Advanced Targeting

Advanced targeting includes:

• Mobile and Placement
• Broad Category Targeting
• Advanced Demographic Targeting
• Education and workplace
• Additional Locales
• Targeting Expansion
• Flexible Targeting

You can use any combination of these advanced targeting options in your own custom audiences and lookalikes. By default, Facebook ORs combinations together. Learn more about core or basic targeting.

Limitations

• Advertisers running housing, employment and credit ads, who are based in the United States or running ads targeted to the United States have different sets of restrictions. See Special Ad Category.
• Using radius can cause an error, code: 100, subcode 1815946, when targeting multiple locations. We recommend creating an ad for each location or not using radius in your call.
• See our Targeting Restrictions guide for more limitations.

Mobile

This is useful for Mobile App Install ads.

curl \
  -F 'name=My AdSet' \
  -F 'optimization_goal=REACH' \
  -F 'billing_event=IMPRESSIONS' \
  -F 'bid_amount=2' \
  -F 'daily_budget=1000' \
  -F 'campaign_id=<CAMPAIGN_ID>' \
  -F 'targeting={ 
    "geo_locations": {"countries":["US"]}, 
    "user_device": ["Galaxy S6","One m9"], 
    "user_os": ["android"] 
  }' \
  -F 'status=ACTIVE' \
  -F 'access_token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>' \
  https://graph.facebook.com/v18.0/act_<AD_ACCOUNT_ID>/adsets

You can combine categories, such as iPod OR iPad OR iPhone.

These categories are not mutually exclusive. If you select iOS you target all devices running iOS, including iPhone and iPod, without specifying user_device.

For Brand Awareness Objective ads, you can't target based on mobile device type, such as feature phones or Samsung, or based on iOS version number. You can only choose Android or iOS, or all mobile phones.

Available Fields

Operating System Options

Advanced Demographic Targeting

Target based on relationships, education, finances, and life events.

Examples

First query life_events:

curl -G \
  -d 'type=adTargetingCategory' \
  -d 'class=life_events' \
  -d 'access_token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>' \
  https://graph.facebook.com/v18.0/search

Add these to targeting_spec:

curl -X POST \
  -F 'name="My First AdSet"' \
  -F 'daily_budget=10000' \
  -F 'bid_amount=300' \
  -F 'billing_event="IMPRESSIONS"' \
  -F 'optimization_goal="REACH"' \
  -F 'campaign_id="<AD_CAMPAIGN_ID>"' \
  -F 'promoted_object={
       "page_id": "<PAGE_ID>"
     }' \
  -F 'targeting={
       "facebook_positions": [
         "feed"
       ],
       "age_max": 24,
       "age_min": 20,
       "behaviors": [
         {
           "id": 6002714895372,
           "name": "All travelers"
         }
       ],
       "device_platforms": [
         "mobile"
       ],
       "genders": [
         1
       ],
       "geo_locations": {
         "countries": [
           "US"
         ],
         "regions": [
           {
             "key": "4081"
           }
         ],
         "cities": [
           {
             "key": 777934,
             "radius": 10,
             "distance_unit": "mile"
           }
         ]
       },
       "interests": [
         {
           "id": "<INTEREST_ID>",
           "name": "<INTEREST_NAME>"
         }
       ],
       "life_events": [
         {
           "id": 6002714398172,
           "name": "Newlywed (1 year)"
         }
       ],
       "publisher_platforms": [
         "facebook",
         "audience_network"
       ]
     }' \
  -F 'status="PAUSED"' \
  -F 'access_token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>' \
  https://graph.facebook.com/v18.0/act_<AD_ACCOUNT_ID>/adsets

We now target:

• Location: Japan or United States: Menlo Park (+10 mi) California or United States: Texas
• Age: 20 - 24
• Gender: male
• Interests: Association football (Soccer)
• Behaviors: All frequent travelers
• Life Event: Newlywed (1 year)
• Home Ownership: Renters

Here's another example targeting by location, demographic, relationship status and interests:

curl \
  -F 'name=My AdSet' \
  -F 'optimization_goal=REACH' \
  -F 'billing_event=IMPRESSIONS' \
  -F 'bid_amount=2' \
  -F 'daily_budget=1000' \
  -F 'campaign_id=<CAMPAIGN_ID>' \
  -F 'targeting={ 
    "age_max": 43, 
    "age_min": 18, 
    "genders": [1], 
    "geo_locations": { 
      "regions": [{"key":"3847"}], 
      "cities": [ 
        { 
          "key": "2430536", 
          "radius": 12, 
          "distance_unit": "mile" 
        } 
      ] 
    }, 
    "interests": [{"id":6003139266461,"name":"Movies"}], 
    "relationship_statuses": [ 
      2, 
      3, 
      4 
    ] 
  }' \
  -F 'status=ACTIVE' \
  -F 'access_token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>' \
  https://graph.facebook.com/v18.0/act_<AD_ACCOUNT_ID>/adsets

Possible options

Education and Work

Use Targeting Search API for all options.

Custom Audiences

Create a custom audience and add users. You can use the audience in targeting, either for inclusion or exclusion. Include up to 500 custom audiences in custom_audiences and 500 custom audiences in excluded_custom_audiences.

targeting:{
     "geo_locations":{
       "countries":["US"],
     },
     "age_min":25,
     "age_max":40,
     "custom_audiences":[{"id":6004192254512}]}
     "excluded_custom_audiences":
       [{"id":6004192252847}],
 }

Locales

Provide granular targeting on locale:

Custom Broad Category Targeting

Use Broad Categories for custom targeting created or permissioned specifically for your account. To include the cooking category and small business owner category:

curl \
  -F 'name=My AdSet' \
  -F 'optimization_goal=REACH' \
  -F 'billing_event=IMPRESSIONS' \
  -F 'bid_amount=2' \
  -F 'daily_budget=1000' \
  -F 'campaign_id=<CAMPAIGN_ID>' \
  -F 'targeting={ 
    "geo_locations": {"countries":["US"]}, 
    "user_adclusters": [ 
      {"id":6002714885172,"name":"Cooking"}, 
      {"id":6002714898572,"name":"Small Business Owners"} 
    ] 
  }' \
  -F 'status=ACTIVE' \
  -F 'access_token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>' \
  https://graph.facebook.com/v18.0/act_<AD_ACCOUNT_ID>/adsets

To exclude the cooking category and small business owner category:

curl \
  -F 'name=My AdSet' \
  -F 'optimization_goal=REACH' \
  -F 'billing_event=IMPRESSIONS' \
  -F 'bid_amount=2' \
  -F 'daily_budget=1000' \
  -F 'campaign_id=<CAMPAIGN_ID>' \
  -F 'targeting={ 
    "exclusions": { 
      "user_adclusters": [ 
        {"id":6002714885172,"name":"Cooking"}, 
        {"id":6002714898572,"name":"Small Business Owners"} 
      ] 
    }, 
    "geo_locations": {"countries":["US"]} 
  }' \
  -F 'status=ACTIVE' \
  -F 'access_token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>' \
  https://graph.facebook.com/v18.0/act_<AD_ACCOUNT_ID>/adsets

To target based on BCT plus location and demographics:

curl \
  -F 'name=My AdSet' \
  -F 'optimization_goal=REACH' \
  -F 'billing_event=IMPRESSIONS' \
  -F 'bid_amount=2' \
  -F 'daily_budget=1000' \
  -F 'campaign_id=<CAMPAIGN_ID>' \
  -F 'targeting={ 
    "geo_locations": {"countries":["US"]}, 
    "relationship_statuses": [2], 
    "user_adclusters": [{"id":6002714886772,"name":"Food & Dining"}] 
  }' \
  -F 'status=ACTIVE' \
  -F 'access_token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>' \
  https://graph.facebook.com/v18.0/act_<AD_ACCOUNT_ID>/adsets

You have options:

To query this targeting for Ad account, make an HTTP GET:

https://graph.facebook.com/<API_VERSION>/act_<AD_ACCOUNT_ID>/broadtargetingcategories

The response is an array of JSON key-value pairs:

Resources

• Targeting Search
• Reach Estimate
• Targeting Descriptions
• Custom Audiences