Facebook Ad Targeting Explained: Why Broad Audiences Scale Faster

Are you still stuck on outdated tactics thinking audience targeting improves your Facebook ads? Even Meta’s own engineers say this kind of micromanaging actually cripples their algorithm.

The better way to run Facebook ads has little to do with manual targeting and everything to do with your creative. This is an easy, proven strategy we’ve used to scale dozens of Shopify brands, and it works no matter your niche or experience.

The Andromeda Update: How Meta Changed Facebook Ad Targeting

When Meta launched Andromeda, it marked a major shift in how ads are delivered. Meta ads have now moved away from static, profile-based targeting and toward behaviour-driven, real-time personalisation. Andromeda is a machine learning–powered ads retrieval engine that boosts personalisation and efficiency, helping advertisers run more relevant, higher-return campaigns.

Interest targeting is a lagging signal. By the time someone follows a page or picks up an “interest,” they may no longer be in a buying mindset. Narrow stacks of interests miss real buyers who don’t fit into a rigid persona.

Instead, Meta’s AI now reads your ad creative to decide who should see it. Your copy, visuals, and emotion provide the signals that guide reach and conversions.

The playbook is simple: stop fighting the system. Let the algorithm handle the matching while you focus on your message and creative.

Creative Is the New Facebook Ad Targeting

Meta tracks billions of signals across its apps and partner sites. It knows what people click, watch, buy, and engage with. This is data you’ll never see in your Shopify dashboard but your creative can activate those signals.

Take minimalist shoe brand, Saguaro, as an example. Their ads zero in on a single core problem—shoes that support natural movement—then tailor the message depending on the audience:

• Outdoor adventurers who want to hike light
• Active yogis and gym-goers battling sore arches
• Seniors seeking joint health, balance, and vitality

The product promise doesn’t change but the audience callout does. Andromeda then matches those creative cues with the right people in real time.

The lesson is simple: keep the problem constant, shift the framing in your copy and visuals, and let Meta’s AI do the heavy lifting on who sees what.

Fix the First Line of Your Ad Copy

Most brands lose the sale in the first sentence. A sunscreen ad that says “Try the new Blue Lizard” is flat and forgettable. It doesn’t signal who the ad is for or why it matters.

Call Out the Audience, Pain, and Solution

A more powerful and targetted line of copy would look like, “For parents who doubt SPF, this sunscreen is kid-safe and non-toxic. It works without harsh chemicals.”

This line speaks to a buyer, frames the fear, and provides the fix. It also gives Meta the context it needs to find more people like them.

Practical Tip: Use Customer Reviews

Start with a customer avatar worksheet. Paste in your own reviews. If you don’t have enough, mine competitor reviews. The goal isn’t to guess, it’s to leverage real phrases, frustrations, and desires straight from buyers. Those words become the raw material for your copy and creative.

When your ad makes the right person think, “this is for me,” you’re feeding Meta the strongest possible signal. Skip this step, and you’re not only making Andromeda’s job harder, you’re burning budget on mismatched impressions.

Broad Targeting Scales Better Than Interest Stacks

With strong creative, broad targeting consistently outperforms micromanaged audiences. Advantage+ campaigns give Meta room to optimize in real time and find buyers you’d never capture with manual filters.

Why Broad Targeting Works

• Maximum reach — no artificial walls blocking your ads from potential buyers.
• Real-time refinement — the algorithm adjusts on the fly to engagement and conversion signals.
• Faster learning — fewer restrictions mean Meta’s AI can train faster and get smarter with every impression.

In practice, set only the essentials. In most cases this will be location and, if it’s truly relevant, gender. Resist the urge to stack interests or narrow your audience. Every filter you add limits Andromeda’s ability to discover profitable segments.

The better play is to put your energy into message and creative, the part that sparks attention, communicates the problem you solve, and drives the outcome you want. Meta will handle the matchmaking at scale.

Use Four Psychological Levers in Your Ad Creative

Great ads don’t just sell products, they reshape how buyers see themselves. They work because they touch on the four universal motivators that drive action:

• Time: save it, gain more of it, or stop losing it
• Money: avoid waste, spend smarter, or protect hard-earned cash
• Effort: remove friction, make life easier, or deliver instant results
• Status: feel admired, capable, confident, or in control

The best ads usually pull more than one lever at once.

Take Saguaro shoes as an example:

“Instant comfort with no break-in.” → Effort

“Stop wasting money on overhyped shoes.” → Money

“Stay active without foot pain holding you back.” → Time + Status

The framework is simple: mine reviews and customer feedback for exact words and phrases. Identify pain points and beliefs, then spin them into multiple copy angles and ad scripts. Keep the product promise steady, but test how each lever resonates with different segments.

When your ads echo what customers already feel and say, they stop blending into the scroll and start converting.

A Practical Facebook Ads Campaign Structure

Even the strongest creative can flop if the campaign setup works against you. The goal is to test smart, feed Meta clean data, and let the algorithm double down on what works without torching budget.

Here’s a structure that balances control with scale:

• Run Advantage+ campaign budgets (CBO): spend automatically shifts toward winning ads in real time.
• Use a broad Advantage+ audience: set location, and only adjust gender if it’s truly essential. No interest stacks.
• Keep tests isolated: give each new test its own ad set so results stay clean and easy to interpret.
• Diversify creative at the ad level: launch 3–5 creatives, each with 2–3 variations of primary text and headlines. Meta’s system will mix and match to surface the best combos.

This structure eliminates wasted spend on narrow interest groups and positions your ads in front of real buyers at scale. Pair it with sharp creative, and you’re giving Andromeda exactly what it needs to match your brand with the right customers.

Old targeting tricks are a Shopify marketing mistake that only holds you back. The game has changed where Meta’s Andromeda engine is built to handle the matching. Your job is to supply the signals it needs by way of creative that calls out the right audience, speaks in their language, and taps into the emotional levers that drive action.

Pair that with a clean campaign structure that gives the algorithm room to optimize, and you shift from fighting the system to working with it. That’s how you cut wasted spend, scale faster, and turn Facebook into a predictable growth engine for your Shopify brand.

As a next step, download my free template to understand your customer avatar more deeply so you can tailor your ad copy to their direct needs.