Facebook Ad Targeting in Ghana: Broad, Interests or Lookalikes?

For years, the secret to Facebook ads was supposed to be targeting. Find the perfect mix of interests, behaviours and demographics, and the buyers would appear.

That's no longer how it works. Meta's system now does much of the targeting itself, using your creative and your conversion data. You still make choices, but they're different ones.

The four ways to target

1. Broad

Location, age range and gender if relevant, and nothing else. Meta decides who sees your adverts based on the creative and on who has bought before.

Use it when: your tracking works, you have creative that clearly shows who the product is for, and your budget is at least GH₵ 50 to GH₵ 100 a day.

2. Interests

You tell Meta to focus on people interested in topics like fashion, fitness or real estate.

Use it when: you're starting with no conversion data, or your product is very niche. Keep interests broad and related, not stacked narrowly.

3. Lookalikes

Meta finds people similar to a list you provide, like past customers or website buyers.

Use it when: you have a good list of real customers, ideally a few hundred or more. Quality matters more than size.

4. Retargeting

You show adverts to people who already interacted with you: visited your site, watched your videos, messaged you or added to cart.

Use it always. Retargeting is often the cheapest source of sales in an account. See retargeting ads.

Why broad often wins now

Meta's retrieval engine, Andromeda, studies your adverts to decide who should see them. A clear video of a woman in her thirties using your skincare product in an Accra apartment tells Meta who it's for. Narrow interests can actually get in the way, by limiting the people Meta is allowed to find. See Meta's Andromeda update.

That's why, in many accounts, broad campaigns with strong, varied creative beat carefully crafted interest audiences.

Location targeting in Ghana

Location is the one setting that always matters, because you can only sell where you can deliver.

• City only if you deliver in one city: Accra, Kumasi, Takoradi.
• Several cities if you ship between them.
• All of Ghana if delivery works nationwide.
• Abroad if you sell to the diaspora. See selling to Ghanaians abroad.

Use "people living in" the location rather than people who were recently there, unless you're targeting visitors.

Age and gender

Set sensible limits, but not too tight. If your buyers are mostly women 25 to 45, try 22 to 55 and let Meta find the sweet spot. Exclude a gender only if the product is genuinely for one.

Exclusions

• Exclude recent buyers from campaigns aimed at new customers.
• Exclude employees and people who already follow you, if you're trying to reach new audiences only.

A simple structure that works

Most small accounts don't need more than this.

When targeting isn't the problem

If your adverts aren't working, targeting is rarely the main reason. Check, in this order: campaign goal, tracking, landing page, creative, offer and follow-up. See why your ads are not working.

Common questions

Should I target "small business owners" for B2B?

You can, but these audiences are often inaccurate. Creative that speaks directly to the business owner's problem, with a broad audience, often reaches them better. LinkedIn and Google can also work well for B2B.

How big should my audience be?

Big enough for Meta to learn. In Ghana, city-level broad audiences are usually fine. Very small audiences get expensive quickly.

Can I target people by income?

Not directly in Ghana. Use location, the product itself and the creative to attract the right buyers.

If you'd like help setting up your account, see our Facebook and Instagram ads service.