Solved: Oxford Social Media Targeting for Diverse Demos

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out!

You mentioned that you are struggling to crack the local market in Oxford, and honestly, I nodded along. It’s a deceivingly difficult city to advertise in. You’d think, "It's just a city, I'll drop a pin and run some ads," right? But Oxford is unique because it’s essentially two cities stacked on top of each other. You have the transient, high-churn student population, and then you have the long-term professionals, academics, and locals who actually live in Cowley or Headington and probably hate the city centre on weekends.

I’m happy to give you some initial thoughts and guidance on this. We've managed quite a few local campaigns where the demographics were split like this, and if you don't separate them at the strategic level, you end up with a "spray and pray" approach that burns through cash without showing much for it. The solution usually lies in being brutally specific with your exclusion lists and creative angles, rather than just trying to find the "perfect" interest targeting.

The Oxford Paradox: Why Your Ads Might Be Failing

Most local businesses set their radius to "Oxford + 10 miles" and call it a day. The problem is, that radius captures tourists, students who have no money, and professionals who have no time. If you are trying to reach everyone, you reach no one.

From my experience, the biggest mistake people make in university cities is assuming proximity equals intent. Just because a student is 100 meters from your business doesn't mean they are your customer. And just because a professional lives in Summertown doesn't mean they want to see an ad designed for a fresher.

I'd suggest we need to look at splitting your strategy into two distinct funnels. I know that sounds like more work, but it's the only way to get the messaging right.

Targeting the Students (The "Fast" Crowd)

Students in Oxford are a nightmare to target using traditional "interests" because their interests change every week, and half of them don't update their Facebook profiles anymore. They are on Instagram and TikTok.

The Strategy:

For this demographic, you want to focus on urgency and social proof. They don't care about your 20 years of experience. They care if their mates go there or if it looks good on a story.

• Geotargeting: Focus tight on the university areas and student accommodation blocks. Look at OX1 (City Centre) but also specific areas like Cowley Road (OX4).
• Creative: It has to be video. Static images generally die a slow death with this demo unless it's a meme or a massive discount code. User Generated Content (UGC) works best here. A video of a student using your service/product feels 100x more trustworthy to them than a polished brand video.
• Timing: Their schedules are weird. Running ads at 11 PM might actually work better than 9 AM.

Targeting the Professionals (The "Serious" Crowd)

This is where it gets interesting. Professionals in Oxford aren't just one block. You've got the academics (hard to sell to, very critical), the tech/science park crowd (usually easier, higher disposable income), and the commuters.

You might think, "I'll use LinkedIn." And look, if you have a massive budget, go for it. But LinkedIn costs are eye-watering, often £5-£10 per click. For a local business, that's rarely sustainable unless you're selling high-ticket B2B services.

My suggestion? Use Meta (Facebook/Instagram) to target professionals, but filter them by behaviour and context.

You can target people who are "Small Business Owners" or "Admins of a Facebook Page". But also, simply target by age (25+) and location (exclude student areas, focus on residential postcodes like Summertown, Botley, Headington). The algorithm is smarter than we give it credit for. If your ad copy speaks to a professional problem (e.g., "Too busy to cook?" or "Need reliable accounting?"), the algorithm will naturally stop showing it to students who don't click.

The "Local" Trap: Postcodes vs. Radius

I mentioned this earlier, but I need to stress it. Radius targeting is lazy. If you drop a pin on Oxford city centre, you get tourists. You get people passing through on the train.

You're better off using postcode lists. We usually manually enter lists of postcodes for clients when we need to be granular. It takes more time to set up, but the quality of traffic is much higher. You can specifically exclude OX1 if you want to avoid the tourist trap and focus on where people actually live.

Budgeting for a Split Strategy

One of the biggest questions we get is "How much should I spend?". It's a tough one without knowing your numbers, but generally, for a local campaign, you need to reach a decent percentage of the population frequently.

In a city the size of Oxford, the audience isn't huge. You might have a total addressable audience of 150,000 people on Meta. You don't need a million pounds to reach them. You need consistency.

I've built a little calculator below to help you visualise this. You can plug in a potential monthly budget and see roughly how many unique people you might reach. It helps to set expectations.

The "Creative" Gap

Here is where I see 90% of local businesses fail. They use a generic Canva template that says "We are open!" or "10% off".

That is boring. It fades into the background.

To reach professionals, you need to speak to their specific pain. Are they time-poor? Do they value quality over speed?
To reach students, you need to be authentic. A shaky iPhone video of your team having a laugh or showing behind-the-scenes is infinitely better than a polished graphic.

You probably should run two separate ad sets. One ad set targeting the 18-24 age range with the "fun/cheap/fast" angle. Another ad set targeting 25-55+ with the "reliable/quality/local expert" angle. If you mix these messages, you confuse everyone.

Your Implementation Roadmap

To make this practical for you, I've broken down exactly how I'd suggest you structure this. This isn't just theory; it's the framework we use when setting up accounts for clients in similar situations.

I've detailed my main recommendations for you below:

This approach takes a bit more effort to set up than a simple "Boost Post", but the results are definitely worth it. You'll stop paying to show student ads to professors and vice versa.

Of course, setting this all up—handling the technical side of the pixel, the exclusion lists, and the creative testing—can be a bit of a minefield if you haven't done it before. We see a lot of people get stuck on the technical execution even when they have the right strategy.

If you're feeling a bit overwhelmed by the setup or just want a second pair of eyes on your ad account before you spend any budget, you might want to consider some expert help. We offer a free initial consultation where we can look at your specific business model and map this out in more detail. No pressure, just a chance to see if we can help steer you in the right direction.

Hope this helps!

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh