Solved: Optimize Facebook Ads Targeting for Fitness App

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out! I had a look at your question and it’s a good one, shows you're thinking creatively about reaching new people which is what it's all about. That said, I've got some thoughts on your idea and a different approach you might want to consider. It’s a common trap to fall into, but targeting those "opposite" interests might actually hurt your campaigns more than help them, especially when you're trying to optimise your funnel. I'm happy to give you some initial guidance on how you can build a more robust targeting strategy to get better quality users before you scale up your budget.

We'll need to look at your targeting strategy...

Right, let's get straight into it. Your idea to target people interested in fast food and unhealthy lifestyles is clever on the surface. The logic makes sense – these are the people who might need a fitness app the most. But in paid advertising, this is a classic mistake that burns a lot of money, and I've seen it happen time and time again. You're confusing correlation with causation.

Liking a page for Pizza Hut or McDonald's on Facebook is a very, very weak signal. It tells you what they ate last Tuesday, not what they want to achieve next month. It doesn’t signal any intent to change. When you run a campaign with a conversion objective, you're telling the Facebook algorithm to find people within your target audience who are most likely to take your desired action (in your case, install your app).

When you give it a massive, low-quality audience like "people who like fast food", the algorithm does what you asked. It finds the cheapest people to show your ad to within that group. And who are the cheapest people? The ones who never click, never engage, and certainly never buy anything. They're not in demand. You're basically paying Facebook to find you non-customers. I remember one client who was selling high-end kitchenware and insisted on targeting people who liked budget supermarkets. Their cost per sale went through the roof because they were reaching people who simply couldn't afford their products, even if they were interested.

Think of it like this. The overlap between people who like fast food and people who are actively searching for a fitness solution and are ready to download an app is actually tiny. Most of that audience has zero interest in your offer right now.

I'd say you need to focus on intent...

So what's the alternative? You need to obsess over intent. Your #1 job is to find signals that someone is already problem-aware and solution-aware. For a fitness app, that means they're already thinking about, searching for, or using fitness-related products and services.

Instead of the vague "fitness" and "weightlifting" interests you've been using (which are better than "fast food" but still very broad), you need to get much more specific. You should be targeting people who have shown a clear, recent interest in solving the exact problem your app addresses. Your current strategy is like standing on a street corner shouting about fitness; a better strategy is to set up a stall right outside the gym.

This is where a proper campaign structure comes in. You need to think about your audience in terms of a funnel: Top of Funnel (ToFu - cold audiences), Middle of Funnel (MoFu - warm audiences), and Bottom of Funnel (BoFu - hot audiences). By prioritising audiences this way, you focus your budget on the people most likely to convert first, then expand outwards.

Here’s a simple flowchart of how I'd prioritise audiences for an app like yours. This is the exact kind of structure we implement for our software and app clients, and it consistently delivers better results than just testing random interests. I remember one app campaign where we took them from a handful of signups a day to over 45,000 signups at under £2 each, just by systematically working through a targeting structure like this.

You probably should build a proper campaign structure...

Seeing that flowchart is one thing, but implementing it is another. Since you're looking to optimise before scaling, this is the perfect time to build a solid foundation. You should have separate, long-running campaigns for each part of the funnel. Don't mix your cold traffic with your retargeting traffic in the same campaign or ad set.

Here’s a more detailed breakdown of the audiences you should be testing, in order of priority:

1. Top of Funnel (ToFu) - Finding New Users
This is where you'll spend most of your budget. The goal is to find high-intent cold audiences. Instead of broad "fitness", get specific:

• Competitor Targeting: This is your goldmine. Target people who are interested in MyFitnessPal, Strava, Peloton, Noom, Weight Watchers, etc. These people are already using or considering a digital fitness solution. They are pre-qualified.
• Brand/Equipment Targeting: People interested in Gymshark, Lululemon, Rogue Fitness, or specific home gym equipment. This signals they've already invested money into their fitness journey.
• Influencer/Publication Targeting: Target followers of major fitness influencers or readers of magazines like Men's Health or Women's Health.
• Lookalike Audiences (Once you have data): This will become your most powerful tool. Once you have at least 100-200 subscribers (the more the better), create a 1% Lookalike audience in your primary target countries. This tells Facebook "go find me more people who look exactly like my best customers". This is far more effective than any interest targeting you can come up with. You can also create lookalikes of all app installers.

2. Middle of Funnel (MoFu) - Warming Up Prospects
These are people who have shown some interest but haven't installed the app yet. You need to remind them why they were interested in the first place.

• Social Engagers: Retarget anyone who has liked, commented on, or saved one of your posts in the last 90 days.
• Video Viewers: Retarget people who have watched at least 50% or 95% of your video ads. This is a highly engaged audience.
• Website/App Store Page Visitors: If you have a landing page, or can track this, retarget anyone who visited but didn't install.

3. Bottom of Funnel (BoFu) - Closing the Deal
This is your lowest-hanging fruit. People who have installed your app but haven't become paying users or completed a key action (like their first workout). Your goal here is activation and conversion.

• Non-activated Users: You can create an audience of people who installed the app more than 3 days ago but haven't completed 'X' action. Hit them with an ad reminding them of a key feature or offering help to get started.
• Abandoned Subscriptions: If someone starts the subscription process but doesn't finish, you can retarget them with a special offer or a testimonial to push them over the line.

Here's how that might look in a simple table format for your ad account structure:

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

Now, let's talk about you're ad copy. "Planning on losing weight in 2024?" is better than nothing, but it's incredibly generic. Everyone is saying that in January. It doesn't differentiate you, and it doesn't speak to a real, painful problem.

The best ads don't just state a goal; they agitate a problem and present your app as the unique solution. You need to get inside the head of your ideal customer. What are they really struggling with? It's probably not "losing weight" in the abstract. It's more specific:

• "I don't have time to go to the gym."
• "I find workout plans confusing and I give up."
• "I'm bored of doing the same exercises over and over."
• "I feel self-conscious working out in front of other people."

Your ad copy needs to grab one of these specific pain points and twist the knife a little before offering the solution. This is the classic Problem-Agitate-Solve (PAS) framework. It works.

Problem: Feeling lost and unmotivated with your fitness goals?
Agitate: Are you tired of downloading workout plans you never stick to, while your New Year's resolution slowly fades away by February?
Solve: Our app creates personalised, 15-minute workouts you can do from home. Stop guessing and start seeing results. Download now.

See the difference? It connects on an emotional level. You're not just selling a fitness app; you're selling the end of frustration, the feeling of accomplishment, and a clear path to success. Here’s a quick comparison of weak vs. strong copy.

We'll need to look at the numbers...

You mentioned you're getting one new user per day and you're satisfied with that for now. That's a great start because it means things are working. But as you start to optimise, you need to know what good looks like and how to budget for growth.

For app installs or signups in developed countries like the UK or US, you can expect a cost per install (CPI) anywhere from £1.60 to £15.00. This is a huge range, and it depends entirely on your targeting, creative, and the app's conversion rate on the app store page. You're goal should be to get this as low as possible without sacrificing user quality.

With the right strategy, getting your CPI under £2 or £3 is very achievable. As I mentioned, we worked on one app campaign where we drove 45,000+ signups at under £2 – that wasn't magic, it was the result of the rigorous testing structure I've outlined above. They started with a much higher CPI, but we systematically found winning audiences and ad creatives that brought the cost down, allowing them to scale massively.

To help you think about your budget as you prepare to scale, I've put together a simple interactive calculator. Play around with the sliders to see how your target number of daily installs and your cost per install affect your required daily and monthly ad spend.

This should give you a much clearer picture of the investment needed to hit your targets once your funnel is optimised. Getting your CPI down from, say, £7 to £3.50 means you can get double the users for the same budget. That is the power of proper optimisation, and it all starts with targeting the right people.

I've detailed my main recommendations for you below, which summarises the approach I've laid out. This is the path form random testing to a scalable, predictable system for user acquisition.

Implementing all of this takes time and effort, there's no doubt about it. It’s a shift from just 'running ads' to building a proper acquisition engine. Getting the targeting right, writing compelling copy, analysing the data, and knowing when to scale or kill an ad set is a full-time job.

This is where expert help can make a huge differance. Instead of spending months and thousands of pounds on trial and error, an experienced consultant can help you implement this structure correctly from day one, saving you a lot of wasted ad spend and getting you to your growth goals much faster.

If you’d like to have a more detailed chat about your app and how we could help you build out this strategy, we offer a free, no-obligation initial consultation. We can take a look at your current campaigns and give you some more specific advice. Feel free to book a call if that sounds helpful.

Hope this helps!

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh