Ad targeting can feel like walking a tightrope. On one side, you’re trying to reach the right people, and on the other, you’re trying not to waste a single penny of your budget. It’s no easy task. For digital marketers, every mistake in targeting doesn’t just cost money, it costs opportunities to learn and potentially long-term customers.
If you’re tired of wondering why your campaigns aren’t hitting the numbers you projected, let’s dive into the top five ad targeting mistakes that could be holding you back. More importantly, let’s look at how to avoid them.
Targeting Too Broad an Audience
We get it, it can be tempting to be as broad as you can, especially if you’re trying to increase brand awareness. You think, “Let’s reach everyone! More eyeballs means more chances to sell, right?” Not quite the case here.. Broad targeting means your ads are being shown to people who either can’t or won’t buy what you’re offering.
So, you’re essentially paying for impressions and clicks from people who might never convert.
What to Do Instead:
Focus on quality over quantity. Who is your product really for?
Start by defining your core audience. Use detailed demographic, behavioural, and interest-based data. Meta Ads Manager and Google Ads provide tools like audience segmentation and custom intent audiences, use them wisely. If you’re unsure, test a smaller, hyper-specific audience first and expand as you gather data.
Example:
Say you’re running ads for a high-end skincare product. Instead of targeting “women aged 18-65,” narrow it to “women aged 25-40, interested in cruelty-free beauty and luxury skincare brands.”
Ignoring Lookalike or Similar Audiences
Lookalike audiences are key to targeting. If you’re not leveraging them, you’re leaving money on the table. These audiences are modelled after your existing customers, meaning they have higher tendencies of converting. Skipping this step means you’re working harder than you need to.
What to Do Instead:
Take your best customer list—top spenders, recent buyers, or repeat customers—and use it to create a lookalike audience. Upload your customer lists and create lookalike audiences in platforms like Meta or Google Ads. Use smaller seed audiences (like your top 1% highest spenders) to generate highly specific lookalikes. Once the data works in your favour, you can scale.
Example:
If you have a list of customers who made purchases in the past 90 days, create a lookalike audience to reach people with similar profiles but who haven’t interacted with your brand yet.
Overlapping Audiences and Cannibalising Ads
Running multiple campaigns targeting similar audiences can lead to competition between your own ads.
Let’s say you’ve got two campaigns running, both targeting similar groups. Instead of doubling your chances of winning, you’re making your ads fight each other for the same clicks. This drives up your costs and confuses the algorithm.
What to Do Instead:
Consolidate campaigns targeting similar audiences and ensure each campaign has a clear and unique objective. Also, exclude certain audiences (e.g., past purchasers) to prevent unnecessary overlap.
If you absolutely need multiple campaigns, exclude overlapping audiences so your ads aren’t stepping on each other’s toes.
Example:
If one campaign targets "new parents," and another focuses on "parents with toddlers," there’s probably some overlap. Combine them into a single audience, or use exclusions to separate them out.
Ignoring Frequency Caps
Nobody wants to see the same ad over and over. It’s like hearing the same song on repeat—it gets old fast. High ad frequency doesn’t just annoy people; it makes them tune out entirely. And guess what? You’re paying for every one of those unnecessary impressions.
High ad frequency can lead to ad fatigue, increased CPM, and even negative brand sentiment.
What to Do Instead:
Set frequency caps in your campaigns. A good rule of thumb is keeping the frequency between 2–5 impressions per week per user, depending on your campaign goal. Monitor frequency metrics regularly, and swap out creative or pause the campaign if fatigue sets in.
Example:
A holiday sale campaign might need a higher frequency due to its urgency, while a brand awareness campaign can afford a lower cap to keep impressions fresh.
Overlooking Exclusions
Ever run into an ad for something you just bought? Frustrating, right?
If you’re not leveraging exclusions, you’re wasting budget on audiences that are no longer relevant. For example, showing ads to people who’ve already purchased the product you’re advertising is a definite way to annoy them and waste money.
What to Do Instead:
Use exclusions to refine your audience. Exclude people who’ve already converted, existing customers when running new customer acquisition campaigns, or people who’ve interacted with your ads but haven’t moved further down the funnel.
Example:
Let’s say you’re running a sale on your subscription box. Exclude current subscribers from seeing the ad. They’re already hooked, so you don’t need to spend money marketing to them.
Final Thoughts: Target Smarter, Not Harder
Targeting mistakes can sneak up on even the most experienced digital marketers. The key is to approach targeting with a combination of data-driven insights and consistent testing.
Ad targeting isn’t just about who you’re reaching—it’s about how you’re reaching them and what you’re spending to do it. With these tips, you can tighten your targeting strategy and make every click count.
Ready to audit your campaigns? It might just be the smartest move you make today.
SO, WHERE DO YOU FIND THIS PARTNER?
Well, aren’t we glad you asked! We at DigiCom are obsessive data-driven marketers pulling from multi-disciplinary strategies to unlock scale. We buy media across all platforms and placements and provide creative solutions alongside content creation, and conversion rate optimizations. We pride ourselves on your successes and will stop at nothing to help you grow.
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