Audience Suggestions Are an Illusion of Control

Why It Matters

Eliminating audience suggestions would streamline campaign management, cut wasted spend, and push marketers toward data‑driven creative optimization, directly impacting ROI on Meta’s ad platform.

Key Takeaways

• Meta's audience suggestions rarely influence ad delivery outcomes.
• Advertisers waste time creating duplicate ad sets based on suggestions.
• Algorithmic targeting overrides age, gender, and look‑alike inputs.
• Removing suggestions would force budget consolidation and strategic focus.
• Hands‑off targeting yields better results than obsessing over controls.

Summary

In this podcast, Meta advertising expert John Loomer argues that Meta should scrap its audience‑suggestion feature, labeling it an illusion of control for advertisers.

Loomer notes that Meta’s algorithmic targeting consistently overrides manual inputs such as age, gender, look‑alike and detailed targeting. Advertisers, he says, waste resources building multiple ad sets based on suggestions that ultimately reach the same users, and there is no measurable evidence that these suggestions improve performance.

He cites a common complaint: “Meta will ignore your suggestions for age and gender every time if it means finding more optimized results.” Loomer also shares his own practice of abandoning audience suggestions altogether, urging peers to focus on creative and value‑based rules instead.

If Meta eventually removes the feature, advertisers will be forced to consolidate budgets, simplify campaign structures, and shift attention to ad creative and conversion‑focused strategies—potentially boosting efficiency and reducing frustration.

Original Description

Audience suggestions feel like control, but Meta ignores them constantly, especially for age and gender. There's no proof they impact detailed targeting or lookalikes, yet they cause confusion and wasted effort creating multiple ad sets. Jon explains why Meta should eliminate audience suggestions entirely, how the illusion of control hurts results, and why you'd be better off without them.