CourseTargeting - The Right Ad to the Right Person at the Right TimeTargeting Precision vs. Scale Tradeoff
beginner
2 min read
Targeting Precision vs. Scale Tradeoff
Understanding the balance between specificity and reach
As targeting becomes more specific, the reachable audience shrinks. This creates a fundamental tradeoff:
Narrow targeting
- Higher conversion rates (reaching highly qualified users)
- Lower scale (smaller potential audience to reach)
- Higher potential cost (paying for quality)
Broad targeting
- Lower conversion rates (less qualified audience)
- Higher scale (larger audience pool to draw from)
- Lower cost (paying for reach)
• • •
Most successful campaigns start narrow to validate conversion behavior, then gradually broaden targeting to increase scale while maintaining acceptable performance.