Hi there,
Thanks for reaching out!
I’m happy to give you some initial thoughts on your Facebook ads and why you might be struggling to reach the right local customers in Miami. From what you've described, it sounds like the issue isn't just about setting the location, but about what you do *after* you've set it. Simply telling Facebook to target "Miami" is often not enough, and it's a very common trap people fall into.
You're right to be worried you're missing something. Most advertisers just drop a pin on a map and hope for the best, but that’s like shouting into a crowded stadium and hoping the one person you want to talk to hears you. We need a much more refined approach.
Below, I've outlined a more strategic way to think about local targeting that goes beyond just the geography. This is the same methodology we use for our clients who need to dominate a specific local market, and it focuses on layering your targeting to find the *right* people within Miami, not just *all* the people in Miami.
TLDR;
- Your problem is likely not just the location setting, but a lack of audience layering. Don't just target "Miami"; target specific people *within* Miami.
- Prioritise your audiences. Start with those most likely to convert (retargeting), then expand to high-intent lookalikes, and finally use detailed interest targeting to find new customers.
- Make sure your location setting is "People living in this location." This simple switch stops you from wasting money on tourists and temporary visitors.
- The article contains an audience prioritisation flowchart to help you structure your campaigns and a calculator to estimate your target Cost Per Lead for a local campaign.
- The most important piece of advice is to build your campaigns around a funnel (Top, Middle, Bottom) even for a local audience. This structure is what separates campaigns that work from those that burn cash.
You probably should fix your location targeting first...
This sounds basic, but it’s a mistake I see in about half the accounts I audit. When you set your location in Meta Ads Manager, you get a few options. The default is often "People living in or recently in this location." For a local business, this is a disaster. You end up wasting a significant portion of your budget on tourists, business travellers, or people who just passed through Miami on their way to somewhere else. These people will never be your customers.
You absolutely must change this setting to "People living in this location." It’s a small change, but it immediately filters out a huge chunk of irrelevant people and focuses your spend on actual residents. This is the first and easiest optimisation you can make, and it will have an immediate impact on the quality of people seeing your ads. Without this, any other targeting you do is built on a shaky foundation.
From here, we can start to build a proper targeting strategy. Fixing this one setting is the first step, but it's the next part—building a structured audience funnel—that will truly unlock performance for your campaigns in a competitive area like Miami.
I'd say you need a proper audience funnel, even for local...
Okay, so we've told Facebook to only show ads to people who actually live in Miami. What now? The next mistake people make is to just throw a few broad interests on top and let it run. This doesn't work because you're treating every single person in Miami the same, which is a massive oversimplification. A person who has visited your website and added a product to their cart is infinitely more valuable than someone who has never heard of you but happens to like "shopping."
You need to structure your campaigns around a funnel, even at the local level. This means separating your audiences based on how familiar they are with your business. I've seen this structure turn failing local campaigns into profitable ones time and time again. I remember one of our most successful campaigns was for a home cleaning company. By implementing this kind of funnel structure and focusing on the right local audience, we were able to get them new leads for just £5 each, which made their advertising incredibly profitable.
Here’s a visual breakdown of how you should prioritise these audiences:
You create seperate campaigns for each part of this funnel. Your BoFu (Bottom of Funnel) campaign is your highest priority. This is your retargeting campaign. It targets people in Miami who have already visited your website, engaged with your Facebook/Instagram page, or are on your customer email list. These are your warmest leads and should give you the best return. Your MoFu (Middle of Funnel) campaign uses lookalike audiences. You can create audiences of people in Miami who are similar to your past customers or website visitors. This is how you find new people who are highly likely to be interested. Finally, your ToFu (Top of Funnel) campaign is for cold audiences, using the detailed interest and behavior targeting. This is for finding completely new people, and it's where you have to be most careful with your budget.
By seperating them, you can allocate your budget intelligently. Put most of your money on BoFu and MoFu first. Your ToFu campaign is for exploration and should have a smaller, controlled budget until you find winning interests.
We'll need to look at what you can actually afford to pay...
Before you even spend another pound, you need to understand your numbers. The real question isn't "How low can my cost per lead go?" but "How high a cost per lead can I afford to acquire a truly great customer?" Without knowing this, you're flying blind. You might think a £50 cost per lead is expensive, but if that lead turns into a customer worth thousands, it's an absolute bargain.
This is where calculating your Customer Lifetime Value (LTV) becomes so important. It tells you exactly how much you can afford to spend to acquire a customer (your Customer Acquisition Cost, or CAC) while remaining profitable. Let's run through the math that unlocks aggressive, intelligent growth.
Here are the key metrics:
- Average Revenue Per Account (ARPA): What you make per customer, per month. Let's say it's £500.
- Gross Margin %: Your profit margin on that revenue. Let's say it's 80%.
- Monthly Churn Rate: The percentage of customers you lose each month. Let's say it's 4%.
The calculation is: LTV = (ARPA * Gross Margin %) / Monthly Churn Rate. So, in this example, LTV = (£500 * 0.80) / 0.04 = £10,000. Each customer is worth £10,000 in gross margin to your business over their lifetime.
Now you have the truth. With a £10,000 LTV, a healthy 3:1 LTV:CAC ratio means you can afford to spend up to £3,333 to acquire a single new customer. If your sales process converts 1 in 10 qualified leads into a customer, you can afford to pay up to £333 per qualified lead. Suddenly, that lead from Facebook doesn't seem so expensive, does? It looks like a bargain. This is the math that frees you from the tyranny of cheap leads. You can use the calculator below to plug in your own numbers and find your target.
You'll need a message they can't ignore...
Once you have your targeting structure and your metrics sorted, the final piece is your creative and messaging. You can have the best targeting in the world, but if your ad is boring or generic, no one will click. Since you're targeting different audiences in your funnel, you should have different messages for them.
For your BoFu (retargeting) audience, they already know who you are. You can be more direct. Show them a special offer, a testimonial from a happy Miami customer, or a reminder of what they were looking at on your site. The goal is to get them over the finish line.
For your MoFu and ToFu (colder) audiences, they likely don't know you. Your ad needs to grab their attention and solve a problem for them. Don't just sell what you do; sell the outcome. Instead of "Landscaping Services in Miami," try something like, "Tired of looking at that patchy lawn? Get a backyard you're proud to show off. We've helped over 200 Miami homeowners create their perfect outdoor space." This speaks directly to a pain point and offers a clear solution.
I’ve detailed my main recommendations for you below in a table. This is the main advice I have for you and provides a step-by-step plan you can start implementing today. This is not a quick fix, it requires a strategic shift, but it is the correct way to build a sustainable and profitable local advertising machine.
| Step | Action | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Correct Location | In Ad Set settings, change location targeting from the default to "People living in this location" for Miami. | Immediately stops budget waste on tourists and non-residents, focusing only on potential local customers. This is the single biggest quick-win. |
| 2. Build Funnel Campaigns | Create three seperate campaigns: BoFu (Retargeting), MoFu (Lookalikes), and ToFu (Interests). Allocate budget with BoFu as the priority. | Allows you to speak to users differently based on their awareness of you, leading to higher conversion rates and better budget efficency. |
| 3. Prioritise Audiences | Start with BoFu: target website visitors, social engagers, and customer lists within Miami. Then test MoFu: lookalikes of your best customers. | Focuses your initial spend on the people most likely to convert, generating faster results adn providing data to improve cold campaigns. |
| 4. Calculate Your Numbers | Determine your Customer Lifetime Value (LTV) and use it to calculate a realistic target Cost Per Lead (CPL) you can afford. | This gives you a clear KPI to mesure success. You'll know instantly if a campaign is profitable or not, removing guesswork. |
| 5. Tailor Your Message | Create different ads for each funnel stage. Direct offers for BoFu, and problem-solving, value-driven messages for ToFu. | Relevant messaging dramatically increases click-through rates and conversions. A generic message to everyone will resonate with no one. |
Implementing a proper strategy like this can be complex, and it often takes experience to get the nuances right, especially when it comes to creative testing and budget management between the different funnel stages. It's a lot more involved than just picking a location and some interests.
If you get to a point where you've tried this and feel you need a more expert hand to really scale things or to diagnose deeper issues, that’s often when businesses decide to bring in a specialist. We offer a free, no-obligation initial consultation where we can take a look at your ad account and provide a more detailed audit and strategy proposal.
Regards,
Team @ Lukas Holschuh
