Gender Targeting allows you to show your ads to users of a specific gender. The options for this targeting are usually divided into Female and Male. In some cases, you may also see an Other option, which can represent users whose gender is either not identified or unknown.
Important: How Gender Targeting Limits Your Audience
You should use this targeting option with extreme caution, for the same reason you must be careful with Age Targeting.
On average, only about 10% of a website's users are identified by gender. This is important because even if you select all options, Gender 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 Female |
6,000 |
|
Identified as Male |
4,000 |
|
Total Identified Audience |
10,000 |
|
Not gender identified |
90,000 |
In this scenario, even if you select both "Male" and "Female", your Campaign will only be shown to the 10,000 people with an identified gender. Your ad will not be shown to the 90,000 people whose gender is not identified.
Conclusion
If you wish to reach the entire potential audience (all 100,000 people in the example), you should not use Gender Targeting at all. Leave all gender options unselected.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is Gender Targeting?
A: Gender Targeting is a feature that allows you to direct your ads to be shown only to users identified as a specific gender (e.g., Male, Female).
Q: What is the main risk of using Gender Targeting?
A: The main risk is severely limiting your Campaign's reach. Since only a small percentage of users have an identified gender, applying any gender filter—even selecting all available options—will prevent your ad from being shown to the vast majority of the audience.
Q: If I select both "Male" and "Female," will my ad be shown to everyone?
A: No. This is a critical point. Even if you select all available options, your ad will still only be shown to users with an identified gender, meaning you will exclude the large majority of the audience whose gender is unknown.