What is zero targeting in Facebook ads?

Zero targeting in Facebook ads refers to running ads without selecting any targeting options. When you create a Facebook ad, you have the option to target your ad to specific locations, demographics, interests, behaviors and more. With zero targeting, you opt out of using any of these targeting features and run your ad completely untargeted.

Why use zero targeting?

There are a few reasons why an advertiser might choose to use zero targeting for their Facebook ads:

• Reach a broad audience – With zero targeting, your ad has the potential to reach all 2.9 billion monthly active Facebook users. This can help quickly scale reach and brand awareness.
• Low CPM – Targeting Facebook ads tends to increase your cost-per-thousand impressions (CPM). By removing targeting, you can decrease your CPM and reach more people for the same budget.
• Test new creatives – Running ads without targeting allows you to test ad creative on a wide range of demographics. You can see how different audiences respond before narrowing your targeting.
• Enter new markets – If you’re launching your product or services in a new country, you may want to start with an untargeted campaign to gauge interest across all types of people.
• Remarket people who engaged – You can create Custom Audiences of people who have already engaged with your business in some way (like visiting your website), then run untargeted ads to remarket to them.

Who uses zero targeting?

Here are some examples of companies and situations where zero targeting may be used:

• Startups – When launching a new product or service, a startup may begin with a broad untargeted campaign to introduce their brand.
• Ecommerce – During a sitewide sale, an ecommerce site may run zero targeted ads to promote the sale across Facebook’s entire user base.
• Apps – App publishers often rely on zero targeted ads during the customer acquisition phase to rapidly scale installs of their app.
• Brand awareness – Consumer brands commonly leverage zero targeting as part of brand awareness campaigns to reach a very wide audience.
• Political campaigns – Election campaigns sometimes use zero targeting to share messages with all constituents in a geographic area.

Best practices for zero targeted ads

Here are some tips to optimize your zero targeted Facebook ad campaigns:

• Test different creative – Try a variety of ad copy, visuals, and Calls To Action to see what resonates best with the untargeted audience.
• Monitor relevance score – Facebook’s algorithm will show your ads to people most likely to find them interesting. Check relevance score to avoid wasting budget.
• Use interests for remarketing – If you do want to narrow your audience, use interests to remarket people who already know your brand versus generic demographics.
• Split test ad sets – Run multiple zero targeted ad sets with different creatives and audiences to identify what works.
• Adjust bid strategies – Consider using lower cost bid strategies like lowest cost CPM or CPC bidding to keep costs down.

Should you always use zero targeting?

For most advertisers, zero targeting should only be used selectively rather than the default strategy. Here are some downsides to running all campaigns untargeted:

• Higher cost for relevant reach – Broad targeting is inefficient. You may spend more to reach people unlikely to be interested.
• Messaging gets diluted – Speaking to everyone means you can’t craft messaging tailored to certain groups’ needs.
• Harder attribution – With so many people seeing your ads, it can be difficult to determine what led to conversions.
• Lower relevance – Facebook rewards relevant ads with lower CPMs and better quality scores. Too broad targeting risks poor quality scores.
• Poorer optimization – It’s harder to optimize delivery when you can’t analyze performance by demographic or interest.

For these reasons, most advertisers are better served using some level of targeting to ensure their ad budget is spent efficiently. But occasionally zero targeting has its benefits when used thoughtfully.

Should you always use zero targeting for awareness campaigns?

While zero targeting is commonly associated with awareness and reach campaigns, it may not always be the best approach for brand building either. Here are some factors to consider:

• Who is your audience? – Even for brand campaigns, you likely want to reach a particular demographic like your customers. Zero targeting may waste spend on completely irrelevant people.
• What imagery works? – Different creative resonates with different groups. Test images that align to your target audience’s preferences.
• Where should you focus? – Prioritize geographies where you have physical locations or existing brand presence.
• How do you extend reach? – Use tools like Audience Network and Instagram to expand beyond Facebook users who already know your brand.
• Who are your competitors? – You can gain competitive insights by targeting a competitor’s audience with your own messaging.

While zero targeting provides the maximum possible reach, brands still need to make thoughtful choices about who they want to reach and why. Layering in some targeting, even for awareness goals, ensures your ads get in front of the right people.

When should you not use zero targeting?

Here are some scenarios where zero targeting would likely be an ineffective strategy:

• Demand generation campaigns – When your goal is leads or conversions, targeted campaigns focused on your most likely buyers perform much better.
• Interest-based verticals – If you sell niche products targeted to enthusiasts of hiking, gaming, etc. zero targeting will have poor relevance.
• Local businesses – Local stores and service businesses need geographically targeted campaigns focused just on their area.
• Remarketing – When remarketing site visitors or past customers, you want to keep targeting very narrow.
• Limited budget – With a small ad budget, zero targeting will burn through spend too quickly to be useful.

Essentially, any performance marketing campaign focused on conversions, leads, or ROI needs tighter targeting to reach people likely to take action. Zero targeting works best when reach and widespread brand exposure are your primary objectives.

Zero targeting vs. interest targeting

How does targeting people by interests compare to running zero targeted campaigns? Here are some key differences:

Zero Targeting	Interest Targeting
Broad reach across all Facebook users	More focused reach on people passionate about certain topics
Helps increase overall brand awareness	Drives engagement among audiences predisposed to your products
Lower CPM but less relevant impressions	Higher CPM but higher ROI from qualified audiences
No ability to customize messaging by interest	Messaging can be tailored to each audience’s motivations
Harder to analyze performance by audience group	Clearer picture of which interests are converting best

In summary, zero targeting casts the widest net while interest targeting reels in the most qualified fish. Smart advertisers combine both approaches across campaigns tailored to each goal.

Should you zero target Facebook and Instagram separately?

When running zero targeted campaigns, you have the option to target Facebook and Instagram separately or combined:

• Combined – Both Facebook and Instagram users will see your ads. Maximum possible reach.
• Facebook only – Your ads will only be delivered on Facebook. Miss out on Instagram reach.
• Instagram only – Your ads will only be delivered on Instagram. Miss out on Facebook reach.

Generally it makes sense to target Facebook and Instagram together, even when zero targeting. This gives you broader reach and allows you to measure performance across both platforms for future optimization.

However, there are some cases where separating them may be beneficial:

• If Instagram provides significantly higher ROI – You may want to allocate more budget there.
• To test creative optimized for each platform – Instagram tends to favor polished video and image focused ads.
• When spreading out a limited budget – Stretch dollars across both for longer vs. shorter intense bursts.
• To remarket Instagram followers separately – Content they saw on Instagram only.
• For bid strategy testing – See if different bids make sense for each platform.

But for most new campaigns and broad awareness objectives, combining Facebook and Instagram for maximum reach is the best zero targeting approach.

How to set up a zero targeted campaign

Here are the steps to configure a zero targeted campaign in Facebook Ads Manager:

1. Click “+ Create” and choose your campaign objective e.g. brand awareness.
2. Name your campaign and set the budget and schedule.
3. Under placements, select Facebook and Instagram.
4. Skip the detailed targeting section entirely.
5. Under audiences, select “Everyone” for your location. Do not add any other audiences.
6. Configure your creative and landing page.
7. Set your bid strategy and budget.
8. Launch campaign and monitor performance.

It’s that simple! Without any targeting specified, Facebook will show your ads to the maximum possible audience. Be sure to analyze results and optimize the campaign over time.

Zero targeting vs. lookalike audiences

How do zero targeted campaigns compare to Facebook’s lookalike audiences feature? Lookalikes allow you to target new users who share qualities with your existing customers.

Some key differences include:

• Wider reach – Zero targeting has broader reach vs. just people similar to past audiences.
• Warmer audience – Lookalikes mimic existing high value groups with a higher likelihood of converting.
• brand exposure – Zero targeting introduces your brand to completely new audiences.
• Cost efficiency – Lookalikes help spend budget on users with correlated traits to buyers.
• Creative testing – Zero targeting provides an unbiased audience to test new creative approaches.
• Initial scaling – Lookalikes require existing conversion data, less ideal for new efforts.

In general, zero targeting works better for initial brand awareness and creative testing. Lookalike audiences help further optimize campaigns once you have key buyer demographics identified.

Zero targeting vs. interest targeting: An example

Let’s look at a hypothetical example comparing zero targeting to interest targeting for an ecommerce company selling dog toys and accessories.

With zero targeting, the ad could be shown to all 2.9 billion Facebook users including many without dogs who have no interest in dog toys. Still this approach would help broadly increase brand awareness.

Alternatively they could target people interested in dog related topics. This might include interests like:

• Dogs
• Puppies
• Dog breeding
• Dog parks
• Dog training

This would reach between 500 million – 1 billion people. While fewer users than zero targeting, they would have much higher intent to potentially purchase dog products. This can help drive conversions and ROI.

A smart strategy might be a combination – start with zero targeting to introduce the brand and test creative. Then layer in interest targeting focused on dog owners to scale purchases from highly qualified users.

Conclusion

Zero targeting in Facebook Ads means running campaigns without any audience, demographic, or interest targeting selected. This can help increase brand awareness and allow testing with a broad unbiased audience. However, most performance focused campaigns achieve better results and ROI with some level of targeting to reach likely converters.

Zero targeting works best for new brands looking to scale reach rapidly. It should be combined with interest, lookalike, and geographic targeting strategies to attract and convert qualified audiences. Zero targeting alone is rarely an effective long term approach but can be a useful option when used appropriately.