This is a great example of how broad targeting works…
Advertisers are often resistant to running Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns or using Advantage+ Audience because of the lack of demographic control. You can’t define your audience by gender or a hard age range (beyond an age minimum).
Any age range or gender inputs when using Advantage+ Audience are merely suggestions.
Algorithmic Delivery: In Theory
The assumption is that this will lead to wasted budget on people outside of your core demographic. While this is often true for top-of-funnel optimization, it shouldn’t be when optimizing for purchases.
One of the examples we’re often seeing is businesses that primarily serve women. Why waste budget on men? It may seem counterintuitive but don’t resist Advantage+ Shopping and Advantage+ Audience, even though you can’t control gender targeting.
The algorithm should figure it out. Not only does it have conversion history and pixel data, but it will react in real-time to your results.
Or it should. Without an example, this is mostly “in theory.”
Real-Life Example
Well, someone in my community kindly shared a screenshot of results for an Advantage+ Shopping Campaign for a company that caters to women. Even though they couldn’t restrict targeting by gender, the algorithm figured it out.
The vast majority of the impressions have been shown to women, with only 1% going to men. There was also a sale to “uncategorized,” and that’s someone who would not have been reached if this were restricted by gender.
The Power of Algorithmic Delivery
It’s a good reminder. If you’re considering running an Advantage+ Shopping Campaign or a sales campaign using Advantage+ Audience, do not freak out about the lack of demographic control.
It’s pretty cool seeing this example as validation. It shows how powerful some of these broad targeting options are. Your ads aren’t just randomly getting shown to anyone and everyone because you can’t control targeting.
Now if Meta could fix the problems with this for top-of-funnel optimization…