Solved: Broad Targeting with Dynamic Creative Optimisation

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out! Happy to give you some of my initial thoughts and guidance on your situation regarding your dynamic creative setup. While the short answer is pretty simple, I think it points to a much bigger, more fundamental issue with how you're approaching your Meta ads right now. Frankly, you're making it much harder and more expensive for yourself than it needs to be.

What you're dealing with isn't really a choice between two buttons in Ads Manager. It's about the entire strategy, from who you're targeting to what you're asking them to do. Getting this foundation right is the only way you'll build something that can actually scale profitably, rather than just burning cash and hoping for the best. Let's get it sorted.

We'll need to look at your fundamental campaign objective...

Right, first things first. Let's talk about this "broad targeting" approach with a brand new pixel. Here is the uncomfortable truth: you are actively paying Facebook to find you the worst possible audience for your product.

I know that sounds harsh, but it's how the algorithm works. When you set your campaign live with broad targeting and a pixel that barely has any data (50-60 orders is next to nothing in Meta's world), you give the algorithm a very vague command. You're essentially telling it, "Find me anyone in this country who might buy my product."

The algorithm, in its infinite wisdom, does exactly what you asked, but with its own priority: efficiency. It seeks out the largest number of people for the lowest possible price. Who are these people? They're the users inside your targeting who are least likely to click, least likely to engage, and absolutely, positively least likely to ever pull out a credit card. Why? Because those users are not in demand. Their attention is cheap. Other advertisers aren't bidding for them because they know they don't convert. You are stepping in and buying up the inventory no one else wants.

Many people think they need to run 'awareness' campaigns or go broad to "warm up" an audience. This is a myth that costs new businesses a fortune. Awareness is a byproduct of having a great product that solves a real problem and makes sales, not a prerequisite for making a sale. You don't have the budget of Coca-Cola, so you can't afford to just spray your ads everywhere. Every pound you spend must be geared towards a conversion. One campaign we worked on for a women's apparel brand achieved a 691% return not by chasing awareness, but by focusing single-mindedly on driving purchases from day one.

Your job right now isn't to ask the pixel to perform miracles. Your job is to *teach* the pixel. You need to spoon-feed it high-quality, relevant data by targeting people who are much more likely to be your ideal customer. Once it has hundreds, preferably thousands, of conversions from a very specific type of person, *then* you can start to trust it with broader audiences because it has a clear picture of who to look for. Starting broad is like trying to teach a child calculus before they can count to ten. It's backwards.

I'd say you need to completely rethink your targeting strategy...

So, how do we fix this? We stop gambling and start building a proper structure. When I audit client accounts, the biggest mistake I see is a chaotic approach to audience testing. They'll have a random collection of ad sets with weirdly combined interests, no clear funnel logic, and no idea what's actually working.

You need a prioritised hierarchy. Think of it like a funnel. Here's how I'd usually structure it for an ecommerce account, and the logic applies to pretty much any buisness:

Top of Funnel (ToFu) - Finding New People:

This is where you are right now, trying to find new customers. This is your priority.

• -> Detailed Targeting (Interests, Behaviours): This should be your starting point. Not broad. You need to give the algorithm clues.
• -> Lookalike Audiences: Once you have enough data (at least 100 purchases, but honestly you want more like 1,000+ for it to be really potent), you create audiences of people who *look like* your existing customers. We'll get to this later.
• -> Broad Targeting: This is the absolute last step, only for when your pixel is highly intelligent and you're scaling a proven offer. You are miles away from this.

Middle of Funnel (MoFu) - Re-engaging People:

These are people who have shown some interest but haven't bought yet.

• -> All website visitors (excluding purchasers)
• -> People who watched a certain percentage of your videos
• -> People who engaged with your Facebook or Instagram page

Bottom of Funnel (BoFu) - Closing the Sale:

These are your hottest prospects, the ones closest to buying.

• -> People who added to cart (but didn't purchase)
• -> People who initiated checkout (but didn't purchase)

For a new account, you live in the ToFu stage, specifically within 'Detailed Targeting'. You need to do the work of figuring out what interests define your ideal customer. Don't just pick broad interests like 'shopping' or 'fashion'. You need to get specific. What magazines do they read? What brands do they love? What public figures do they follow? What tools or software do they use? Group these into logical themes and test them in seperate ad sets.

This brings me to your original question about Dynamic Creative. Dynamic Creative is a tool for optimising elements *within a winning audience*. It's not a discovery tool for finding an audience in the first place. You've essentially asked Facebook to test 3 videos, 3 texts, and 3 headlines across a massive, undefined broad audience. The system is just throwing stuff at a wall to see what sticks, and it's incredibly inefficient with your budget. The fact that one video is getting 95% of the sales is a clear signal. You've found a winner *despite* your setup, not because of it.

So, to answer your question directly: YES, you absolutely must pull that winning video out. Copy its Post ID to preserve the social proof (likes, comments). Create a new, standard ad set (not dynamic). Put that single winning video in it with its best-performing copy and headline. Then, and this is the most important bit, run that ad set against a tightly defined *interest-based* audience, not another broad one. Then duplicate that ad set and test it against another interest-based audience. That's how you start to build a real, data-driven picture of what works.

You probably should define your customer by their nightmare, not a demographic...

This is where we go a level deeper. "Detailed targeting" is only as good as your understanding of the customer. Most people create a sterile, demographic-based profile: "Women, aged 25-40, living in London, interested in skincare." That tells you almost nothing of value and leads to generic ads that speak to no one.

To stop burning cash, you must define your customer by their *pain*. Their specific, urgent, expensive nightmare. Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) isn't a person; it's a problem state. Your product is the solution to that problem.

Forget demographics for a second and ask yourself these questions:

• -> What problem was so frustrating that it led to the creation of your new product?
• -> What is the "before" state of your customer? What does their life look like without your product? Are they annoyed, wasting time, feeling insecure, missing out on something?
• -> What is the specific "nightmare scenario" your product helps them avoid?

For example, say you sell a special kind of baby swaddle. The nightmare isn't 'needing a blanket'. It's being a new parent, utterly exhausted, at 3 AM, with a screaming baby that just won't sleep, feeling like a complete failure. Your product isn't a swaddle; it's a good night's sleep. It's sanity.

Once you've isolated that nightmare, you can find your people. Where do they go to talk about this problem? The sleep-deprived parent is in "New Mums UK" Facebook groups, following baby sleep consultant influencers on Instagram, and buying other products that promise relief. This intelligence isn't just data; it's the blueprint for your entire targeting strategy. Do this work first, or you have no buisness spending another pound on ads.

You'll need a message they can't ignore...

Now that you know the *pain* and you have a better idea of *where* to find the people experiencing it, you need to craft the ad itself. Your winning video is likely already doing this well, probably by accident. But you need to understand the formula so you can replicate it.

Your ad needs to speak directly to the nightmare. Forget listing features. Nobody cares about features; they care about the transformation. There are two simple, powerful frameworks for this:

1. Problem-Agitate-Solve (PAS)

• Problem: State the nightmare directly. "Struggling to get your newborn to sleep through the night?"
• Agitate: Poke the wound. Make them feel the pain. "Are you exhausted, stressed, and just want a moment of peace? Is the constant crying making you feel helpless?"
• Solve: Introduce your product as the hero. "Our 'Miracle Swaddle' uses patented compression tech to mimic the womb, calming your baby to sleep in minutes. Get your sleep back."

2. Before-After-Bridge (BAB)

• Before: Paint a picture of their current world of pain. "Another 3 AM wake-up call. Your baby is crying, you're exhausted, and tomorrow's another long day."
• After: Show them the promised land. "Imagine laying your baby down, fully content, and they sleep peacefully until morning. You wake up feeling refreshed and ready for the day."
• Bridge: Your product is the bridge that gets them from Before to After. "The 'Miracle Swaddle' is the bridge to peaceful nights. See how it works."

Look at your winning video. I'll bet it shows the "After" state. It probably shows a happy, sleeping baby or a relieved-looking parent. It's selling the outcome, not the product. Your copy and headlines need to do the same thing. By understanding *why* that video works, you move from relying on luck to building a repeatable creative strategy.

I've detailed my main recommendations for you below:

This is a lot to take in, I know. It's a fundamental shift from just running ads to building a proper customer acquisition machine. To make it clearer, here is the exact process I would follow if I were in your shoes. This is the main advice I have for you:

As you can probably tell, getting this right involves a lot more than just a quick fix in Ads Manager. It's a combination of deep customer psychology, strategic thinking, and a methodical, data-driven process of testing and optimisation. Every failed ad set with a new pixel costs you not just money, but also pollutes your data, making it harder for the algorithm to learn.

This is the kind of strategic framework and hands-on implementation we bring to our clients. We've taken software companies from a £100 cost per acquisition down to £7, and as I mentioned earlier, helped an eCommerce women's apparel brand achieve a 691% return on their ad spend by applying these exact principles. It's not magic, it's just a rigorous process that most people don't have the time or experience to implement correctly.

If you'd like to go through your setup in more detail and get a concrete action plan, we offer a free, no-obligation initial consultation where we can audit your account together. It might be helpful to have an expert pair of eyes on it.

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh