Targeting Strategy + Execution Playbook — SAC-Verified (Jun 15, 2026)

Supersedes the Jun 11–13 lookalike architecture. Verified across 2025–26 sources + tested live. For each lever: what's set now → what to change → exact steps → why.

The verified reality (read first)

The account runs under Meta's Financial Products & Services Special Ad Category. Every audience-precision lever is unavailable — confirmed:

Lever	Status
Standard lookalikes	❌ Blocked (won't appear in ad set picker — tested live)
Special Ad Audiences	❌ Discontinued by Meta entirely
Advantage+ Audience expansion	❌ Not permitted — Original audiences only
Interests / detailed targeting	❌ Blocked
Age / gender / ZIP narrowing	❌ Locked: 18–65, US, 15-mi radius
Custom audiences (seeds)	⚠️ Allowed, but constrain to ~seed size as includes → only useful as exclusions

**Bottom line: you can't target your way to performance under SAC. You win on creative + conversion optimization + suppression. The instructions below are built around that.**

CHANGE 1 — Audience setup (every prospecting ad set)

What we have now: ad sets in a mix of states — some Advantage+, some carrying old/custom audiences, some broad. No suppression applied at the ad-set level.

Change to: every prospecting ad set identical → Original audiences, broad, suppression excluded.

Exact steps (repeat per ad set):

Open the ad set → Audience section

If "Advantage+ Audience" is on → click "Switch to original audience options" (SAC requires this)

Include box: leave empty (= broad). Remove any custom audience or lookalike sitting in it.

Exclude box: add GTW_Mil_AllCustomers_7mo_06-13 (the suppression list)

Confirm: Locations = United States · Age = 18–65 · Gender = All · Detailed targeting = empty

Publish

Why: SAC blocks every targeting refinement, so broad is the only real inventory — and it's what your best ad set (Auto BAU Broad, 1.76x) already runs. An include would shrink the audience to ~seed size (you saw this live). Leaving it empty keeps reach broad; the exclusion removes the ~90K people you've already converted so you stop paying to re-acquire them.

CHANGE 2 — Cost caps (the spend lever)

What we have now: cost-per-result goals are set tight, throttling spend below budget:

Campaign	Current cost goal	Budget	Actually spending
Auto BAU	~$15–17	$19,800/day	only ~$5–11K/day
Auto ALC	~$13	$8,500/day	~$150–600/day
Home BAU	~$10	$2,000/day	~$1K/day
Home ALC	~$12	$4,000/day	~$90/day

Change to: raise the goals so Meta can deploy the idle budget:

Campaign	Raise cost goal to
Auto BAU	$23
Auto ALC	$20
Home BAU	$16
Home ALC	$16

Exact steps (per ad set):

Ad set → bid strategy → Cost per result goal

Raise the dollar amount in steps, not one jump: e.g. Auto BAU $17 → $19 → $22 → $23

Wait 24–48h between steps, watch the guardrails (below), then take the next step

Why: your real lead value (Delty, settled) is ~$32. A lead that costs $23 still nets ~$9 — a 1.4x return. At a $17 cap, Meta refuses every profitable lead priced $17–32, which is why a $19,800-budget campaign only spends ~$8K. Raising the goal lets Meta win those auctions → deploys the idle budget at a still-healthy return. Step it up so CPL doesn't spike before Meta re-optimizes.

Guardrails (stop/slow if breached): CPL > ~$26 (Auto) / ~$18 (Home) · Delty value-per-lead drops below ~$32 · frequency climbs past ~3–4.

CHANGE 3 — Suppression (efficiency, deploy now)

What we have now: GTW_Mil_AllCustomers_7mo (~90K matched) is built and set as the account Existing Customers segment — but not yet excluded at the ad-set level.

Change to: add it as an Exclusion on every prospecting ad set (covered in Change 1, step 4).

Why: it stops spend chasing the ~90K customers you already have → typically 8–15% CPL efficiency on prospecting. This is the one piece of the audience build that fully deploys under SAC, and it's a guaranteed-allowed lever.

CHANGE 4 — The value loop (the real "targeting" under SAC)

What we have now: conversion values are hardcoded — Auto "click to quotes" = $0, Home = $15 (hand-typed). Purchase value is static. Meta has no real accepted-lead signal, so it optimizes for cheap form-fills, and Max Val can't do real value optimization.

Change to: feed QuoteWizard's real accepted-lead values into Meta, then optimize Max Val toward them.

Exact steps:

Get the data: request a recurring accepted-lead export from QW — email/phone + event time + the real conversion_value. (This is the one dependency — can't be done without it.)

Format it to Meta's offline spec (email/phone + event_time + value + currency)

Upload: Events Manager → Import events → Offline event set → upload (manual to start; automate via CAPI later)

Once it's flowing with volume: switch Auto/Home Max Val to optimize toward the accepted-lead event with value bidding

❗ Do NOT just edit the hardcoded $0/$15 to a different fixed number — a fixed value can't power value optimization (no variation = no signal). It needs real, varying values.

Why: under SAC you can't target quality, so the only way to get it is to optimize for it. Right now Meta optimizes for the cheapest form-fill on fake values. Feeding real accepted-lead values teaches Meta who actually becomes a paid lead → it finds more of them inside the broad pool. This replaces what lookalikes were supposed to do — it's the centerpiece of the SAC strategy.

Note: "Connect your CRM" won't work — QW is a third-party marketplace, not a CRM you own. The path is uploading their export, not connecting their system.

CHANGE 5 — Creative engine (the #1 lever under broad)

What we have now: a set of creatives running, some fatiguing; production is ad-hoc. Record days were creative-driven.

Change to: a systematic test engine — ship a steady volume of new creatives weekly, kill losers fast, scale winners.

Why: under broad targeting, creative IS your targeting — it self-selects who responds. Restricted-category data shows 40%+ CTR swings from creative testing. With audience precision gone, this is the single biggest controllable lever on the account.

What to STOP (verified dead ends under SAC)

❌ Don't deploy the 12 lookalike ladders — blocked, won't appear in ad set picker
❌ Don't use the seeds as prospecting includes — they constrain to ~seed size (too small)
❌ Don't build Special Ad Audiences — discontinued by Meta
❌ Don't edit the hardcoded conversion value to a new fixed number — fake either way; needs real dynamic values (Change 4)

What the audience work IS still worth

✅ Suppression list (Change 1/3) — real efficiency
✅ Existing-customers + Engaged segments — set, working
✅ The accepted-lead / seed data — feeds the value loop (Change 4)
✅ Clean, compliant first-party data — the foundation the value loop runs on

Per-campaign summary

Campaign	Audience (all same)	Cost goal	Optimization	Priority action
Auto BAU	Broad + suppress	$17 → $23	Leads	Engine — scale + best creative
Auto ALC	Broad + suppress	$13 → $20	Leads	Revive, but redundant; let budget flow to BAU
Auto Max Val	Broad + suppress	Highest volume	Sales	HOLD → value-loop campaign (Change 4)
Home BAU	Broad + suppress	$10 → $16	Leads	Home engine
Home ALC	Broad + suppress	$12 → $16	Leads	Revive; redundant with Home BAU
Home Max Val	Broad + suppress	Highest volume	Sales	HOLD → value-loop campaign

Order of operations

Now: apply broad + suppression to every prospecting ad set (Change 1)

Now: start stepping up cost caps with guardrails (Change 2)

This week: get the QW accepted-lead feed → stand up the value-loop upload (Change 4)

Ongoing: feed the creative engine (Change 5)

After value data flows: switch Max Val to value optimization

Cleanup: delete the duplicate suppression uploads + the dead/invalid.invalid items

Sources: Wolf Financial · AdTaxi (Special Ad Audiences discontinued) · Benly (Finance/Insurance 2026) · Jon Loomer (Financial SAC) · LeadEnforce. Verified live in account 1034037341617540.

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