience-backed strategies for targeting the right audience on Facebook—not just how the system works, but how a pro sets up and tests audiences for consistent ROI. Plus, I’ll share the 3 most overlooked yet powerful audience types that smart advertisers should be using in 2025 and beyond.

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Why Targeting Is Still King—Even in the Era of Broad Ads

In recent years, Facebook (Meta) has pushed advertisers toward broader audience targeting, with the platform’s AI doing much of the optimization. While this works well at scale, it doesn’t replace the need to define, test, and understand who your best customer actually is.

Targeting isn't about narrowing—it’s about aligning. You’re not trying to reach everyone. You're trying to reach the right someone.

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The Core Audience Types Every Advertiser Should Master

Meta offers three primary types of audiences:

1. Core Audiences (aka Saved Audiences)

2. Custom Audiences

3. Lookalike Audiences

Each serves a different purpose, and in the hands of a skilled advertiser, they can be layered together to create high-performing funnels.

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1. Core (Saved) Audiences – Best for Cold Outreach

Saved Audiences allow you to target based on:

• Demographics: Age, gender, education, relationship status, job title

• Location: Country, region, city, or even radius

• Interests & Behaviors: Shopping habits, hobbies, page likes, device use

But here’s what most beginners get wrong: they target based on what sounds logical, not what’s been proven.

After 10 years, I’ve found that the most profitable Saved Audiences are built through iterative testing, not assumptions.

For a deep dive into building and optimizing these, read this guide on Facebook Saved Audiences.

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2. Custom Audiences – Your Warmest Leads

If you want better ROAS, this is where the gold is.

Custom Audiences allow you to retarget people who’ve already interacted with your brand, including:

• Website visitors

• Page or Instagram engagers

• Video viewers (e.g. watched 25%, 50%, 75%)

• Past purchasers

• Email subscribers

The magic here is personalization. When someone has already seen your product or brand, you can serve content that nurtures or nudges them to convert.

One of the most underrated tactics? Uploading your customer or subscriber list. It lets you re-engage high-intent users or even create high-quality Lookalike Audiences. Learn how to create Custom Audiences from uploaded emails in this Facebook audience email list tutorial.

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3. Lookalike Audiences – Scale With Precision

Once you have a well-performing Custom Audience (e.g., purchasers, subscribers), you can create a Lookalike Audience to find similar users who are more likely to convert.

Over the years, I’ve found that 1% Lookalikes based on high-value actions (like buyers who spent over $100) outperform generic website traffic Lookalikes.

Pro tip: Instead of going straight to a 5–10% Lookalike, stack your Lookalikes in ad sets to see where the conversion curve drops off.

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Advanced Tactics for Pro-Level Targeting

Here are some of the most effective audience tactics I’ve used after managing 7-figure ad spends:

1. Layering Demographics With Intent Signals

Example:
You're targeting men aged 25–35 who live in urban areas.

Instead of just setting age and gender, refine it by interest (e.g. streetwear), behaviors (online shoppers), and relationship status (single or recently moved). You can find many targeting gems in the Detailed Targeting > Behaviors section.

This strategy is especially helpful when working with tight budgets or niche products.

Explore advanced segmentation tips in this breakdown on demographic targeting in Facebook Ads.

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2. Exclude Irrelevant Audiences

Most advertisers focus only on who they want to target—but don’t exclude people who’ve already purchased, visited the thank-you page, or are not a good fit.

In every cold ad campaign, I recommend excluding:

• Purchasers in the last 30–90 days

• Website visitors who bounced within 10 seconds

• Engagers from irrelevant countries (if you're running global ads)

This improves conversion rates and lowers costs.

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3. Segment by Funnel Stage

Every campaign should reflect where the user is in the buying journey:

• TOF (Top of Funnel): Broad, cold Saved or Lookalike audiences

• MOF (Middle of Funnel): Website visitors, video viewers, engagers

• BOF (Bottom of Funnel): Cart abandoners, past customers, email list

Each audience needs unique messaging. TOF users need curiosity; BOF users need urgency or proof.

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Testing Your Audiences the Right Way

Don’t test everything at once. Start with 2–3 variations of one targeting type. For example:

• Ad Set 1: Saved Audience (Interest: Fitness + Age 25–34)

• Ad Set 2: Lookalike 1% of Purchasers

• Ad Set 3: Custom Audience – 30-day video viewers

Use identical creatives and budgets across all ad sets to isolate the effect of targeting.

Evaluate based on:

• Cost per result (click, lead, purchase)

• CTR (click-through rate)

• ROAS (return on ad spend)

Once you find your winning audience, scale gradually while monitoring frequency and fatigue.

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Common Mistakes to Avoid in Audience Targeting

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Final Thoughts: Targeting Is a Skill You Must Keep Honing

After 10 years in this field, I’ve seen trends come and go. Algorithms change. Ad formats evolve. But one thing remains true:

? Reaching the right people with the right message is still the foundation of Facebook Ads success.

Don’t let automation or AI fool you into complacency. The more you understand your customer, the more your targeting will outperform the average advertiser.

So keep testing, keep refining, and keep building better audiences. Your bottom line will thank you.