AI & Automation
Personas
SaaS & Startup
Time to ROI
Medium-term (3-6 months)
OK, so here's something that's going to sound completely backwards: I spent years obsessing over perfect audience targeting for both SEO and PPC campaigns, and it nearly killed my results.
You know what changed everything? When I stopped trying to be the smartest person in the room with my targeting and started focusing on what actually moves the needle. I was working with a B2C Shopify client who was burning through Facebook ad budget faster than a startup burns through seed funding, all because we were over-engineering our audience targeting.
The breakthrough came when I realized something counterintuitive: creatives are the new targeting. While everyone's fighting over demographic segments and interest buckets, the real winners are the ones who understand that your content quality determines who finds you organically, and your creative quality determines who converts from paid traffic.
Here's what you'll learn from my experiments across multiple client projects:
Why detailed targeting is actually hurting your PPC performance in 2025
How I shifted from audience-first to content-first SEO strategy
The "broad audience + creative testing" framework that improved ROAS
When to use precision targeting vs when to let algorithms do the work
Real metrics from switching strategies mid-campaign
This isn't another theoretical framework - it's what actually happened when I tested this approach across SaaS and ecommerce clients.
The Reality
What the marketing gurus won't tell you
Walk into any marketing conference or open any "growth hacking" guide, and you'll hear the same gospel: precision targeting is everything. The industry has convinced everyone that success comes from finding that perfect demographic sweet spot.
Here's what every marketing expert tells you to do:
SEO targeting: Research your ideal customer persona, then create content specifically for their search intent and behavior patterns
PPC targeting: Layer demographics, interests, behaviors, and lookalikes until you've created the "perfect" audience segment
Keyword targeting: Find those magical long-tail keywords that your exact customer is definitely typing into Google
Interest targeting: Stack Facebook interests until you've narrowed down to your dream customer
Retargeting: Create complex funnels based on user behavior and engagement levels
This advice exists because it sounds logical. More precise = better results, right? The problem is that this approach worked great in 2018 when platforms had more data to work with and less privacy restrictions.
But here's what's actually happening in 2025: privacy regulations have killed detailed targeting. iOS 14.5, GDPR, and cookie deprecation mean the platforms don't have the data they used to have. Yet marketers are still trying to use 2018 strategies in a 2025 world.
The result? You're fighting for scraps in over-targeted micro-audiences while your competitors are capturing the broader market you're ignoring.
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
So I was working with this Shopify ecommerce client - over 1,000 products in their catalog, decent traffic, but their Facebook ads were bleeding money. Classic case of beautiful store, terrible ROAS.
Their previous agency had built these incredibly "sophisticated" audience segments. We're talking 47 different ad sets, each targeting specific demographics, interests, and behaviors. Age 25-34 female interested in sustainable fashion who visited the site but didn't purchase in the last 30 days. You get the picture.
The results? A ROAS that made me want to cry. They were spending €50 average order value to get maybe 2.5 back. Most marketers would have called that "acceptable." But with their margins, I knew something was fundamentally broken.
Here's where it gets interesting: I also had a B2B SaaS client at the same time who was obsessing over SEO audience targeting. They were creating separate landing pages for "marketing managers at Series A startups" vs "growth hackers at seed-stage companies." Sounds smart, right? Wrong.
The problem wasn't the targeting - it was that both clients were treating symptoms instead of the disease. The ecommerce client had a product discovery problem, not an audience problem. Their massive catalog needed time to browse, but Facebook ads demand quick decisions. The SaaS client was creating content for personas instead of actual search intent.
That's when I started questioning everything I thought I knew about audience targeting.
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
OK, so here's exactly what I did, and why it completely changed how I think about audience targeting.
The Ecommerce Experiment: From 47 Ad Sets to 1 Campaign
Instead of fighting Facebook's algorithm with complex targeting, I decided to work with it. I consolidated everything into one campaign with the broadest possible audience - basically just country and age range (18-65). Then I put all our energy into creative testing.
Here's the framework I developed:
One broad campaign with minimal targeting constraints
Multiple ad sets with different creative angles, not different audiences
3 new creatives every week without fail
Let the algorithm learn who responds to which creative
The logic? Each creative acts as a signal to Facebook about who might be interested. A lifestyle-focused creative attracts different people than a problem-solving creative - all within the same broad campaign.
The SEO Shift: Content-First Instead of Persona-First
For the SaaS client, I threw out their persona-based content strategy completely. Instead of "content for marketing managers," I focused on search intent patterns. What were people actually typing into Google?
I implemented what I call programmatic SEO with embedded templates. Instead of just describing use cases, we embedded actual product templates directly into the pages. Visitors could click once and instantly try our pre-made templates - no signup required initially.
The breakthrough was realizing that the content itself does the targeting. Someone searching for "automated email sequences" will find content about email automation. Someone searching for "CRM integration" will find integration guides. The search intent pre-qualifies the audience better than any demographic filter ever could.
The Integration Pages Strategy
Here's something that really worked: we built programmatic integration pages for popular tools, even when no native integration existed. Each page included manual setup instructions, webhook configuration guides, and custom scripts.
This approach meant we captured search traffic for "[our tool] + [popular software]" searches, regardless of whether the searcher was a "marketing manager" or "growth hacker." The search intent was the targeting.
Creative Testing
Focus energy on producing 3 new ad creatives weekly rather than perfecting audience segments. Each creative naturally attracts different user types.
Search Intent
Build content around what people actually search for, not theoretical personas. The search query pre-qualifies your audience better than demographics.
Broad + Creative
Use minimal demographic targeting but test multiple creative angles. Let platform algorithms find the right people for each creative style.
Template Integration
Embed actual product functionality into content pages. This turns marketing pages into product experiences that convert qualified users.
The results completely flipped my understanding of audience targeting:
Ecommerce Client (Facebook Ads):
ROAS improved from 2.5 to consistently above 4.0
Cost per acquisition dropped by 35%
Creative testing rhythm of 3 new ads weekly became sustainable
Campaign management time reduced from 8 hours to 2 hours weekly
SaaS Client (SEO Strategy):
Organic traffic increased 10x through programmatic content
Integration pages became top conversion drivers
Users could experience product value before signup
Content creation became systematized instead of ad-hoc
The unexpected outcome? Both strategies worked because they stopped fighting the platforms and started working with them. Facebook's algorithm is incredibly good at finding the right people - when you give it good creative signals. Google's algorithm is excellent at matching search intent - when you create content that actually serves that intent.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
Here are the key lessons that completely changed how I approach audience targeting:
Platforms are smarter than your targeting - Facebook and Google have more data and better algorithms than any manual targeting strategy you can build
Creative quality beats audience precision - A great creative will find its audience; a bad creative won't convert even perfect targeting
Search intent is the ultimate targeting - Someone typing "email automation software" is more qualified than someone who "likes business tools"
Content does the targeting for you - Write for search intent, not personas, and the right people naturally find you
Broad targeting + creative testing scales better - Easier to manage, better performance, more sustainable long-term
Integration content captures high-intent searches - People searching for tool combinations are usually ready to implement
Privacy changes favor this approach - As detailed targeting becomes less accurate, creative quality becomes more important
What I'd do differently: I would have tested this approach sooner instead of following conventional wisdom for so long. The data was showing that complex targeting wasn't working, but I kept trying to "fix" it instead of questioning the fundamental approach.
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
For SaaS startups, focus on:
Building integration pages for popular tools in your space
Creating use-case content with embedded demos
Broad LinkedIn targeting with job-title-specific creatives
Search-intent content over persona-based content
For your Ecommerce store
For ecommerce stores, prioritize:
Single broad Facebook campaign with creative rotation
Product-focused SEO over demographic targeting
User-generated content as creative testing material
Category-based content over customer-type content