Is It Better To Have A Broad Or Specific Facebook Ad?

If you’re just getting started with Facebook advertising, you may be wondering if it’s a better idea to create broad, widely-appealing Facebook ads, or if you’d be better served by creating more narrow, specific ads that appeal to a smaller demographic of people.

Not sure which option is the best for you and your business? Read on, and find out more about the benefits of both broad and specific Facebook ads, and see which one may be a better option for you if you want to find potential customers.

Broad Facebook Ads Help Build Buzz And Generate Brand Awareness

Targeting broad audiences means that you’re not looking to appeal to a specific custom audience – but rather, you want to show your ads to as many Facebook users as possible who may be interested in your products or services.

Rather than creating specific ad sets and using audience targeting tools to create a small subset of users, you’ll broadly target a large variety of users, and you’ll try to reach as many people as you possibly can to build brand awareness.

This targeting strategy can be a great option if you’re new to Facebook Ads, or you’ve just recently opened a business and want to get your information in front of as many people as possible.

For example, if you have opened a new restaurant in Melbourne, you may want to invest some of your ad spend in a broad Facebook ad that will reach everyone between the ages of 18-65 in Melbourne. Facebook can serve up your ad to all of these individuals, and help you reach broader audiences than you would with a specific, targeted ad.

Over time, many different people will see this ad – and they may turn into paying customers. But even if they don’t, they’ll be more aware of your brand, and you can use the information gathered from this initial campaign to boost the effectiveness of your next ad campaign on Facebook.

Specific Facebook Ads Are More Useful For Converting Customers

A specific Facebook ad is an ad that uses specific targeting options – such as lookalike audience targeting – to reach a particular demographic of users. Not only that, but specific Facebook ads have a more clear “call-to-action,” encouraging users to do things like place an order, browse your products, or enquire to learn more about your services.

Let’s use the above example of a new restaurant in Melbourne, and let’s say it serves Indian food. You want to get more people in your area to order from the restaurant, and bring in more customers.

So instead of running a broad ad with Facebook, you can use a more strict set of parameters to make sure the ad is served up to those who have the highest likelihood of placing an order. For example, you can set the ad to run to those who are within 10-20 km of the location of the restaurant, or who meet a specific age range, income levels, and other such factors.

This leads to an audience that’s smaller, but it also means that your audience will be more interested in what you’re advertising – at least, compared to a larger and broader audience. After all, if you are running an Indian restaurant in Melbourne, it doesn’t do you much good to serve up a Facebook ad to someone who lives in Sydney!

That’s the whole idea behind specific Facebook ads. By adjusting various parameters on the Facebook Ads platform, you can narrow down your audience, target those who are the most likely to purchase your products and services, and maximise the return on investment of your ad spend.

Your Best Option Is To Begin With Broad Advertising And Narrow Your Audience

So, is broad advertising or specific advertising better? The answer is… Neither! Both are very useful tools. And if you want our suggestion, you should make use of both broad advertising and narrow advertising when you’re first developing your Facebook Ads strategy.

What do we mean? Using the aforementioned example, let’s say you place a Facebook ad for your Indian restaurant in Melbourne, and it reaches everyone between the ages of 18-65 within 20 km of your restaurant.

This is a good way to build brand recognition – but it also lets you measure who is actually interacting with your ads. As your ad begins to get clicks and interest, you can use Facebook Ads to monitor the demographic information of your users and those who are the most interested in your restaurant.

Then, you can use this information to build targeted, specific Facebook ads that will appeal to those users more effectively. For example, you could create a targeted ad to university students, advertising a special program for discounted food, and serve it directly to that audience. Or, you could promote takeaway food for busy parents who don’t have time to cook. The possibilities are limitless!

Eventually, it’s usually better to move away from broad advertising. But creating broad Facebook ads is one of the best ways to quickly collect information about your target audiences and see who will be the most interested in what you’re selling – which lets you create more targeted, specific Facebook ads more quickly.

Need Help With Facebook Advertising? Australian Internet Advertising Is Here For You!

Advertising on Facebook isn’t easy, especially if you’re not familiar with the platform. But at Australian Internet Advertising, we’re here to help. Want to learn more about Facebook Ads, or get help with your internet marketing strategy? Contact us online or give us a call at 1300 304 640 to get started today.