One of the best things about Facebook and Instagram ads is how specific your audience targeting can be . Unlike the old school Bs of advertising buses , billboards , benches you're not wasting money on people who will never become your customers . But if I told you , there's a time when not targeting anyone might actually work better .
Who knew ? In this episode we're diving into broad audience targeting or wide open audience targeting when it works , when it doesn't , and how to use it to get the best results out of your Facebook and Instagram ads . So what exactly is broad audience targeting or wide open audience targeting ?
So this is when you allow the Facebook algorithm to target whoever it thinks will respond to your ads . This does not mean that you should target all countries , all ages , everything right , Don't do that . What this ?
does mean is you should choose the country where you usually get leads or customers from , and you should choose the age range and you should choose the gender that you want to target .
Right .
But you don't use like specific lookalike , audience , cold targeting , interest-based targeting , and you just let the algorithm it's like the algorithm is on some more wide guide rails and more space with which it can make decisions .
Right , exactly .
Yeah , this works .
It does work , so why should we use this wide open targeting ?
It's a good option to test , but I think I have to clarify it's nothing to do with your business size . It has to do with how much data the Metapixel has about your business and who would be working with you . Ie , if you've already gotten a ton of leads in the business , then it's highly likely that using this wide open targeting will work better .
What's a ton of leads ?
A ton of leads is a number that's not specific , but it's a ton , also known as a metric ton , also known as an elephant tongue . A ton it's a lot of leads it depends , it's a lot it's way more than like , let's just call it a thousand or more .
The point is , the more leads you get and definitely don't like be like oh , I got a hundred , that's a lot . That's not a lot of leads , sorry . The more leads you get , the better this broad audience , like targeting , will work .
This is not for brand new ad accounts , because the Metapixel has , like , no data on you and , yeah , it works just because Facebook has been developing their algorithm . It's been learning for over a decade now . Right , you know since what ? Was it around 2011 ? Don't quote me on this , but when Facebook came out with their ads ?
So it actually knows a lot more about us and our businesses than we think .
Right .
It does so I see in client accounts many of them that when I use this wide open audience targeting , it does work better . But you have to test , you have to test , you have to test it . Don't just try it and that's like the only thing . In fact , I wouldn't have this be the first audience . I'd try running ads .
It's just one of the audiences that I test and it usually can work very well . Have you used broad audience targeting for any of your ad clients ? I have . How'd it go ?
Actually pretty well . I was kind of surprised . I thought let's try it , and obviously testing it against their other audiences that we already knew were working , but just to kind of see you know what else Facebook wanted to offer us , so to speak .
And the lead costs were low yeah .
Yeah , yeah .
I should add , it's not just about getting low lead costs . You use well-researched messaging plus good visuals to bring in the right kind of person . But it's worth using . So I like this because , well , it's relatively hands-off . Jamie , as you noticed with that one client .
What niche were they in ? Again , they were in the like , sewing , crafting niche .
Yeah , so this was like what late summer and you pretty much like . How many ad sets did you set up , or was it just this one ? And it was like you almost didn't have to struggle as much because you were using this wide , open , targeting .
But the lifespan of a wide audience targeting it can really be a lot longer than other targeting options .
So it's basically like the algorithm is freer If you're watching us on YouTube , or if you're not watching us on YouTube , then we're doing air quotes that the algorithm is freer to just kind of have its free rate , there's more data to work with more people .
And again , we're not saying please don't make the mistake of just saying the algorithm is amazing , let's just open it up to all countries and it will go and find the right lead . No , don't do that .
I was coaching somebody who did that and their leads were horrible and I did not advise them to do that , by the way , because the algorithm will just go to countries that you aren't going to get clients from .
Yeah , you got to watch that it doesn't sneak on you and do that worldwide targeting or something , and it's like this episode is sponsored by my course .
It's called actually this is a new one . You might not have heard of it it's called the ad testing cheat code . If you've heard me talk about my Olympic gold testing framework , like how to cut your lead costs in half , I guess now the FTC is cracking down , I can't say this will help you cut your lead costs in half .
I guess now the FTC is cracking down , I can't say this will help you cut your lead costs in half . I can say many students that have taken the course have cut their lead costs in half , or more in half , more than in half . So you can get that . I'm temporarily discounting it down to $1 . $1 .
Yeah Well , because it's straightforward how to cut your lead costs and it's just that and no more . But what would people's businesses look like if they could bring in double the leads at the same price ?
That would be exciting , yeah , right .
So if you ever curious , you want to look over my shoulder and learn the strategy , but then also see me apply that strategy in ad accounts . Well then get it . It's in the link in the description below .
That's a no brainer A dollar . I'm not sure if he would have run this by me before as his wife if I would have let him sell it for a dollar , but since he already announced it then go ahead and grab it .
You can't go back on it .
Okay , so Quajo , what are some of the downsides of doing this wide audience testing ?
It's a broad audience . You don't have manual control , and if you're a tester like me , it's good to be able to manually test through the audiences . The downsides are like any other ads campaigns there's no guarantee the ads will work right . You really do .
The one guarantee that you have that your ads will work is if you do the research to write good ad copy that clearly communicates to the right kind of people that you have the right kind of solutions . And then that also goes for ad creative . If you want messaging that resonates , you need to have good ad creative and also still monitor your ads .
Yes , the upside that I talked about is that it's a little bit more hands-off ads management . If you will , you don't have to like do all the testing .
So if you're like super busy and you've already gotten a lot of leads in your business and you've already been running ads for quite a while , then you could just try this audience and it has a longer lifespan , like you said , right , Jamie ?
Right .
Yeah , don't do it when you're launching .
Don't start . Would you not do it when you're launching ? It's not a good audience .
I've tested it in , like all my client accounts . I shouldn't say it's not a good audience . It's not a good audience to start with , like if you're doing , if you're launching a program , usually your warm audiences are the ones that you want to put the majority of your ad spend on .
And plus , like in this year 2024 , cold audiences haven't been converting really well for my clients , like going directly into a launch , sure , like the lead costs are within range , but then we find that they don't actually convert into buying and so avoid this one , this broad audience , wide open audience during launches , unless you've tested it with a smaller
percentage of budget and you see that it does work .
Right , yeah , right . So the best scenario to use a broad audience testing would be when you're running lead gen campaigns . You know this is in between your launches , lead magnets , and you have kind of like that space and time to test this .
Yep , this is an audience that's worth testing and , like always , start with a small budget test . Make sure it works well in time to test this Yep , this is an audience that's worth testing and , like always , start with a small budget test . Make sure it works well .
Don't do a large budget and then go on vacation and come back and be like oh , Quiddy Joe and Jamie said this wide open ad targeting works and I just left it on unmonitored and it went through $1,000 of ad spend . Please don't do that . So thanks for listening to this episode .
This is a short one because this is just we're sharing one of the audiences that has worked well for us , so that you can use it too . Until the next time , take care , get the $1 ad testing cheat code and we'll see you the next one . Bye .