Broad targeting (rebranded Advantage+ Audience in 2023-24) is Meta's recommendation that you give the algorithm minimal audience constraints — country + age range, often nothing else — and let it find buyers using whatever signal it has. It's a deliberate departure from the old playbook of stacking detailed targeting interests.
Why it works post-iOS
Detailed-interest targeting only worked when Meta could reliably profile users. iOS 14.5 cut that signal in half for most accounts. Broad targeting is the algorithm's way of saying: trust the conversion data flowing back from your pixel + CAPI more than your guess about which interests matter. It works because Meta's ML models are good at finding lookalike-shaped users from conversion signal alone.
When it works
- Mass-market consumer products with broad appeal — the audience is genuinely big
- Strong creative that earns attention on its own merit (you can't hide weak creative behind narrow targeting anymore)
- Active CAPI sending purchase events with values back to Meta — gives the algorithm signal to optimise against
When it doesn't
- Niche products with a defined buyer persona that broad will burn budget chasing
- B2B targeting where job-title + company-size constraints are necessary — broad is consumer-shaped
- Brand-new pixels with zero conversion data — broad needs signal to learn from