Short answer: start broad, then test whether interest suggestions improve cost per conversion for your app. Advantage+ audience is applied to new campaigns where available, and interests are suggestions Meta can go beyond. That makes a broad-versus-interest test a comparison of starting signals, unless your setup explicitly restricts delivery. Put most of your effort into creative: different promises can attract different users within the same audience.
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What does broad targeting mean on Meta today?
It means setting only the limits your business needs (countries, minimum age, sometimes language) and letting Meta find the people. Meta applies Advantage+ audience to new campaigns where it is available; availability and controls can differ by objective, account and restricted category.
Under Advantage+ audience, Meta splits your settings in two (Meta Business Help Centre):
- Controls, which Meta will not go beyond: location, minimum age, languages and custom audience exclusions.
- Suggestions, which Meta uses as a starting point and then expands past “when it’s likely to improve performance”: custom audiences, lookalikes, age, gender and detailed targeting.
“Broad interest” is sometimes used loosely for a wide interest such as “fitness” instead of a narrow one. Under Advantage+ audience, both are suggestions.
What is interest targeting on Facebook?
Meta calls it detailed targeting: reaching people by interests, behaviors and demographics, built from signals such as the ads people click, the Pages they engage with, and the apps or games they have installed (Meta Business Help Centre).
Some settings can become restrictions through “Further limit the reach of your ads”. Meta documents this for age, gender and custom audience inclusions; it does not promise a hard interest limit in every setup (Meta). Check whether the field is a control or a suggestion before calling a test interest-only.
Advantage+ detailed targeting is a separate feature that expands beyond selected interests, behaviors and demographics. In that setup, location, age, gender and language limits still apply (Meta). Do not confuse it with Advantage+ audience, where age and gender can be suggestions too.
Do broad campaigns really outperform narrow ones?
Meta reports 7.2% lower cost per result for Advantage+ audience with the sales and app promotion objectives (Meta Business Help Centre). That is Meta’s own product result, not proof that broad beats every interest audience. Our recommendation is to start broad and test exceptions against your own conversion data.
Narrowing restricts the people eligible to see the ad. It may exclude likely buyers, or it may remove people your product cannot serve. The effect on cost depends on the audience and campaign; narrowing does not automatically make every conversion more expensive.
Creative is the main lever we would work on. A hook about sleep anxiety and one about productivity can appeal to different people in the same campaign. Test several creative directions, each expressed through several ads across angles, hooks and formats. To check whether your ads reach different people, see how to measure audience diversity on Meta and how to measure creative diversity.
When do interest suggestions or narrower audiences make sense?
Separate these decisions:
- Real business limits. Set required country, age or language restrictions using the controls available in your setup. These are business restrictions, not interest targeting.
- Retargeting. Meta says Advantage+ audience isn’t recommended for retargeting campaigns (Meta). Re-engaging lapsed users calls for the appropriate custom audience, not an interest category.
- A new app with no conversion history. Interests or a customer list as suggestions can give the system a starting point. Keep them as suggestions, not limits.
- A niche product. Relevant interest suggestions are worth testing against broad. A narrow product does not prove that a narrow audience will perform better.
Should DTC brands use broad targeting or detailed targeting on Meta?
Meta’s Advantage+ audience guidance covers sales as well as app promotion. Our starting recommendation is the same: try broad, compare interest suggestions where you have a clear hypothesis, and put your effort into creative. Judge the result on your store’s own conversion and revenue data.
How should you test broad against interest targeting?
Meta recommends A/B testing with Advantage+ audience for almost all campaign types (Meta). If you want to settle it for your app:
- Same creative in both cells, so the only difference is the audience.
- Judge cost per conversion on the event that matters, then check downstream revenue. Cheap installs are not enough if those users do not pay.
- Size each campaign from cost per conversion. Our planning guide is 30 conversions a day ideally, with 10 good and 1 or 2 fine on a small budget. Low volume means slower, less certain comparisons; none of these counts guarantees a conclusive test. The old 50-conversions-a-week rule is really old guidance we would avoid.
- Run it long enough to cover the delay before your conversion event is reported, especially on iOS.
Should you use lookalike audiences instead?
In Advantage+ audience, a lookalike is another suggestion. Meta also applies Advantage+ lookalike expansion to eligible new, duplicated or draft campaigns using mobile, website or customer-list custom audience sources. It can deliver beyond the selected percentage when that may improve performance (Meta). A lookalike built from your best payers is worth comparing with broad; do not assume the selected percentage is a delivery boundary. More on this in what a lookalike audience is on Meta.
Frequently asked questions
What does broad interest mean on Meta? It usually means selecting a wide interest, such as “fitness”, instead of a narrow one. In Advantage+ audience, that interest is a suggestion Meta can go beyond.
Do broad targeting campaigns really outperform narrow ones? Not in every account. Meta reports 7.2% lower cost per result for Advantage+ audience with the sales and app promotion objectives. Use broad as a starting point, then test it against interest suggestions on cost per conversion and downstream revenue.
Is interest targeting on Facebook still worth using? It can be worth testing as a suggestion when you have a clear idea of the buyer. Business restrictions and retargeting are separate decisions; interests are not a substitute for a custom audience of existing users.
What should I change instead of targeting? The creative. In a broad campaign the ad decides who responds, so new creative directions with several ads each are the main way to reach new people.
