How to Make Facebook Broad Audience Target Truly Deliver Results

Looking to grow your Facebook ads without spending hours on manual targeting? Facebook broad audience targeting offers a simple yet powerful way to reach more customers by leveraging AI-driven optimization. In this complete beginner’s guide, you’ll learn what broad targeting is, why it’s becoming the go-to strategy in 2025, and how to set it up for better performance and scalable results.

What Is Facebook Broad Audience Targeting?

Facebook broad targeting (or open targeting) refers to setting up ad campaigns with minimal audience restrictions. Instead of choosing specific demographics, interests, or behaviors, you let Facebook’s machine learning show your ad to users who are most likely to take your desired action based on campaign objectives and creative signals.

Unlike detailed targeting, where you manually define who sees your ad, broad audience Facebook lets the algorithm find high-converting users for you. This makes it ideal for advertisers with strong pixel data or optimized creatives.

Facebook’s AI leverages billions of data points across users, past behaviors, and signals, which makes broad audience Facebook ads especially effective when you have enough conversion data to "teach" the system who your best customers are.

For more on Facebook’s official targeting framework, see Meta’s guide to audience targeting.

What Counts as a “Broad” Audience?

Some common examples of facebook broad audience targeting include:

• Targeting everyone in the U.S. aged 18-65 with no interest or demographic filters.

• Creating a lookalike audience of 10% from your customer list (which is broad in scale).

• Leaving the targeting section completely blank but optimizing for purchases or conversions.

In all these cases, you’re relying on Facebook’s AI to find the right users within a large population pool.

Broad Audience Targeting vs. Detailed Targeting: A Quick Comparison

When running Facebook ads, choosing between broad audience targeting and detailed targeting can significantly impact your campaign’s performance. 

Each method has its own strengths and limitations, and they’re suited for different goals whether you’re building brand awareness or driving conversions. 

If you’re unsure which approach to take, the quick comparison table below will help you understand the key differences and make a more informed decision.

Benefits of Using Broad Targeting on Facebook Ads

Scalability

One of the main reasons advertisers turn to broad targeting Facebook ads is scalability. You’re not limiting your reach with too many filters, which means Facebook’s AI has more data to learn from and can scale your campaign faster and more efficiently.

Machine Learning Power

The more freedom Facebook has to find your ideal customers, the better it can optimize. This works especially well for conversion-optimized campaigns or if you’ve had consistent results from similar past campaigns.

Better Long-Term Performance

With enough data, facebook broad audience campaigns tend to deliver more consistent Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) than manual targeting. The AI adapts to what’s working in real time, which reduces human error and guesswork.

Fewer Fatigue Issues

Manual targeting often hits an audience saturation point quickly. Ads using broad audience Facebook ads don’t burn out as fast because the system continuously discovers fresh users.

Time Efficiency

No need to spend hours building interest stacks or split-testing demographics. Instead, you focus your time and budget on optimizing creatives and offers.

Creative-Centric Optimization

With broad audience targeting Facebook, creatives play the biggest role. Brands with strong content, storytelling, and user-generated content tend to thrive because the algorithm can use these signals to match the right ad to the right person.

Compatibility with Advantage+ Campaigns

Meta is pushing more automation via Advantage+ campaigns, which rely heavily on facebook ads broad audience setups to maximize scale and performance.

Drawbacks of Broad Targeting on Facebook Ads

Risk of Poor Results with New Pixels

If your account has little or no pixel data, the algorithm has no learning history to base decisions on, which means your broad audience Facebook campaigns may underperform.

Creative Becomes Critical

Since the algorithm does most of the work finding the audience, your ad creative must clearly communicate your offer and appeal broadly.

Lack of Control and Transparency

You won’t always know exactly who your ads are reaching unless you dive deep into detailed breakdown reports.

Not Ideal for Hyperlocal Campaigns

For campaigns that need extremely tight targeting (like local events or very niche markets), broad targeting Facebook ads may be too loose.

Who Should Use Facebook Broad Targeting?

Broad targeting Facebook works best when:

• You have at least 50+ conversions per week per ad set.

• You’re optimizing for bottom-funnel events like purchases, leads, or add to cart.

• Your ad creatives are strong performers.

• Your pixel and campaign history are well-trained.

If you’re new to Facebook Ads, it’s better to start with a mix of broad audience targeting Facebook ads and narrow audiences, then gradually test which strategy gives the best performance.

Best Campaign Types for Broad Audiences

When targeting broad audiences on Facebook, choosing the right campaign objective is critical to ensure the algorithm has enough freedom to optimize toward the best users. Broad audiences perform best when paired with campaign types that allow Facebook’s machine learning to test, learn, and scale. Here are the top campaign types you should consider:

Conversion Campaigns

Conversion campaigns are a go-to option for many advertisers using broad targeting. When optimized for a specific action (like purchases or sign-ups), Facebook’s algorithm can sift through the broad audience pool and zero in on the users most likely to convert.

Why it works with broad targeting:

• Facebook has more room to test different audience segments and find your ideal customers.

• Ideal for eCommerce, lead generation, and funnel-based marketing strategies.

• Works best when you already have pixel events with sufficient data (at least 50 conversions/week).

Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns

Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns (formerly known as Automated Shopping Campaigns) are designed for eCommerce businesses and rely heavily on Facebook’s AI to do the heavy lifting.

Why it works with broad targeting:

• It automatically tests combinations of creatives, placements, and audience segments within your broad setup.

• No need to manually create detailed ad sets or narrow targeting.

• Best for brands with large catalogs, especially when combined with product catalogs and dynamic ads.

Tip: Uploading a product catalog and letting Meta dynamically match products to the most relevant users in a broad audience can drastically improve performance.

Video View Campaigns

If your goal is to build awareness or warm up cold audiences, video view campaigns are an excellent match for broad targeting.

Why it works with broad targeting:

• Low cost per result, allowing you to reach a large pool of potential users.

• Great for storytelling, education, or introducing a new product/service.

• Can be used as a top-of-funnel strategy to create engagement audiences for retargeting later.

Pro tip: Use short, high-impact videos (under 15 seconds) with captions to capture attention quickly in mobile feeds.

Mobile App Install Campaigns

Promoting an app to a wide audience? Mobile App Install campaigns are designed specifically for that, and broad targeting lets the algorithm find new users across regions, devices, and behaviors.

Why it works with broad targeting:

• Facebook optimizes for app installs or in-app actions (if you’ve set up SDK tracking).

• Helps apps reach early adopters or users with a high propensity to install.

• Often paired with countries or regions where CPIs (Cost Per Install) are lower for scale.

To improve quality installs, optimize for in-app events like registrations or purchases instead of just installs — especially when running broad campaigns.

How to Set Up Broad Audience Targeting Facebook

Follow these detailed steps to launch your first broad audience Facebook ads campaign:

Step 1: Choose a Campaign Objective

Select a performance-driven objective like Sales, Leads, or App Installs. These goals give the algorithm enough feedback to optimize properly.

Step 2: Set Ad Set Targeting to Broad

At the Ad Set level:

• Location: Choose the country or region you want to target (e.g., United States). Learn more about Facebook ads location targeting.

• Age/Gender: Leave as wide as possible unless restricted by product.

• Detailed Targeting: Leave this section empty.

• Connections & Behaviors: Also leave blank.

Now, your ad set qualifies as a broad audience Facebook strategy.

Step 3: Optimize for High-Quality Conversion Events

Under Optimization & Delivery, choose events like:

• Purchases

• Leads

• Add to Cart

• Initiate Checkout

This signals to Facebook what kind of user you want.

Step 4: Create Scroll-Stopping Ads

When using broad audience targeting Facebook, your ad creative becomes your only filter. Use high-performing visuals, clear CTAs, and concise copy. Hook your audience fast, especially in the first 3 seconds.

Tips:

• Use testimonials or reviews in creatives.

• Highlight one strong benefit or offer.

• A/B test static images vs. short videos.

  Use captions or text overlays to increase accessibility.

• Consider using dynamic creative testing.

Step 5: Monitor and Optimize

After launch:

• Allow at least 3–5 days for learning.

• Track cost per result, ROAS, and breakdowns by age/location.

• Duplicate or scale best performers. Kill underperforming ones after learning phase.

• Use Campaign Budget Optimization (CBO) to distribute budget efficiently.

When NOT to Use Broad Audience Facebook Ads

• If you’re selling B2B products to very niche roles (e.g., CTOs at SaaS startups).

• If you have strict legal or age-related limitations.

• If your budget is under $50/day (AI doesn’t have enough room to learn).

• If your offer only appeals to a highly specific demographic.

• If you target to B2b audiences.

In those cases, use narrow targeting or warm audiences first.

Final Tips for Winning with Broad Targeting Facebook Ads

• Feed the pixel well: The more data your pixel has, the smarter your targeting becomes.

• Don’t panic in the learning phase: Broad audience Facebook targeting needs time to stabilize. Results may vary in the first 72 hours.

• Creative is your new targeting: Design for your ideal customer avatar.

• Use multiple ad creatives per ad set: Helps the algorithm test what performs best.

• Refresh creatives regularly: Keep content fresh to reduce ad fatigue.

• Leverage first-party data: Pair broad audience targeting Facebook with custom audiences for retargeting.

• Explore Advantage+: Designed for broad audience Facebook ads, Advantage+ campaigns automate much of the process for scale.

• Breakdown analysis: Regularly review age, gender, and device breakdowns to guide future creative development.

Conclusion

Facebook broad audience targeting is no longer just a tactic—it’s becoming the default strategy for performance marketers in 2025. With the power of AI, you don’t need to guess who your audience is. You just need to create irresistible offers and let the system do its job.

If you’ve been manually stacking interests and still not seeing results, try giving broad audience Facebook ads a shot. It could unlock scale and stability you’ve been missing.