Digital Lab

Broad is Best

For the last decade, I’ve seen thousands of terrible marketing recommendations…
But the one that irks me more and more is the push for “Niche Audiences”

Targeting over-specific audiences used to be the play but now it slows down your campaigns and restricts their ability to be high performing.

The “Pros” still recommending niche ad targeting out themselves as not actually running high performing ad accounts.

Let’s walk through the numbers on how broad targeting is the best way to advertise in 2025.

The Algorithm Is Smarter Than You

Thanks to AI advancements in the last 12 months, ad platforms are significantly better at finding your customer than you are.

The best performing campaigns don’t define a niche audience, they let the algorithm figure it out through conversions and creative testing.

Every major platform is pushing this approach:

• Google Ads made broad match the default and rolled out Performance Max, which drives 14–27% more conversions than traditional search campaigns.
• Meta’s Advantage+ Audiences now outperform manually targeted audiences. with up to 28% lower CPC and 7% lower cost per conversion.
• TikTok recommends “Fairly Broad” targeting (which is equivalent to 80% of the world), reporting 20% higher conversion rates and 15% lower CPA on average.

Trying to outsmart these systems with tight demographics is no longer best practice, if anything it’s self-sabotage.

Real-World Results

Brands putting this into practice are seeing huge gains.

• L’Oréal used Google’s AI-driven expansion and doubled its conversion rate while cutting cost-per-conversion by 31%.
• Kidsave used Google Performance Max to drive 73% of total conversions across all campaign types, 4× more than a parallel Display Network campaign.
• One of our eCommerce clients recently saw Return-On-Ad-Spend (ROAS) triple after initiating a well executed Performance Max campaign for Google Shopping.

When you give AI more data and room to optimize, it finds pockets of conversions you didn’t know existed. These platforms know you, your customers, and itself more than you ever could.

That’s what makes them so powerful. Don’t reduce its ability to grow by forcing your less-aware targeting parameters on it.

The ROI of Letting Go

Here’s what you get when you stop micromanaging your audiences:

• More conversions
• Less wasted budget
• Faster learning phases
• Easier campaign scaling
• Lower Cost-per-Action (CPA)

And most importantly, ad platforms want you to use broad targeting. It aligns with how their systems are designed.

TikTok’s own help center says it outright:

“Broad targeting increases reach and conversion performance.”
“Start broad and let the system optimize toward your best customers.”

And they’re not alone.

Meta, Google, LinkedIn all echo the same thing:

Start broad. Let the system learn. Scale what works.

What You Should Actually Focus On

In 2025, your targeting isn’t your competitive edge, your creative is.

AI can find your people. Your job is to create ads that convert once it does.

So if you want better ad results:

• Give your campaigns time and room to learn
• Build conversion-focused creatives
• Use strong, clear objectives
• Track conversions properly
• Correct for higher quality

The platforms will handle the rest.

Let the Data Decide

Still skeptical? The numbers speak for themselves:

• TikTok: Reports 20% higher conversion rate + 15% lower CPA
• Google AI Max: Reports 14–27% more conversions vs. exact match
• Meta Advantage+: Reports up to 28% lower CPC + 7% lower cost per conversion
• Kidsave: Drove 73% of total campaign conversions
• L’Oréal: Case study reveals +100% conversion rate, –31% cost per conversion using AI expansion

You don’t need to know every corner of your audience’s psyche.

You just need to feed the algorithm good inputs and let it hunt.