01 Sep Meta Ads Objective & Targeting Selection: The Complete Guide
Picking the wrong objective or targeting approach costs money before you even see a result. This page rounds up every guide on choosing an objective and setting up targeting — from Advantage+ vs. manual control, to which objective actually fits your funnel, to precise manual targeting technique.
Not sure where to start? Answer this first
- Not sure which objective to even pick? Start with the foundation piece, then Choosing an Objective for your specific situation.
- Debating Advantage+ vs. doing it yourself? Go to Advantage+ & Automated Targeting.
- Setting up manual targeting, or your targeting feels off? Jump to Manual Targeting Technique.
Foundations
Meta Ads Objectives: Action-Based vs Awareness-Based The core distinction between objective types, including Engagement vs. Sales and Link Click vs. Landing Page View.
Choosing an Objective
Meta Ads Traffic Campaign Before Conversions Whether a Traffic campaign makes sense as a step before running for conversions.
Leads vs Engagement Objective on Meta Ads Choosing between the two for lead generation specifically.
Number of Leads vs Conversion Leads on Meta Ads Why raw lead volume and lead quality pull in different directions, and how to weigh them.
Should You Optimize for Purchase or Step Down the Funnel? When to optimize straight for Purchase versus a lighter event, based on how common or niche your product is.
Meta Ads Objective When You Have No Website, Just a Facebook Page Objective choice when you don’t have a website to send traffic to.
Advantage+ & Automated Targeting
Advantage+ vs Manual Targeting on Meta Ads When to let Meta’s automated targeting take over versus keeping manual control.
Meta Ads Advantage+ for a New E-commerce Store How Advantage+ behaves differently for a brand-new store without existing data.
Meta Advantage+ Targeting Suggestions and Exclusion Working with Advantage+’s targeting suggestions while still applying exclusion.
Manual Targeting Technique
Detailed Targeting or Go Broad on Meta Ads? (Older piece — worth a content check against the newer, more specific targeting articles below.)
Meta Ads Narrow Detail Targeting Technique A specific technique for narrowing detailed targeting effectively.
Meta Ads Location Targeting Precision Getting location targeting genuinely precise rather than approximate.
Hyper-Location Targeting for B2B on Meta Ads Location targeting technique specific to B2B use cases.
Meta Ads Location Proxy Targeting for Hard-to-Reach Audiences Using location as a proxy signal when your real audience is otherwise hard to target directly.
When Facebook Removes a Targeting Option You Relied On What to do when a detailed targeting option you used disappears from the platform.
Meta Ads Audience Size Benchmark What a reasonable target audience size actually looks like.
This library is written and maintained by Jason Gan, a Meta Certified Professional and Badged Meta Business Partner who has personally audited over 1,000 advertiser accounts since 2010. You can see real account breakdowns on the Jason Gan YouTube channel.
Not sure which objective or targeting approach fits your business?
Book a Meta Ads Audit — $80 / 30 Minutes →
No login required. A real recommendation based on your actual product and funnel.
If you want ongoing help getting your targeting right, that’s exactly what 1-on-1 coaching is built for.