Meta App Installs: The Broad Targeting Blueprint

Right, let's get straight to it. A lot of app founders I talk to are completely stuck on this idea that they need to find the perfect, hyper-specific audience on Meta, layering interests and picking precise locations. They think scaling is about finding a magic pocket of users. That's a myth, and it's probably what's holding you back. When it comes to scaling app installs, especially if you don't have a specific city or region in mind, your biggest asset is handing the reins over to Meta's algorithm. But you have to give it the right instructions, otherwise you're just burning cash.

The problem isn't that you can't target a location; the problem is you're thinking about targeting all wrong. You're trying to be a sniper when you should be building a powerful magnet. Forget trying to pinpoint users manually. Your job is to create a system where your ideal users reveal themselves, no matter where they are.

Why Is Broad Targeting Your Secret Weapon, Not Your Weakness?

Back in the day, Facebook ads were all about clever interest layering. You'd find that one obscure combination that nobody else was using. Those days are gone. Meta's AI has gotten so ridiculously good that it can predict user behaviour far better than any human marketer can. When you give it a broad audience – we're talking millions of people, maybe just an age and gender filter – you're giving it the freedom to hunt for you.

But here's the bit everyone gets wrong. They set up a broad audience, choose the "Brand Awareness" or "Reach" objective, and then wonder why they get thousands of impressions but zero installs. It's because you've told the algorithm to do exactly that. You've asked it: "Please find me the cheapest eyeballs possible". And it does. It goes out and finds people who are constantly online but never click, never buy, never install anything. Their attention is cheap for a reason. You're literally paying to reach non-customers.

The only way to win with broad audiences is to stop telling the algorithm what kind of *person* to find, and instead tell it what kind of *action* you want them to take. True brand awareness for an app isn't about impressions; it's the result of getting lots of the right people to install, use, and love your product. Many founders discover that when they switch off their restrictive targeting, their campaigns perform better, but only if they're optimising correctly. We've written a bit more about how to stop wasting money with this approach if you need it, you can learn why going broad with your ads can save your budget if done right.

So, How Do You Make Broad Targeting Actually Work?

It boils down to three things: your Signal, your Creative, and your Offer. If you get these right, location becomes almost irrelevant for most apps. The algorithm will find your customers in London, New York, or Sydney without you lifting a finger.

1. Your Signal: Stop Optimising for Junk Installs

This is the most common and costly mistake. You want installs, so you set your campaign objective to "App Installs". Makes sense, right? Wrong. This tells Meta to find people who download lots of apps, but not necessarily people who *use* them or *spend money* in them. You get a low Cost Per Install (CPI), feel great about it, and then six months later you realise your user base is a ghost town and your revenue is flat.

You need to send a stronger signal. You have to optimise for an event that happens *after* the install. Think about what a valuable user does in their first session:

• -> Do they complete registration? Optimise for 'CompleteRegistration'.
• -> Do they start a free trial? Optimise for 'StartTrial'.
• -> Do they make their first in-app purchase? Optimise for 'Purchase'.

The further down the funnel you can set your optimisation event, the higher the quality of user the algorithm will find. Yes, your initial CPI will look higher. A 'Purchase' optimised campaign might have a £15 CPI, while an 'Install' campaign has a £2 CPI. But the first campaign brings you paying customers, and the second brings you digital dust collectors. I remember one client, a medical job matching SaaS, where we shifted focus from cheap user acquisition to value. We managed to reduce their CPA from a staggering £100 down to just £7 by optimising for better quality signals deeper in their funnel.

You need enough of these events per week (Meta says 50, but you can start seeing results with less) for the algorithm to learn. If you don't have enough purchases yet, start with trials or registrations and work your way down.

2. Your Creative IS Your Targeting

With broad audiences, your ad creative does all the heavy lifting. It's job isn't just to get a click; it's to attract your ideal customer and actively repel everyone else. If you're running a complex strategy game, your ad creative should look and feel like a complex strategy game. People who hate those games will scroll right past. People who love them will stop and watch. Boom. The creative just targeted for you.

Generic lifestyle images or vague animations won't cut it. You need to show the actual app experience, the "aha!" moment. We've seen amazing results with User-Generated Content (UGC) style videos for SaaS and app clients. For one software client, simply testing more varied creative formats and messaging helped us find new winning ads that allowed them to scale further after they'd hit a plateau.

Think about it:

• -> A fitness app? Show a real person struggling, then using the app to track their workout and celebrating their progress.
• -> A language learning app? Show the satisfying "ding!" of a correct answer and a progress bar filling up.
• -> A productivity app? A split screen showing a messy, chaotic workflow versus the calm, organised one inside your app.

3. Your Offer: The First Five Minutes Matter Most

The ad gets them to install, but the offer is what happens next. The onboarding experience of your app is a critical part of your marketing funnel. If the ad promises a simple solution to a problem, but the app is confusing, difficult to navigate, or immediately hits them with a paywall, they'll leave and never come back. You've just paid for an expensive uninstall.

You have to deliver on the promise of the ad, fast. Your offer needs to provide a moment of value almost immediately. Can they achieve a small win in the first session? Can they see the core feature in action? A completely free trial or a generous freemium model works wonders here. Let the user experience the value of your product, and the sale becomes a much easier conversation. If you find your ads get traffic but it doesn't lead to conversions, you might need to take a closer look at your whole funnel, as we explain in our guide on fixing Meta ads that don't convert.

How Much Should You *Really* Be Paying for an Install?

This brings us to the next big question. Founders get obsessed with lowering their CPI, but that's the wrong metric to focus on. The real question is: "How high a CPI can I afford while remaining profitable?" The answer is in your Customer Lifetime Value (LTV).

If you don't know your numbers, you're flying blind. You might be pausing campaigns with a £5 CPI that are actually hugely profitable because those users stick around for years. Here are the basic components:

• Average Revenue Per User (ARPU): How much money you make from an average user per month.
• Gross Margin %: Your profit margin after app store fees, server costs, etc.
• Monthly Churn Rate %: The percentage of users who cancel or stop using the app each month.

The calculation is simple: LTV = (ARPU * Gross Margin %) / Monthly Churn Rate.

Let's play with some numbers. Use our calculator below to see how small changes can drastically affect your LTV, and therefore, what you can afford to spend on ads.

Once you know a user is worth £140, paying £15 to acquire them doesn't seem so bad, does it? It looks like a great investment. This is the maths that unlocks scale. It lets you confidently increase budgets knowing that you're acquiring profitable users. To get more info on how this works in practice, check out our guide on how to reduce your cost per install and maximise LTV.

What Does a Scalable Campaign Structure Look Like?

Okay, so how do we put this all together in Meta Ads Manager? I see a lot of overly complicated account structures. For scaling an app, simplicity is your friend. You're giving the algorithm as much data and flexibility as possible within a few, powerful campaigns.

Here's a structure we use that works really well. It's built for scale.

Campaign 1: PROSPECTING - Broad Conversion Engine

This is where 90% of your budget will go. Its only job is to find new, high-value users.

• Objective: App Installs (but using an App Event Optimisation for Purchase/Trial/Registration).
• Budget: Campaign Budget Optimisation (CBO) enabled. Start with a budget that allows for at least 50 of your target conversion events per week.
• Ad Set 1: Fully Broad.
  • Location: Your target countries (you can group them, e.g., 'Top Tier English Speaking' or 'Europe').
  • Age/Gender: Only if your app is strictly for a specific demographic. Otherwise, leave it open.
  • Detailed Targeting: Leave it completely empty.
  • Placements: Automatic. Let Meta figure it out.
• Ad Set 2 (Optional Test): Broad Lookalikes.
  • Create a Lookalike audience (1-3%) from your best source, like 'Purchasers' or 'High LTV Users'.
  • Targeting: Same as above, just with the Lookalike audience selected.

Inside each ad set, you should be constantly testing creatives. Have 3-5 active ads at any one time, and swap out the lowest performer every week or two. This constant creative refresh is vital for fighting ad fatigue and giving the algorithm new things to test.

Campaign 2: RETARGETING - Recapture Lost Value

This campaign has a much smaller budget. Its job is to nudge people who have shown interest but haven't converted yet.

• Objective: Conversions (directing to the app).
• Ad Set 1: App Store Page Visitors (Not Installed).
  • Audience: People who clicked your ad and visited the App Store/Play Store page in the last 14 days, but EXCLUDE people who have installed.
  • Creative: Use ads that overcome common objections or highlight a key feature they might have missed.
• Ad Set 2: Installed (Not Purchased/Registered).
  • Audience: People who installed the app in the last 30 days, but EXCLUDE people who have completed your key event (e.g., purchase or registration).
  • Creative: Remind them of the value they're missing out on. Offer a special incentive to come back and complete the action.

This simple two-campaign structure is all you need to start. The prospecting campaign finds new users, and the retargeting campaign maximises the value from them. From there, the real work is in understanding the data and continuously improving your creatives and in-app experience. If you want to know more about the nitty-gritty of scaling, we have a guide that covers the real reasons you're struggling to scale Meta ads.

I'm Doing All This, But My Ads Still Aren't Working. What Now?

Even with the right structure, things can go wrong. Running paid ads is a process of constant troubleshooting. Here’s a quick mental checklist to run through:

• Problem: Low Click-Through Rate (CTR) - below 1%.
  Diagnosis: Your creative or copy isn't grabbing attention. It's either not visually interesting, teh message is unclear, or it's not resonating with the audience the algorithm is showing it to.
  Fix: Test completely new creative angles. Don't just change the button colour; change the entire concept. Try UGC, animated text, or a direct-to-camera approach. A/B test your headlines – focus on the outcome, not the features.


• Problem: High Clicks, but Low Installs.
  Diagnosis: There's a disconnect between your ad and your app store page. The ad might be misleading, or your app store page isn't convincing.
  Fix: Check your app store ratings and reviews. Are they terrible? Fix them. Optimise your screenshots, icon, and description. Make sure the language and visuals on your store page match the ad that brought them there.


• Problem: High Installs, but Low Registrations/Purchases.
  Diagnosis: This is an in-app problem. Your onboarding is confusing, your value proposition isn't clear once they're inside, or you're hitting them with a paywall too early. The user experience isn't delivering on the ad's promise.
  Fix: Go through your onboarding process as if you were a new user. Where is the friction? Can you simplify it? Can you add a tutorial? Delay the ask for money until *after* they've experienced an "aha!" moment. This is a critical area we explore with clients to ensure their ad strategy focuses on high-value users, not just installs.

I remember one campaign we worked on for an app where we helped them grow to over 45k signups. A huge part of that success wasn't just ad management; it was a relentless focus on this feedback loop: analyse the data, identify the drop-off point, and then work on the creative or the in-app experience to fix it. This is how you build a truely scalable user acquisition engine.

The Main Advice I Have For You:

If you're feeling overwhelmed, that's normal. Scaling app installs isn't a "set it and forget it" task. But it's also not black magic. It's a systematic process. Here is a summary of the core principles we've discussed.

Why You Might Need an Expert Eye

You can absolutely implement everything I've talked about yourself. But the process is full of nuances and potential pitfalls that can cost you thousands in wasted ad spend. The difference between a good campaign and a great one often comes down to experience – the ability to look at a set of data, recognise a pattern, and know which lever to pull.

Working with an expert isn't about handing over control; it's about accelerating your learning curve. It's about having someone who has seen these problems hundreds of times before and can help you navigate them faster and more efficiently. We can help you build the LTV models, structure the campaigns, and provide insight on what kind of creative actually converts users. It’s about building a robust system for profitable growth, not just running a few ads.

If you're serious about scaling your app and want a second opinion on your current strategy, we offer a free, no-obligation consultation. We'll take a look at your campaigns and give you some honest, actionable advice you can use right away. It's a chance to see if we're a good fit and, at the very least, you'll walk away with some valuable insights.