Solved: How to setup ABO broad targeting /cbo in FB Ads?

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out about setting up ABO and CBO campaigns with broad targeting. It's a common question, and moving on from just using Advantage+ is the right next step if you're serious about scaling your hoodie brand, so I thought I'd share some detailed thoughts.

Running Advantage+ is a good start, Meta's AI is pretty powerful and it's great for getting things off the ground. But it's a bit of a 'black box' and to really grow, you need to take back some control. What you're asking about—ABO, CBO, and different targeting methods—is exactly how you do that. Let's get into how you can build a more robust, scalable system that actually works.

Let's clear up the ABO vs CBO debate once and for all...

First things first, most people get the whole ABO vs. CBO thing wrong. They treat it like a football rivalry, picking one side and sticking to it. Tbh, that's a daft way to look at it. They're just different tools for different jobs, and knowing when to use each is what seperates the pros from the amateurs.

ABO (Ad Set Budget Optimisation): This is where you set the budget at the ad set level. If you have a campaign with five ad sets and you give each £10 a day, Meta will spend £10 a day on each, regardless of how well they perform relative to each other.

Why you'd use it: Testing. ABO is your science lab. When you want to find new winning audiences, you need to give each one a fair shot. With ABO, you can force spend to a new, unproven audience to gather enough data to see if it has potential. If you used CBO for testing, the algorithm would likely ignore your new ad set in favour of an existing winner, meaning you'd never learn anything new.

CBO (Campaign Budget Optimisation): This is where you set one single budget at the campaign level. If you have a campaign with five ad sets and a £50 daily budget, Meta's algorithm will decide how to spend that £50 across all five. It will automatically push more money towards the ad sets that are getting you the best results (e.g., the lowest cost per purchase).

Why you'd use it: Scaling. Once you've used ABO to identify your winning audiences, you put them all into a CBO campaign. This lets Meta do what it's good at: optimising your budget in real-time to maximise your returns. It's more efficient and hands-off for managing your proven performers.

So the rule is simple: Test with ABO, Scale with CBO. Don't let anyone tell you one is inherantly 'better'. They're both essential parts of a proper ad account structure.

You'll need a solid testing framework...

Before you can scale with CBO, you need something worth scaling. This means you need a dedicated testing campaign. Your current Advantage+ campaign is doing some of this for you, but it's not transparent. A manual testing campaign gives you clear data on what works and what doesn't.

Here's how I'd set it up:

1. Create a new campaign with the 'Sales' objective.
2. Turn ON Ad Set Budget Optimisation (ABO). This is the crucial step.
3. Create 3-5 different ad sets inside this campaign. Each ad set should test ONE audience. Don't mix and match interests in a single ad set, that just muddies the data.
4. Inside each ad set, add 2-3 of your best ads. You can use the same carousel of your top 10 hoodies that you're already running. The goal here is to test the audience, not the creative, so keep the ads consistent across the ad sets for a fair test.

What audiences should you test? Given your big social following, you have some powerful options beyond just basic interests. I'd prioritise them like this:

• -> Lookalike Audience (1%) of your Instagram Engagers: You have 193k followers. This is a massive asset. Create an audience of people who have engaged with your IG profile in the last 90 days, then create a 1% Lookalike from that. This audience is full of people who look just like your existing fans.
• -> Lookalike Audience (1%) of your Facebook Page Engagers: Same logic as above for your 15.7k FB followers.
• -> Lookalike Audience (1%) of your past Purchasers: This is the best audience you have. If you have at least 100-200 past purchases tracked by your pixel, create a 1% Lookalike from that list. These are people who look just like your actual paying customers.
• -> Interest Stack 1 (Competitors): Group interests for similar streetwear or hoodie brands together. Think about who your customers might be buying from if they weren't buying from you.
• -> Interest Stack 2 (Hobbies/Culture): Think about the culture around your brand. Are your customers into skating? Hip-hop music? Graphic design? Group these related interests together.

Set a daily budget for each ad set that's roughly equal to your average cost per purchase, or what you'd be willing to pay. If a hoodie sells for £50 and your margin is 50%, maybe you're happy to pay £20 for a sale. So, set the daily budget to £20 per ad set. Let them run for at least 3-4 days before you make any decisions. Then, you can see which audiences are getting you sales at a profitable cost. Those are your winners.

The truth about 'Broad' targeting...

Now, onto your question about broad targeting. Going 'broad' means you target a wide demographic (e.g., UK, ages 18-45) with no interest or lookalike layers at all. You're basically trusting Meta's algorithm completely to find your customer. It sounds scary, but it can be incredibly effective... if you do it at the right time.

Broad targeting is not a strategy for a new ad account. It works best when your pixel has gathered a significant amount of conversion data. Think of it like a sniffer dog. At first, you have to show it what to look for (your interest and lookalike audiences). After it's found that scent hundreds of times (your pixel has fired hundreds of purchase events), you can let it off the leash in a big open field (broad targeting), and it will know exactly what to track down.

Your Advantage+ campaign has been 'educating' your pixel, which is great. I'd suggest going into your Events Manager and seeing how many 'Purchase' events have been recorded in the last 28 days. If that number is over 500, you are probably in a good position to test a broad ad set. If it's less than that, I'd hold off and focus on feeding the pixel more high-quality data with the Lookalike and Interest audiences I mentioned above. When you do test it, put it in its own ad set within your ABO testing campaign to see how it stacks up against your other audiences.

I'd say you need a proper funnel structure...

Relying on just one campaign, even a smart one like Advantage+, is like having a shop with only a front door. You're missing out on all the people who walk past, peek in the window, or come inside but leave without buying. A proper funnel structure lets you talk to people differently depending on how familiar they are with your brand.

We usually structure this into three campaigns:

1. Top of Funnel (ToFu) - Prospecting:
This is for finding new customers who've never heard of you. This is where your new CBO scaling campaign will live. You'll put your winning audiences from testing in here (the Lookalikes, Interests, and maybe Broad) and let CBO work its magic to get you new customers at the best possible price.

2. Middle of Funnel (MoFu) - Re-engagement:
This campaign targets people who know you but haven't taken a high-intent action yet. The goal is to bring them back and get them closer to a purchase.

• Audience: Target people who have engaged with your Instagram or Facebook page in the last 30 days, OR people who have visited your website in the last 30 days. Make sure to EXCLUDE anyone who has added to cart or purchased.
• Creative: Don't just show them the same ad. Show them something different. Maybe some user-generated content (people wearing your hoodies), customer reviews, or highlight a different collection.

3. Bottom of Funnel (BoFu) - Retargeting:
This is where you make the most profit. This campaign targets people who were on the very edge of buying but got distracted.

• Audience: Target people who have Added to Cart or Initiated Checkout in the last 7-14 days. Again, EXCLUDE anyone who actually purchased. This is your hottest audience.
• Creative: Be direct. Use a Dynamic Product Ad that shows them the exact hoodie they left in their cart. You could add a small incentive in the copy like "Still thinking about it? Complete your order and get free shipping."

This structure gives you full control. I remember one womens apparel store we worked with, implementing a funnel like this was what took them from breaking even to a 691% Return on Ad Spend because they stopped treating all their traffic the same. It takes a bit more effort to set up, but it's far more effective.

We'll need to look at your numbers to scale properly...

As you start spending more, the question changes from "Am I getting sales?" to "Am I getting sales profitably?". To answer that, you need to know your numbers inside and out. The most important metric isn't your Cost Per Click or even your Cost Per Purchase; it's your Return On Ad Spend (ROAS).

ROAS is simple: it's the total revenue generated from your ads divided by how much you spent on them. If you spend £100 and make £400 in sales, your ROAS is 4x. To know what a 'good' ROAS is for your buisness, you need to understand your profit margins. If your hoodies cost you £15 to produce and you sell them for £50, your gross margin is £35 (or 70%). This means for every £1 in ad spend, you need to generate at least £1.43 in revenue just to break even (£1 / 0.70 = £1.43). So any ROAS above 1.43x is profit.

Knowing this number is your superpower. It tells you instantly which campaigns and ad sets are making you money and which are losing it. You can use the calculator below to play around with your own numbers.

This is the main advice I have for you:

To pull this all together, here's a step-by-step plan you can follow. This moves you from a simple setup to a professional, scalable advertising machine.

This might seem like a lot compared to just pressing the button on an Advantage+ campaign, and it is. But this level of structure and controll is what's required to reliably scale an eCommerce brand with paid ads. It removes the guesswork and replaces it with a data-driven process that you can trust.

Running this kind of system effectively involves constant monitoring, testing new creatives, finding new audiences, and making smart budget decisions based on performance. It can quickly become a full-time job in itself, and mistakes can be expensive.

If you'd like an expert pair of eyes to help you get this structure set up correctly, or to audit your existing campaigns to find opportunities for growth, we offer a completely free, no-obligation strategy session. We can go through your ad account together and build a tailored plan for your brand.

Hope this helps!

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh