If you want to target your ads to audiences of a certain age, you can use Age Targeting to select one or several age groups for your Campaign.
Important: How Age Targeting Limits Your Audience
You should use this targeting option with extreme caution. By selecting specific age groups, you are limiting your audience to only those with an identified age.
On average, only 10% of a website's users are identified by age. This is important because even if you select all available age groups, Age Targeting can actually work against you by excluding the vast majority of your potential audience.
Example Scenario
Imagine a total potential audience of 100,000 people for a webpage. The audience is broken down as follows:
|
Audience Segment |
Number of People |
|---|---|
|
Identified as 19 to 24 |
8,000 |
|
Identified as 25 to 34 |
5,000 |
|
Identified as 35 to 44 |
5,000 |
|
Identified as 45 to 54 |
1,000 |
|
Identified as 55 to 64 |
800 |
|
Identified as 65 and over |
200 |
|
Total Identified Audience |
20,000 |
|
Not age identified |
80,000 |
In this scenario, even if you select all the available age groups, your Campaign will only be shown to the 20,000 people with an identified age. Your ad will not be shown to the 80,000 people whose age is not identified.
Conclusion
If you wish to reach the entire potential audience (all 100,000 people in the example), you should not use Age Targeting at all. Leave all age groups unselected.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is the main risk of using Age Targeting?
A: The main risk is severely limiting your Campaign's reach. Since only a small percentage of users have an identified age, applying any age filter—even selecting all groups—will prevent your ad from being shown to the vast majority of the audience.
Q: If I select all age groups, will my ad be shown to everyone?
A: No. This is a critical point. Even if you select all age groups, your ad will still only be shown to users with an identified age, meaning you will exclude the large majority of the audience whose age is unknown.
Q: When should I use Age Targeting?
A: You should only use it if your Campaign goal is to exclusively target a very specific age group, and you understand and accept that this will dramatically reduce your total potential audience.