Facebook Ads Targeting: Strategies, Tips & Examples for 2025

Reaching the right people on Facebook is harder than ever. With over 3.065 billion monthly active users in 2024, standing out—and getting your ads in front of the right audience—can feel overwhelming. 

If your campaigns aren’t converting, it’s probably not your product… it’s your targeting. Poor audience strategy leads to wasted ad spend and rising CPAs.

This guide breaks down proven Facebook ads targeting strategies, tips, and examples to help you cut through the noise, lower costs, and reach the people who are most likely to buy.

What is Facebook ads targeting and why is it so effective?

Facebook ads targeting is how you choose who will see your ads on Facebook and Instagram. It’s the opposite of throwing money at a general audience. You don’t want everyone to see your ads—you want the right people to see them.

With 3.065 billion monthly active users in 2024, Facebook has the biggest user base in the world. That’s great for reach, but it also creates a challenge: how do you find the people who actually care about your product?

That’s where targeting comes in.

Facebook allows you to show ads based on age, gender, interests, behavior, location, education level, job title, and much more. You can even target users based on how they’ve interacted with your business—like people who visited your website, watched your videos, or followed you on Instagram.

Targeting is effective because it:

• Reduces wasted ad spend by filtering out people who won’t convert
• Increases relevance, which improves your click-through rate (CTR)
• Helps you tailor your message to fit different audience types
• Lowers your cost per acquisition (CPA) by improving efficiency

You don’t need a huge budget to succeed with Facebook ads. You just need to be specific about who you want to reach. That’s why quality targeting is more important than the size of your audience. Facebook’s algorithm also performs better when you clearly define your target segments.

The 3 main types of Facebook audiences (and when to use each)

There are three main types of Facebook audiences you can use when running ads: core audiences, custom audiences, and lookalike audiences. Each one is built differently and should be used at different stages of the funnel: awareness, consideration, and conversion.

Let’s break each one down.

1. Core audiences

Core audiences are made from Facebook’s built-in data. These are people who share specific traits—like their age, interests, hobbies, or shopping habits. You can choose these filters manually when setting up your ad set in Ads Manager.

Common core targeting filters include:

• Age: target by age range (e.g., 25–45)
• Location: countries, states, cities, or zip codes
• Gender
• Languages
• Interests: fitness, fashion, parenting, tech, etc.
• Behaviors: frequent travelers, online shoppers, gamers, etc.

For example, say you’re a brand selling protein bars. You could set up a top-of-funnel campaign like this:

• Age: 25–45
• Location: New York
• Interests: fitness, protein supplements, healthy eating
• Behavior: online shoppers
• Bonus filter: people with upcoming birthdays

You could then offer a birthday discount to get them to try your product.

Use core audiences when:

• You’re trying to find new customers
• You want to reach people who don’t know your brand yet
• You’re launching a campaign focused on brand awareness or discovery

This audience type is ideal for cold traffic campaigns.

2. Custom audiences

Custom audiences are built from your own data. These are people who have already interacted with your business in some way—either on Facebook, Instagram, your website, or through email.

Custom audiences can be built using:

• Website visits (tracked by Meta Pixel)
• App activity
• Customer lists (emails, phone numbers)
• Instagram and Facebook engagement (likes, comments, DMs, etc.)
• Video views (e.g. users who watched 25%, 50%, 75% of a video)

For example, let’s say someone visited your pricing page but didn’t buy. You can create a custom audience based on that behavior and retarget them with a reminder or a limited-time offer.

Another use case: create an audience of people who watched 75% of your product demo video. You know they’re interested—now you can hit them with a direct offer.

Custom audiences are powerful because they let you:

• Re-engage warm traffic
• Nudge people toward conversion
• Personalize your messaging for users based on their actions

Use custom audiences in mid- and bottom-of-funnel campaigns, such as:

• Abandoned cart follow-ups
• Lead nurturing ads
• Upsell or cross-sell campaigns

When done right, custom audiences usually have the highest return on ad spend (ROAS).

3. Lookalike audiences

Lookalike audiences are used when you want to find new people who are similar to your best existing customers. Facebook uses your source audience (like a custom audience or conversion list) to find people with similar traits, behaviors, and interests.

Here’s how it works:

1. You choose a source audience (e.g., people who bought your product)
2. Facebook analyzes that group
3. It then creates a new audience that “looks like” them

You can control the size of the match:

• 1% lookalike = the closest match, high relevance, smaller reach
• 2–5% = broader audience, more reach, but slightly less similar
• Super Lookalike = combine multiple match sizes to test performance

Example: One brand created a 1% Lookalike from their list of lead submitters and achieved a 49% lower CPA and 66.67% more conversions. That’s the power of letting Facebook’s machine learning find similar people at scale.

Use lookalike audiences when:

• You want to scale up your reach without guessing who to target
• You’ve built strong custom audiences and want to find more like them
• You’re launching a conversion-focused cold campaign

Lookalikes are best used in top- and mid-funnel campaigns but can also work for higher-ticket offers when layered with custom events.

How Facebook’s audience targeting logic works (AND vs. OR vs. EXCLUDE)

Understanding the logic behind Facebook targeting helps you build better audiences.

AND targeting

This means the user must meet all conditions.

Example: You target “people who like running AND yoga.” Facebook will only show ads to users who like both, not either one.

Use AND logic when you want to narrow down to high-intent segments.

OR targeting

This means the user only needs to meet one condition.

Example: You target “people who like running OR yoga.” The audience will include users who like either.

Use OR logic for broad top-of-funnel campaigns when casting a wider net.

EXCLUDE

Exclusions let you remove users from an audience.

Example: You include “people who added to cart” but exclude “people who purchased.” This avoids wasted spend.

Use exclusions to prevent overlap between campaigns (e.g., prospecting vs. retargeting) and avoid ad fatigue.

This logic ensures your budget is going to the right segments, without cross-targeting users who aren’t relevant.

How to set up Facebook ads targeting (step-by-step with screenshots)

Here’s how to build a targeted audience in Ads Manager:

1. Go to Ads Manager and create a campaign.
2. Choose your campaign objective (e.g. traffic, conversions).
3. Go to the Ad Set level.
4. In the Audience section:
   • Set location: country, state, city, or zip
   • Choose age range
   • Pick gender
   • Choose languages if needed
5. Under Detailed Targeting, click:
   • Browse to select from Demographics, Interests, or Behaviors
   • Or Search for specific terms like “hiking” or “online shopping”
6. Use Narrow Audience to apply AND logic
7. Use Exclude to remove overlapping segments
8. Save your audience if you plan to reuse it
9. Choose placements and finalize your budget

Facebook ads targeting vs. Google Ads targeting: what’s the difference?

Facebook Ads and Google Ads are two of the most powerful digital advertising platforms—but they work very differently.

Google Ads is based on search intent. You show ads to users when they actively search for something—like “best hiking boots” or “email marketing software.” This makes Google ideal for bottom-of-funnel conversions, because users are already in “buy mode.”

Facebook Ads, on the other hand, uses interest-based targeting. You're reaching people based on their demographics, behaviors, and interests—even if they’re not looking for your product right now. Facebook is more about creating demand, not just capturing it.

Key difference:

• Google = intent-driven (someone’s looking)
• Facebook = discovery-driven (someone’s browsing)

Why they work better together

Smart marketers use both platforms together:

• Facebook = build awareness and warm up leads
• Google = capture intent and convert

This strategy helps fill your full marketing funnel, from attention to action.

Demographic and interest targeting: what’s possible in 2025

Facebook’s detailed targeting is still one of the most advanced in digital advertising. You can target people based on real-life characteristics—both what they say and what they do.

Demographic Targeting

Available options inside Meta Ads Manager:

• Age: Choose from 13 to 65+, or customize your own range.
• Gender: All, male, or female.
• Location: Country, region, city, zip code—even a radius around a location.
• Education: Target by education level (e.g., high school, college grads).
• Relationship Status: Single, married, engaged, etc.
• Parents: Filter by child’s age (e.g., “parents of toddlers” or “parents of teens”).
• Work: Target by employer, industry, or job title.
• Income: Based on U.S. ZIP-code-level averages.

Most of this data is either self-reported by users or inferred from behavior on and off Facebook.

Use demographic targeting when your product appeals to specific life stages, professions, or household types.

Interest Targeting

Facebook builds interest profiles based on the content people engage with, pages they follow, and even their off-platform activity (when tracked).

Top categories include:

• Fitness & Wellness
• Food & Drink
• Business & Finance
• Technology
• Travel
• Sports
• Hobbies & Leisure
• Fashion & Beauty
• Parenting

Each interest has subcategories, and you can search for niche topics in Ads Manager (e.g., “trail running” instead of just “fitness”).

Use interest targeting for top-of-funnel campaigns when you're testing new audiences.

Behavior Targeting

Behavior targeting focuses on how people act, not just what they say they like. Examples:

• Shopping habits (e.g., Engaged Shoppers—users who clicked "Shop Now" in the last week)
• Travel behavior (frequent travelers, international travelers)
• Device usage (iOS vs. Android, desktop vs. mobile)
• Facebook/Instagram shopping behavior

Use behavior filters to reach users who are more likely to take action, like purchasing or signing up.

How to use Facebook Audience Insights to find targeting opportunities

Meta’s Audience Insights tool (inside Business Suite) helps you see who your audience really is—not just who you think they are.

You can explore:

• Age and gender breakdown
• Top cities and regions
• Device type usage (iOS, Android, desktop)
• Pages liked (brands, media, public figures)
• Job titles and industries

Let’s say you're running ads for a plant-based meal plan.

You check Audience Insights and learn your top converters are:

• Women, age 25–34
• Living in urban areas like Chicago and NYC
• Following yoga, mindfulness, and cruelty-free beauty brands

Now you can build a high-performing segment using that exact profile.

Use Audience Insights to trim low-performing segments and double down on your top converters.

Also helpful for uncovering new interests and cross-industry overlaps.

Why you must separate campaigns by funnel stage

Here’s why you should never mix prospecting and retargeting in one campaign:

• Facebook doesn’t know who to prioritize
• Your budget gets unevenly distributed
• Your reporting becomes unclear

Structure campaigns like this:

• Prospecting = Core + Lookalike audiences (cold users)
• Re-engagement = Video viewers, Instagram engagers (warm)
• Retargeting = Add-to-cart users, past website visitors (hot)

This makes performance easier to track and lets you tailor messaging to match intent.

Use Campaign Budget Optimization (CBO) at the campaign level to distribute budget automatically between ad sets.

How to use dynamic creative ads with Facebook targeting

Dynamic Creative lets Facebook automatically test and serve the best-performing combinations of:

• Images or videos
• Headlines
• Primary text
• Calls-to-action

Here’s how it works:

1. In your ad set, toggle on “Dynamic Creative.”
2. Upload multiple versions of each creative asset.
3. Facebook mixes and matches them in real time.

This is especially effective for prospecting campaigns. You can test different hooks and angles without running 10 separate ads.

Let the algorithm find the best combination for each audience segment.

Final thoughts

Facebook ads targeting is still incredibly effective in 2025 — but only if you’re using the right structure and tools. With 3.065 billion users, precision matters more than ever.

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FAQs

Sources

1. Sproutsocial. 31 Facebook statistics marketers should know
2. KlientBoost. Facebook Ad Targeting: 6 Tips to Maximize Your ROI