By Kristians, Founder, AutoAdy. Six years buying Meta ads — first for agency clients, then for his own ecommerce and lead-gen brands.
Last updated:
What changed: Made the opening H2 a question, cited Apple's tracking framework directly for the iOS 14.5 claim, and added the overlap and saturation tools.
Broad targeting (age, gender, location only) now outperforms detailed interest targeting for 60% of Meta ad accounts since iOS 14.5 reduced tracking data. Lookalike audiences remain effective at 1-3% sizes. Custom audiences from email lists and website visitors deliver the lowest CPA but limited scale.
Key Takeaways
iOS 14.5 changed Meta targeting fundamentally. With less tracking data, Meta's broad-match algorithm often beats manually stacked interests. Hierarchy: Custom Audiences (website visitors, email lists) for retargeting at 3-5x better rates. Lookalikes at 1-3% for prospecting at 25-35% lower CPA. Broad targeting for scale with strong creative and 50+ weekly conversions. Interest targeting for new accounts or niche B2B.
Before iOS changes, stacking 10-15 interests was standard. Now Meta estimates 30-40% of interest signals are degraded. The shift: rely on first-party data (email lists, pixel events), use broader audiences for algorithm room, and let creative do the targeting. Strong creative that speaks to your ideal customer self-selects the right audience with broad targeting. Refresh Lookalike seed audiences quarterly.
AutoAdy detects audience overlap between ad sets that causes self-competition. It monitors saturation (rising frequency + declining CTR) and recommends when to expand or refresh targeting.
Figures below come from Meta ad accounts AutoAdy has audited or monitors. They are directional, not a controlled study.
FAQ
Not dead, but degraded. It still works for new accounts and niche B2B. For established accounts with conversion data, broad or lookalike targeting outperforms interests by 15-30% on CPA.
Start with 1% for best quality (25-35% lower CPA). Scale to 3-5% when 1% saturates. Above 5% performs similarly to broad. Use purchase-based seeds over page views.
Upload customer emails quarterly. Website visitor audiences should use 30-60 day windows. Refresh Lookalike seeds whenever your customer base grows by 20%+.
Related
Meta Advantage+ automates audience targeting, placements, and creative.
Meta defaults to 7-day click, 1-day view attribution.
What overlapping audiences cost in self-competition.
When an audience stops returning more results per dollar.
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