In plain English
Demographics, location, interests and behaviours saved as a named set so they can be reused across ad sets.
It is convenience rather than capability. The criteria are Meta's inferred categories, which are less reliable than your own data, and interest targeting has lost much of its former power.
What to know
Criteria-based
Not built from your data.
Reusable
Saved and applied across ad sets.
Interest-based
Which is inferred and imprecise.
Weaker than custom
Your own data performs better.
Why it matters
Saved audiences are useful for locking down location and age where those genuinely matter, such as local service businesses. As an interest-stacking tool they have largely been superseded.
Common mistakes
×Layering many interests until the audience is tiny.
×Trusting interest categories as accurate.
×Saved audiences going stale as the product changes.
×Using them where a custom audience would perform better.
FAQs
Are interest audiences still useful?
For location and age constraints, yes. For interest stacking, much less than they were.
Saved or custom audience?
Custom, wherever you have the data.
WRITTEN BY TARIQ SALLAM
Marketing Consultant. Entrepreneur. Content Creator.
I'm a marketing consultant, entrepreneur and content creator. I help businesses grow through practical marketing, websites, SEO, content and AI.
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