---
name: audience-builder
description: Build Meta ad audiences the way that works in 2026, starting broad and adding interests or lookalikes only when the numbers say so. Checks audience size, suggests interests, builds lookalikes from buyers, and explains the trade-off. Use when the user asks "who should I target", "best interests for my ads", "make a lookalike", or "my audience is too small".
---

# Audience builder

In 2026 the creative does most of the targeting. Meta's delivery finds buyers inside a broad audience better than a hand-picked list of interests. This skill starts broad and only narrows when there's a reason.

Needs the TalkToAds connector (Meta).

## Steps

1. **Start with the default.** Country (where your buyers can pay you) + age 18–65 + no interests. For most products selling to consumers or small businesses, this is the audience. Check its size with `estimate_audience`.

2. **Narrow only for a reason.** Add targeting only if:
   - the product only makes sense for a profession or niche (dentists, real-estate agents, Shopify store owners), or
   - the price is high and the user has fewer than 50 purchases a week for Meta to learn from.

   Then call `search_interests` with 3–5 words that describe the buyer, not the product. "Real estate agent" beats "CRM software". Pick 3–6 interests, combine them in one ad set, and check with `estimate_audience` that the audience is still over 1 million people.

3. **Lookalikes from buyers.** If the user has a customer list or pixel purchasers, call `list_custom_audiences`. A lookalike from **buyers** (not visitors, not followers) is worth testing: `create_lookalike_audience` at 1% for the main country.

4. **Plan the test.** Don't replace broad with the new audience. Run it as a second ad set next to broad, same creative and budget (see the three-day-ad-test skill).

5. **Write it down.** Use `remember_brand_fact` to save what the audience is and what worked, so the next session doesn't start from zero.

## Rules

- An audience under ~500k in a big country is usually too small for a sales campaign.
- Don't stack many narrow ad sets with small budgets. Meta can't learn on ₹200/day per ad set.
- Exclude existing buyers from a front-end offer only if you have the list. Otherwise don't bother.
- Interests are a hint to Meta, not a wall. Advantage+ audience may go outside them. That's normal.

## From Sanskar's ad account

Every live sales campaign in Sanskar's accounts in October 2026 targets India, 18+, no interests: courses, books and done-for-you offers alike. Narrow audiences were for client niches (clinics, real estate, coaching), where the product only makes sense for one profession. For his own products, the creative, a reel that speaks to one kind of person, does the targeting.