Solved: Broad Targeting Not Working in Facebook Ads

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out about the issues you're facing with Facebook ad strategies in the US market. It's a common problem when a successful approach like broad targeting suddenly stops delivering results. It can definitely feel like the rug has been pulled from under you.

The short answer is that the era of just setting a broad audience and letting the algorithm do all the work is becoming less reliable, particulerly for accounts without a ton of conversion data. You need a more structured and intentional approach. I'll walk you through the framework we use that consistently works, moving from a 'hope and pray' broad strategy to one that systematically targets users at every stage of their buying journey.

So, Why Did Broad Targeting Stop Working?

This is a question I hear a lot. The simple, brutal truth is that when you run a broad campaign, especially with an objective like 'Reach' or 'Brand Awareness', you're giving the algorithm a very specific, and very flawed, command: "Find me the largest number of people for the lowest possible price."

The algorithm is incredibly good at its job. It goes out and finds the users inside your targeting who are least likely to click, least likely to engage, and definately least likely to ever buy anything. Why? Because those users aren't in demand. Their attention is cheap. You are literally paying Facebook to find the worst possible audience for your product. It's a trap many advertisers fall into.

The goal isn't just to be 'seen'. Awareness is a byproduct of making sales and having a great product, not a prerequisite. For a growing business, every pound spent on ads has to work towards a conversion. That means you need to tell the algorithm to optimise for what you actually want: leads, signups, or sales. When you do that, it completely changes who Facebook shows your ads to. It starts looking for people with a history of taking the action you want, which is a far better starting point.

We'll need to look at a proper funnel structure...

Instead of throwing everything at a single broad audience, you need to think like a real salesperson and guide people through a journey. In advertising, we call this a funnel. It's not complicated, it's just logical. We seperate it into three stages:

• ToFu (Top of Funnel): This is your cold audience. People who have never heard of you before. This is where you'll use interest targeting and lookalike audiences to find new potential customers.
• MoFu (Middle of Funnel): This is your warm audience. People who have shown some interest – they've watched your videos, visited your website, or engaged with your ads, but they haven't bought yet.
• BoFu (Bottom of Funnel): This is your hot audience. These are the people closest to buying. They've added a product to their cart, started the checkout process, or are previous customers you want to sell to again.

You create seperate campaigns for each stage. Why? Because you need to speak to each group differently. A message for a complete stranger (ToFu) should be very different from a message for someone who has a product sitting in their online shopping cart (BoFu). This structure allows you to control your messaging and budget far more effectively than a single broad campaign ever could.

I'd say you need to define your ICP by their nightmare, not their demographics...

Now we get to the core of making the ToFu stage work. Forget the generic profiles like "women aged 25-45 who like online shopping". That tells you nothing useful and leads to bland ads that nobody clicks.

To stop burning cash, you have to define your customer by their pain. Their specific, urgent, expensive problem. Your ideal customer isn't just a demographic; they're in a 'problem state'.

For example, if you sell high-quality kitchen knives, your ICP isn't just "people who like cooking". It's the frustrated home chef whose cheap knives crush tomatoes instead of slicing them, who dreads prepping vegetables because their tools are terrible, and who feels like their passion for cooking is being held back by their equipment. That frustration is their nightmare. It's an emotional pain point.

Once you understand that nightmare, you can find them. What specific cooking blogs do they read? Which celebrity chefs do they follow who are known for their knife skills? What high-end cookware brands do they admire? These are the interests you target. They are far more specific and effective than just targeting "Cooking". Your ads then shouldn't just say "Sharp Knives for Sale". They should speak to the nightmare: "Tired of bruised tomatoes? Get a perfect slice, every time."

This work is the foundation. If you don't do this, you have no business spending a single pound on cold traffic ads.

You probably should prioritise your audiences by intent...

Not all audiences are created equal. The biggest mistake I see is people spending most of their budget on broad interests, while neglecting the goldmine of audiences they already have. You need to prioritise based on how close someone is to making a purchase. The further down the funnel, the more valuable the audience, and generally, the better they will perform.

Here’s the order I would prioritise testing and scaling your audiences:

1. BoFu (Bottom of Funnel - Highest Priority):
   • -> Added to Cart / Initiated Checkout (in last 7-14 days): These are your hottest leads. They were seconds away from buying. Remind them! Show them an ad with the exact product they left behind.
   • -> Past Purchasers: Your best future customers are your past customers. Sell them a complementary product or a restock. These audiences often have the highest ROAS.
2. MoFu (Middle of Funnel - Medium Priority):
   • -> Website Visitors (last 30-60 days): They know who you are. They've browsed your site. Show them your bestsellers, testimonials, or an introductory offer to bring them back.
   • -> Video Viewers / Social Engagers: They've shown interest in your content. This is a good audience to nurture with more value-based content or case studies before asking for the sale.
3. ToFu (Top of Funnel - Scaling Priority):
   • -> Lookalike Audiences: This is your best tool for finding new customers. Start by creating a 1% Lookalike of your "Purchasers" list. Then test lookalikes of "Add to Cart", then "Website Visitors". Always start with your highest-value event. You need at least 100 people in the source audience, but it works much better with 1,000+.
   • -> Detailed Targeting (Interests/Behaviours): This is your last resort for cold traffic once you've exhausted lookalikes, or what you use to gather initial data for a new pixel. Be as specific as possible, guided by the 'nightmare' profile you built earlier.

Start your budget allocation with BoFu, then MoFu, then ToFu. Your BoFu campaigns might be small, but they should be mighty profitable. Once they are running smoothly, you can pour more budget into ToFu to feed new people into the top of your funnel.

You'll need to figure out what you can afford to pay...

People often ask "What's a good Cost Per Result?". The honest answer is: it depends entirely on your business. The real question isn't "how low can my cost per purchase go?" but "how high a cost can I afford to acquire a valuable customer?".

For eCommerce, you're looking at your Return on Ad Spend (ROAS). If you spend £100 and make £400 in revenue, your ROAS is 4x. Whether that's good depends on your profit margins. For lead generation, you're looking at your Cost Per Lead (CPL) and your lead-to-customer conversion rate.

To give you a very rough ballpark, here are some typical ranges we see for the US market, which is similar to other developed countries. For an eCommerce store, conversion rates often hover around 2-5%. With a Cost Per Click (CPC) of around £0.50-£1.50, your Cost Per Purchase could be anywhere from £10 (£0.50 / 5%) to £75 (£1.50 / 2%). It's a massive range, which is why testing is so important.

I've built a simple calculator below. Play around with the sliders for your average CPC and your website's conversion rate to see how they impact your estimated Cost Per Acquisition. It can be quite an eye-opener and helps you understand which metric to focus on improving.

So, here's my main advice for you...

Switching from a simple broad targeting strategy to a full-funnel approach takes more work upfront, but its far more resilient and scalable. The issues you're seeing with restricted pages and new accounts not working are often symptoms of an unstable strategy. When you build a proper structure, your performance becomes more predictable.

I've put my main recommendations for you into a table below. This is the exact process I'd follow if I were taking over your account today.

I know this is a lot to take in, and it represents a significant shift in strategy. Implementing this correctly requires careful setup, consistent monitoring, and ongoing optimisation. It's not a 'set it and forget it' solution, but it's a path to sustainable growth.

Getting expert help can often accelerate this process and help you avoid common pitfalls. If you’d like to have a chat and walk through your ad account together, we offer a completely free, no-obligation initial consultation. We can take a direct look at your campaigns and give you some more specific, actionable feedback.

Hope this helps!

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh