Meta Ads Account Structure: Why Broad Targeting Wins

In 2018, the "SKAG" (Single Keyword Ad Group) structure was king. You would have 50 ad sets: "Men 25-34 Golf," "Men 25-34 Tennis," "Men 25-34 Baseball." In 2026, this structure is suicide. Why? Because of Audience Fragmentation. Small audiences = High CPMs + Long Learning Phases. Today, the winning structure is Consolidation: One Campaign, One Ad Set, Broad Targeting.

In this guide, we break down the Structure of Scale, the Power 5, and why you should trust the machine.

The Financial Logic of Consolidation

• Fragmented (10 Ad Sets):
  • Each has $10/day budget.
  • Each gets 2 conversions/week.
  • Result: Stuck in "Learning Limited" forever. CPA is unstable.
• Consolidated (1 Ad Set):
  • One has $100/day budget.
  • Gets 20 conversions/week.
  • Result: Exits Learning Phase. CPA stabilizes and drops 20%.

Theory: The Auction Overlap

When you have 3 Ad Sets targeting "Golf," "Tiger Woods," and "PGA Tour," you are competing against yourself. You are driving up your own CPM. Broad Targeting (No interests, just age/gender/location) removes overlap entirely. It gives the algorithm the freedom to find lookalikes of your buyers within the general population.

Framework: The 3-1-3 Structure

This is the gold standard for accounts spending $1k - $50k/month.

• 3 Campaigns:
  1. Prospecting (CBO): Broad Targeting. (70% Budget).
  2. Retargeting (CBO): Website Visitors / Social Engagers. (20% Budget).
  3. Creative Testing (ABO): A sandbox for new concepts. (10% Budget).
• 1 Ad Set: Per campaign (or very few).
• 3 Ads: The active winners.

Execution: Setting Up Broad Targeting

1. Create Campaign: CBO (Advantage+ Campaign Budget) On.
2. Ad Set:
   • Location: Your Country.
   • Age: 18-65+ (Let Facebook decide).
   • Gender: All (Unless you sell bras or beard oil).
   • Detailed Targeting: Empty. (This is the scary part).
3. Ads: Launch your best 3 creative concepts.
   • Why: The Creative restricts the targeting. If your ad shows a Dog, Facebook will show it to Dog Lovers. You don't need to select "Dog Interest."

Advanced Strategy: The "Dynamic Creative" Test

Instead of making 5 separate ads, use Dynamic Creative Objectives (DCO).

• Upload: 3 Images, 2 Videos.
• Write: 2 Primary Texts, 2 Headlines.
• Action: Facebook mixes and matches them to find the perfect combo for each user.
• Benefit: It consolidates all data into one ID, meaning you exit the learning phase faster.

Case Study: The "Interests" vs "Broad" A/B Test

Client: Home Decor Brand. Control: "Interior Design Interest" (Audience size: 2M). Test: "Broad" (Audience size: 150M). Result (After 30 Days):

• Interest: CPA $45. Frequency 2.1 (Fatigue).
• Broad: CPA $38. Frequency 1.1 (Scale).
• Why: Broad never fatigues. There are always new people to find.

Pitfalls to Avoid

1. Panic Pausing

Broad targeting takes 48 hours to "home in." Day 1 might look terrible. Rule: Do not touch a Broad Ad Set for 3 days.

2. "Retargeting" in Broad

Some people think Broad includes Retargeting. It does. But if you want to control the offer (e.g., "Come back for 10% off"), you still need a separate Retargeting campaign. Broad is for New Customer Acquisition.

3. Too Many Creatives

If you put 20 ads in one ad set, Facebook will only give impressions to the top 2. The other 18 will die. Fix: Keep active ads to 3-5 per ad set. Turn off losers before adding winners.

Summary

Constraint kills performance. Liquidity fuels performance. Stop trying to outsmart the AI with "Hidden Interests." You can't.

Your Structure Checklist:

1. Consolidate 10 Ad Sets into 1.
2. Remove all Interests. Go Broad.
3. Use CBO to manage budget.
4. Focus on Creative Testing to do the targeting for you.

Simplify to scale.