Just realized I wasted $500 on bad Facebook ad targeting

I spent 3 months running ads to "women 25-45 interested in yoga" and got nothing but cheap clicks. Turns out that audience is way too broad and full of people who just casually like a yoga page. Lost $500 before I finally narrowed it to local moms in my zip code who actually buy class passes. Anyone else burn cash on those lazy default audience settings?

2 comments

2 Comments

troyjackson19d ago

Honestly, that "women 25-45 interested in yoga" thing got me too when I started. I was throwing money at it for like two months and got nothing but randoms who liked one yoga meme once. What finally worked was targeting people who actually followed local yoga studios in my area, then layering on interests like "fitness class pass" and "Pilates reformer." I also uploaded a list of email addresses from people who signed up for a free community class I ran at a park. That dropped my cost per click from like $2.50 to under 50 cents and I started getting actual bookings. Narrowing down to zip codes was the real game changer though.

hugo5018d agoTop Commenter

The zip code trick really is the quiet hero of ad targeting. Everyone chases broad interests while the actual paying customers are clustered in three or four neighborhoods. Local always beats vague in this game.