My secret ad targeting method that cut lead costs by 80%

so here's how i fixed my ad targeting for skool and slashed my cost per lead from $30 down to less than $5. this is the exact process i used, and if you're running ads for your community, course, or coaching program, you’ll want to test this.

step 1: set up a simple lead campaign

start with a leads campaign in meta ads manual setup. keep it clean, no extra categories. i turned on advantage campaign budget and set a small daily spend ($8/day) to gather enough data. this lets me see which ads and audiences actually work without burning cash.

step 2: create three ad sets to test targeting

instead of guessing who my best audience is, i set up three different adsets with the same ads but different targeting methods. this is where the magic happens:

1. advantage plus (broad targeting) let meta do its thing and find my audience.

2. highly targeted interests (hdi) manually add interests, job titles, and behaviors.

3. layered targeting use the same audience as hdi but add an extra filter to refine it even further.

this method makes sure i'm covering all angles letting meta optimize, using precise interest-based targeting, and layering for extra specificity.

step 3: find your perfect audience using chatgpt

for the hdi and layered targeting, i used chatgpt to generate a list of job titles, interests, and behaviors my audience might have. for example, since i was targeting skool community owners, i asked chatgpt to list relevant interests, sites they visit, and common job titles.

i then took the best suggestions (like “online community,” “lead generation,” and “landing pages”) and plugged them into the meta ads audience settings. this helped me find hidden targeting opportunities meta wouldn’t have suggested on its own.

step 4: duplicate and refine

once my first adset was set up, i duplicated it twice and adjusted only the targeting. this saved time and kept the test controlled. then, i let them run for a few days to gather data.

what happened?

- the broad targeting adset did okay but wasn’t the best.

- hdi outperformed everything because the interests were super specific.

- layered targeting was even better it gave me the lowest cost per lead at less than $5 .

takeaway

if you’re running ads to grow your skool community (or any community, really), this targeting system works. don't just rely on meta's broad targeting use chatgpt to find better interest-based audiences and test different layers.

and if you're serious about growing a profitable community, course, or coaching program, join club xk where we go deep on strategies like this every day.

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