For local businesses, targeting starts with one question: where can you actually serve customers? Getting location right matters more than any interest setting.
1. Location first
- Use a radius around your shop or clinic, typically 3–15 km depending on how far people will travel.
- For service businesses, add the cities or PIN codes you serve.
- Choose “people living in or recently in this location” and exclude areas you cannot serve.
2. Age and gender, only if they matter
Set age ranges that make sense for your service. Do not narrow gender unless your service is genuinely for one gender.
3. Broad targeting often wins
With good tracking, Meta’s system is very good at finding buyers within a location. Many local campaigns perform best with location and age only, letting the ad creative attract the right people.
4. Interests, when you need them
Interests help small budgets or niche services, such as “home renovation” for interior designers or “wedding planning” for jewellers. Keep audiences reasonably large; very narrow audiences cost more.
5. Custom audiences
- Website visitors (needs the Pixel).
- People who engaged with your Instagram or Facebook.
- Video viewers.
- Your customer list, uploaded securely.
6. Lookalike audiences
Lookalikes find people similar to your customers. They work best with a list of a few hundred or more real customers.
7. Exclusions
Exclude recent customers from offers meant for new customers, and exclude people who already converted.
Next, read how many ads to run at once, or check your numbers with our Meta ads calculator.
Want the full picture? This article is part of Meta ads: the complete guide, our in-depth guide with everything in one place.
