Digital marketers are no strangers to juggling multiple campaigns at once. Between targeting, bidding, and creative strategy, it can feel like a high-stakes balancing act.
But there’s a hidden culprit that might be quietly sabotaging your efforts: audience overlap.
Let’s break down what audience overlap really is, why it’s a problem, and most importantly, how you can fix it.
What Is Audience Overlap?
Audience overlap happens when the same group of people falls into multiple audience segments in your campaigns. For instance, imagine you’re running two ad sets—one targeting “dog owners” and another targeting “pet lovers.”
The overlap? Likely a ton of people who own dogs and love pets.
At first glance, it might not seem like a big deal. After all, isn’t more coverage better? The problem is, when platforms like Meta or Google Ads detect overlapping audiences, your campaigns start competing against each other in ad auctions. Which can lead to higher CPMs, wasted ad spend, and a distorted understanding of which audience is actually performing better.
Why Is Audience Overlap a Problem?
The issue here? Audience overlap doesn’t just drain your budget (which is bad enough), it can also skew your campaign data. Here’s how:
Increased Costs
When two campaigns compete for the same audience, you essentially drive up your own bids. Kind of like being at an auction and outbidding yourself—there’s no winner, only a loss of budget efficiency.
Misleading Performance Metrics
Let’s say both campaigns are targeting the same audience and driving conversions. Which campaign deserves the credit? It becomes tricky to pinpoint which strategy or creative is truly effective.
Ad Fatigue
Bombarding the same audience with ads from different campaigns can annoy your potential customers. Repeated exposure to similar messaging can result in diminishing returns, making people tune out or, worse, hide your ads.
How to Spot Audience Overlap
You can’t solve a problem without knowing where it exists. Here’s how to find audience overlap:
Platform Tools
Platforms like Meta Ads Manager have built-in tools to measure audience overlap. Use them to compare your ad sets and identify how much your audiences intersect.
Custom Segments
Create mutually exclusive custom audiences for your campaigns. For example, exclude “pet lovers” from your “dog owners” audience to prevent overlap.
Analyse Frequency Metrics
If you notice unusually high frequencies across campaigns targeting similar groups, overlap might be at play.
How to Fix Audience Overlap
Now that you’ve identified the issue, here’s how to tackle it:
Segment Your Audiences
One of the easiest ways to fix overlap is by refining your audience segments. If you’re targeting broad groups that overlap (think “dog owners” and “pet lovers”), you’re probably bidding against yourself in auctions. Instead, break your audiences into distinct, non-competing groups.
For example:
First-time visitors: People who just landed on your site. They don’t need a hard sell—yet.
Cart abandoners: Those who added something to their cart but didn’t check out. They’re warm leads, so try focusing on them.
Existing customers: Your loyal shoppers who might be interested in related products or maybe even upgrades.
The idea is to exclude one group from the other. If you’re targeting cart abandoners, exclude people who’ve already made a purchase.
Leverage Lookalike Audiences
Lookalike audiences are amazing for scaling campaigns. They let you target people who are similar to your best customers. But here’s the catch: if you don’t set exclusions, these audiences can overlap with your existing ones.
For example, if you’re running ads to past buyers and lookalikes, exclude the original customers from the lookalike campaign. That way, you’re actually reaching new people, not the same crowd twice.
Prioritise Retargeting Over Broad Reach
Casting a wide net feels like the safe option, but it’s often the least efficient. Instead of running broad campaigns, prioritise retargeting high-intent audiences.
For example, someone who’s been on your pricing page is way more likely to convert than someone who casually browsed your homepage. Targeting those high-intent users saves you money and delivers better results—without the headache of overlapping audiences.
ALSO READ: Here's How You Do Retargeting The Right Way
Experiment With Campaign Budget Optimisation (CBO)
If you’ve got multiple ad sets chasing similar audiences, consider using Campaign Budget Optimisation (CBO). With CBO, you set one budget, and the platform decides how to split it across your ad sets.
Why do this? Well, it minimises internal competition. Instead of running up costs by having two ad sets compete for the same audience, CBO shifts your budget to the ad set that’s performing best.
Monitor Overlap Regularly
Here’s the thing: audience overlap isn’t a “set it and forget it” problem. Campaigns evolve, and so do audience behaviours. Make it a habit to check your overlap regularly.
Tools like Meta Ads Manager can show you exactly how much your audiences intersect. If you see high overlap percentages, rework your exclusions or adjust your segments. It’s an easy fix to make sure your campaigns stay efficient over time.
Watch for Red Flags in Your Metrics
Even if you’re not actively looking for overlap, your campaign data might be screaming for attention. High CPMs or an unusually high frequency could mean you’re hitting the same people too often.
If you spot these signs, you need to revisit your targeting and see where overlap might be happening.
A Quick Reality Check
It’s tempting to think more audiences mean better results. But when overlap creeps in, it can dilute the effectiveness of your campaigns and inflate costs. Taking a proactive and intentional approach to segmentation helps protect your budget while providing clearer insights into what’s working.
PRO TIP: Take 20 minutes today to check for overlap in your current campaigns. That small investment could save you a lot of money—and frustration—down the road.
Final Words
Audience overlap might not always be glaringly obvious, but it can quietly erode your campaign performance if left unchecked. Take the time to segment your audiences effectively, monitor overlap, and prioritize efficiency over volume. Your ad budget (and sanity) will thank you.
As digital marketers, we’re constantly optimising for results. Think of audience overlap as a hidden lever you can pull to unlock better performance without spending the extra cent.
Start with your next campaign. Run an overlap analysis, make adjustments, and see how it changes your results. Sometimes, a small fix is all it takes to turn your campaigns into high-performing machines.
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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