A client meeting in Chicago made me swear off all broad targeting forever

I was showing them a campaign we ran with a 2 million person audience and they asked why we were paying to show ads to people in Florida when their product only ships in the Midwest. I couldn't give a good answer, and we wasted about $800 that month. Now I start every plan with geo and interest exclusions. Anyone else get burned by lazy audience setup?

3 comments

3 Comments

sarah8291mo ago

Sounds like a pretty basic mistake to make. Broad targeting still works fine if you layer it with other smart filters. That one bad campaign shouldn't scare you off the whole strategy.

the_hannah1mo ago

Okay but when @sarah829 says "that one bad campaign shouldn't scare you off," it feels like downplaying a real budget burn. A bad campaign can cost thousands before you catch it, not just a little oops. Broad targeting feels like hoping for the best instead of having a real plan. I've seen too many people lose money trying to make it work with just "smart filters.

jenny_scott628d ago

Honestly, that's the wake up call a lot of us need. Broad targeting by itself is just lazy. It's not strategy, it's just spraying money around and hoping. You have to build a fence first. Start tight, prove it works, then maybe loosen up. That Chicago story is exactly why I check geo settings three times now.