December 8, 2025 • 8 mins
If you’re confused about whether broad or detailed targeting is the smarter move for Facebook and Instagram ads in 2026, I break down what’s actually working inside my real client accounts.
- Get the 48-Hour Ad Fix Audit
I explain when broad targeting is the clear winner, when lookalike audiences still outperform everything else, and the few situations where detailed targeting still makes sense for course creators.
I also walk through how to choose the right audience setup depending on the stage of your business so you don’t waste ad spend. I share exactly which targeting approach gives you the best shot at high-quality leads at the lowest cost.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Broad targeting versus detailed targeting for
Facebook and Instagram ads in2026.
As an online course creator,which one should you choose to
grow your business revenue sothat you can provide for your
family?
Well, I'm gonna show you whatI'm seeing in my client
accounts, or actually, I'm gonnatell you what I'm seeing in my
client accounts and show youwhat I mean by broad targeting
(00:23):
and what I mean by detailedtargeting in an actual account
so that you can apply the sameto your own.
If we don't know each other yet,hi, my name's Quayjo, and I've
been managing Facebook andInstagram ads for online course
creators for the past about sixyears.
So, broad targeting wins, handsdown, almost always.
How's that for a very direct,semi-not clear answer?
(00:45):
Here's what I mean.
If you already have an onlinecourse business that's been
doing well organically and has adecently large email list, then
broad targeting all the way.
But there are two types of broadtargeting, and you need to
understand what both of thoseoptions are for you and how you
can best leverage those.
And then detailed targeting,probably not a good option.
(01:08):
There are a couple cases whereit would be a good option.
So let's look in this account.
First kind of broad targetingthat I want you to understand
I'm talking about would be theold way of broad targeting,
meaning that we are going totarget a cold look-alike
audience of high value.
And I'll explain value in amoment, but ideally, if we can
(01:29):
target an audience between,let's say, 1.5 million and 2
million people, that is perfect.
Now, using lookalike audiencesis not an outdated method, it's
just a method that's been aroundfor many years.
And especially if you have heardabout Meta's new Andromeda
update, then you mightunderstand broad targeting as a
(01:50):
different way.
I'll cover that in a moment, butI will say right now that
look-alike audiences are stillworking, so do not abandon
those.
Especially if you have some ofthe following audiences that are
custom audiences, i.e.
core audiences, and you'll buildlook-alike audiences off of
those.
If you have some of these nextthree audiences, definitely try
(02:11):
look-alike targeting, right?
So if you have a ton ofpurchasers in your business,
like over 600, build alook-alike audience off of that.
If you have a big ol' emaillist, like 5,000 more people or
more, build a look-alikeaudience off of that inside of
Meta and test that audience.
And if you have a huge Instagramaccount, more importantly, if
(02:32):
you're already getting leadsfrom hosts that are Instagram
reels connected to mini chat,and you're getting lots of
those, then definitely yourInstagram audience is engaging.
You should build a look-alikeaudience off of that and test,
test, test.
None of this is guaranteed towork, even though it does work
for my clients.
(02:53):
I'm not your ad manager, maybenot yet.
Anything I say, take that with agrain of salt for your own
business and test it.
And none of this will guaranteeyou income.
This is the disclaimer that Ihave to say, right?
In fact, you're probably goingto lose income at some point
when you try Facebook andInstagram ads because it
requires diligence in perfectingyour messaging and testing your
ads.
(03:14):
And sometimes tests don't workand sometimes you lose a bit of
money.
But if you keep testing 20different times, you'll probably
find one time that works better.
Well, guaranteed you will findone time that works better than
the other 19 times, and that'sthe mindset you want to have.
So test those types oflook-alike audiences.
And you're like, Quayjo, whatabout this other kind of broad
(03:34):
audience targeting?
Well, that just means if you getyour customers from the United
States of America, where I'mfrom, Seattle, by the way,
represent, and you know theapproximate age of those
customers, then yes, Meta isdoing better and better,
especially if you already have abusiness that has lots of data,
(03:54):
then a data as in you've gottenlots of leads, you've launched
plenty of times, your offers areselling, your Instagram account
is quite large, your email isquite large, and you've already
had the MetaPixel installed onyour website for you know over
six months.
Meta has a good amount of dataon your business, and they can
pretty much target your audiencewell.
Test this type of broadtargeting where you would target
(04:16):
one or two countries where yourcustomers or your best leads
usually come from, and onlylimit the age range and then let
those ads rip.
See what happens.
Do not just target every countryin the world, not just yet.
Okay, don't do that.
And also, well, I have had acouple clients who have just
left targeting completely wideopen and only chosen a country
(04:38):
and let Meta decide among allthe age ranges the best people
to show the ads to.
You can test that if you want.
I don't like it when I wouldthrow all my budget towards a
new test.
Nah, test with a portion of yourbudget.
That's wise.
If the test works better thanyour control, i.e.
what has already been workingwell for your ads, then go ahead
(04:59):
and run with that and scale upwhat's working and scale down or
turn off what is not working.
Before I talk about detailedtargeting and the only the
several situations where I wouldstill use it, let me just say
that if ads feels like a lot foryou, but your ads already are on
and were working for yourbusiness, but not so well
recently, or you need to scaleup ad spend seriously, then go
(05:24):
down to the show notes below.
You can get me to audit yourads, and in two business days,
you will know steps one, two,and three of what you can do to
get ads working better in yourad account.
That is my 48-day Facebook andInstagram ad audit.
Find more about that below.
So now we're talking aboutdetailed targeting.
(05:47):
When do you need to do detailedtargeting?
I find honestly, in accountsthat need detailed targeting,
it's because the email listisn't already over, say, 600
people.
Okay, and if your email listisn't there yet, that's fine.
Just go collab.
Do email like free lead magnetswaps with people that serve
your same audience, but in acomplimentary, non-competitive
(06:08):
way, and grow your email listthat way.
Grow your email list from greatcontent on Instagram, like reels
that are connected to mini chat.
Grow your email listorganically, but once it gets
over, say 600 minimum, over athousand people, like you can
build a lookalike audience offof that.
If you're not there yet, but youhave a solid course business
that's running and you want torun ads to a lead magnet, then
(06:32):
inside of ad manager underaudience targeting, limit the
reach of your ads.
There is a big scary message,switch your setup, and then it
will open up some of thetargeting options that you are
used to targeting.
Note, you know, from the past,right?
So we can choose customaudiences, include, exclude, and
right down here is detailedtargeting based on demographics
(06:56):
and interests.
You can search for the intereststhat have to do with what you
know, great leads for yourbusiness to be interested in,
and you can type those in here,and that does still work.
Just meta is very good.
If you have already lots ofdata, like I said, in your
business, meta is great atfinding the right people for
(07:18):
you.
But if you must dointerest-based targeting, do
some research on the person whoyou are working with and figure
out what their interests wouldbe.
This is not the time to targeteveryone who is interested in
Taylor Swift, okay?
This is not just the time totarget people who are interested
in Amy Porterfield.
This is time to do that researchon the person who you work with
(07:41):
and be strategic when choosingthe right interests.
For example, I coached with aclient who had a product for
homeschool moms.
So for some businesses, it makesa lot of sense just to target
certain interests.
And if your business is one ofthose, great.
You know, we can targethomeschooling, primary and
(08:02):
secondary education right here.
It could just be that you have aproduct for parents, right, of
kids in elementary school.
Well, guess what?
You can target parents withearly school age children, zero
to eight years, and you cantarget parents with preteens,
you know, nine to twelve yearsold.
(08:23):
It depends on your business.
But again, I would only use orrely on detailed targeting in
the early stages of my onlinecourse business.
Of course, there are exceptions,and if you feel like your ads
have been running, however, youmight be one of these exceptions
and you need some help on fixingyour targeting, then again, the
(08:46):
ad audit would be for you.
That is in the show notes below.
Until the next time that you seefrom me or hear from me.
Take care, be blessed, and I'llsee you in the next one.
Broad targeting versus detailed targeting for
Facebook and Instagram ads in2026.
As an online course creator,which one should you choose to
grow your business revenue sothat you can provide for your
family?
Well, I'm gonna show you whatI'm seeing in my client
accounts, or actually, I'm gonnatell you what I'm seeing in my
client accounts and show youwhat I mean by broad targeting
(00:23):
and what I mean by detailedtargeting in an actual account
so that you can apply the sameto your own.
If we don't know each other yet,hi, my name's Quayjo, and I've
been managing Facebook andInstagram ads for online course
creators for the past about sixyears.
So, broad targeting wins, handsdown, almost always.
How's that for a very direct,semi-not clear answer?
(00:45):
Here's what I mean.
If you already have an onlinecourse business that's been
doing well organically and has adecently large email list, then
broad targeting all the way.
But there are two types of broadtargeting, and you need to
understand what both of thoseoptions are for you and how you
can best leverage those.
And then detailed targeting,probably not a good option.
(01:08):
There are a couple cases whereit would be a good option.
So let's look in this account.
First kind of broad targetingthat I want you to understand
I'm talking about would be theold way of broad targeting,
meaning that we are going totarget a cold look-alike
audience of high value.
And I'll explain value in amoment, but ideally, if we can
(01:29):
target an audience between,let's say, 1.5 million and 2
million people, that is perfect.
Now, using lookalike audiencesis not an outdated method, it's
just a method that's been aroundfor many years.
And especially if you have heardabout Meta's new Andromeda
update, then you mightunderstand broad targeting as a
(01:50):
different way.
I'll cover that in a moment, butI will say right now that
look-alike audiences are stillworking, so do not abandon
those.
Especially if you have some ofthe following audiences that are
custom audiences, i.e.
core audiences, and you'll buildlook-alike audiences off of
those.
If you have some of these nextthree audiences, definitely try
(02:11):
look-alike targeting, right?
So if you have a ton ofpurchasers in your business,
like over 600, build alook-alike audience off of that.
If you have a big ol' emaillist, like 5,000 more people or
more, build a look-alikeaudience off of that inside of
Meta and test that audience.
And if you have a huge Instagramaccount, more importantly, if
(02:32):
you're already getting leadsfrom hosts that are Instagram
reels connected to mini chat,and you're getting lots of
those, then definitely yourInstagram audience is engaging.
You should build a look-alikeaudience off of that and test,
test, test.
None of this is guaranteed towork, even though it does work
for my clients.
(02:53):
I'm not your ad manager, maybenot yet.
Anything I say, take that with agrain of salt for your own
business and test it.
And none of this will guaranteeyou income.
This is the disclaimer that Ihave to say, right?
In fact, you're probably goingto lose income at some point
when you try Facebook andInstagram ads because it
requires diligence in perfectingyour messaging and testing your
ads.
(03:14):
And sometimes tests don't workand sometimes you lose a bit of
money.
But if you keep testing 20different times, you'll probably
find one time that works better.
Well, guaranteed you will findone time that works better than
the other 19 times, and that'sthe mindset you want to have.
So test those types oflook-alike audiences.
And you're like, Quayjo, whatabout this other kind of broad
(03:34):
audience targeting?
Well, that just means if you getyour customers from the United
States of America, where I'mfrom, Seattle, by the way,
represent, and you know theapproximate age of those
customers, then yes, Meta isdoing better and better,
especially if you already have abusiness that has lots of data,
(03:54):
then a data as in you've gottenlots of leads, you've launched
plenty of times, your offers areselling, your Instagram account
is quite large, your email isquite large, and you've already
had the MetaPixel installed onyour website for you know over
six months.
Meta has a good amount of dataon your business, and they can
pretty much target your audiencewell.
Test this type of broadtargeting where you would target
(04:16):
one or two countries where yourcustomers or your best leads
usually come from, and onlylimit the age range and then let
those ads rip.
See what happens.
Do not just target every countryin the world, not just yet.
Okay, don't do that.
And also, well, I have had acouple clients who have just
left targeting completely wideopen and only chosen a country
(04:38):
and let Meta decide among allthe age ranges the best people
to show the ads to.
You can test that if you want.
I don't like it when I wouldthrow all my budget towards a
new test.
Nah, test with a portion of yourbudget.
That's wise.
If the test works better thanyour control, i.e.
what has already been workingwell for your ads, then go ahead
(04:59):
and run with that and scale upwhat's working and scale down or
turn off what is not working.
Before I talk about detailedtargeting and the only the
several situations where I wouldstill use it, let me just say
that if ads feels like a lot foryou, but your ads already are on
and were working for yourbusiness, but not so well
recently, or you need to scaleup ad spend seriously, then go
(05:24):
down to the show notes below.
You can get me to audit yourads, and in two business days,
you will know steps one, two,and three of what you can do to
get ads working better in yourad account.
That is my 48-day Facebook andInstagram ad audit.
Find more about that below.
So now we're talking aboutdetailed targeting.
(05:47):
When do you need to do detailedtargeting?
I find honestly, in accountsthat need detailed targeting,
it's because the email listisn't already over, say, 600
people.
Okay, and if your email listisn't there yet, that's fine.
Just go collab.
Do email like free lead magnetswaps with people that serve
your same audience, but in acomplimentary, non-competitive
(06:08):
way, and grow your email listthat way.
Grow your email list from greatcontent on Instagram, like reels
that are connected to mini chat.
Grow your email listorganically, but once it gets
over, say 600 minimum, over athousand people, like you can
build a lookalike audience offof that.
If you're not there yet, but youhave a solid course business
that's running and you want torun ads to a lead magnet, then
(06:32):
inside of ad manager underaudience targeting, limit the
reach of your ads.
There is a big scary message,switch your setup, and then it
will open up some of thetargeting options that you are
used to targeting.
Note, you know, from the past,right?
So we can choose customaudiences, include, exclude, and
right down here is detailedtargeting based on demographics
(06:56):
and interests.
You can search for the intereststhat have to do with what you
know, great leads for yourbusiness to be interested in,
and you can type those in here,and that does still work.
Just meta is very good.
If you have already lots ofdata, like I said, in your
business, meta is great atfinding the right people for
(07:18):
you.
But if you must dointerest-based targeting, do
some research on the person whoyou are working with and figure
out what their interests wouldbe.
This is not the time to targeteveryone who is interested in
Taylor Swift, okay?
This is not just the time totarget people who are interested
in Amy Porterfield.
This is time to do that researchon the person who you work with
(07:41):
and be strategic when choosingthe right interests.
For example, I coached with aclient who had a product for
homeschool moms.
So for some businesses, it makesa lot of sense just to target
certain interests.
And if your business is one ofthose, great.
You know, we can targethomeschooling, primary and
(08:02):
secondary education right here.
It could just be that you have aproduct for parents, right, of
kids in elementary school.
Well, guess what?
You can target parents withearly school age children, zero
to eight years, and you cantarget parents with preteens,
you know, nine to twelve yearsold.
(08:23):
It depends on your business.
But again, I would only use orrely on detailed targeting in
the early stages of my onlinecourse business.
Of course, there are exceptions,and if you feel like your ads
have been running, however, youmight be one of these exceptions
and you need some help on fixingyour targeting, then again, the
(08:46):
ad audit would be for you.
That is in the show notes below.
Until the next time that you seefrom me or hear from me.
Take care, be blessed, and I'llsee you in the next one.
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