How to Change the Target Audience on a Facebook Page

Trying to change the target audience for your Facebook Page can feel like you're looking for a setting that doesn't exist anymore - because, in a way, you are. This guide will walk you through exactly why the old methods are gone and what strategies actually work today for shifting your Page’s focus, attracting the right followers, and re-engaging your community organically and with paid ads.

First, The Big Update: What Happened to the "Preferred Page Audience" Setting?

If you've managed a Facebook Page for a while, you might remember a feature called "Preferred Page Audience." It was an organic targeting tool that let you suggest to Facebook the specific interests, age ranges, and locations of people you wanted to reach with your posts. It was a useful, straightforward way to give the algorithm a nudge in the right direction.

However, Facebook removed this feature a few years ago. Why? The platform's algorithm has become much more sophisticated at understanding content and matching it with user interests automatically. Instead of relying on manual suggestions from Page managers, Facebook now focuses on two primary ways to determine who sees your content:

• Your content itself: The algorithm analyzes your text, images, videos, and keywords to figure out what your Page is about and who would be interested in it.
• Paid advertising: Facebook's business model is built on ads, so it has incentivized businesses to use Meta Ads Manager for precise, granular targeting.

So, you can no longer just tell Facebook who you want your audience to be with a simple setting. Instead, you have to show Facebook who your audience is through a clear, consistent strategy. It’s a shift from flipping a switch to building a habit, but it’s far more effective in the long run.

The New Game Plan: How to Change Your Audience Organically

Since you can't manually set your target audience for organic reach, your new goal is to provide the algorithm with strong signals about who your content is for. Think of it as teaching the algorithm day by day, post by post. Here’s how you do it.

1. Make Your Content the Ultimate Targeting Tool

The single most powerful lever you have for attracting a specific audience is the content you create. If your content is generic, you'll attract a generic audience. If your content is hyper-specific, you'll attract followers who care deeply about that niche.

If you feel your audience has drifted, the first step is a content audit. Are you talking about the right things? A mismatch here is the most common reason Pages attract the wrong followers.

Here’s what specific content looks like in practice:

• A real estate agent wants to attract first-time homebuyers:
  • Outdated content: Generic posts of new listings with just the price and address.
  • Targeted content: A Reel explaining what "escrow" means in simple terms, a Story poll asking about the biggest fears of buying a home, or a post breaking down different types of mortgages. This content directly solves problems for the desired audience.
• A local plant shop wants to attract more advanced plant collectors, not just beginners:
  • Outdated content: "5 Easy-Care Houseplants for Your Desk" (attracts novices).
  • Targeted content: A detailed video on propagating a rare Alocasia, a guide to identifying pests on tropical plants, or a behind-the-scenes look at importing unique specimens. This content speaks a different language that resonates with experienced hobbyists.

For every piece of content you plan, ask yourself: "Who is this for, and what problem does it solve for them?" If the answer is "everyone," it's probably for no one in particular.

2. Optimize Your Page from Top to Bottom

Your content isn't the only signal you send to Facebook. The foundational information on your Page plays a big role in helping the algorithm categorize you correctly. If your audience is wrong, it might be time for a tune-up.

• Page Category: Be as specific as possible. Don't choose "Business" if you can choose "Digital Creator." Don't choose "Restaurant" if you can choose "Vietnamese Restaurant." This immediately tells Facebook what bucket to put you in.
• About Section / Bio: Your bio should clearly state who you help and how. Weave in keywords that your ideal follower would use to describe their needs or your services. Instead of "We sell handcrafted jewelry," try "Handcrafted, minimalist jewelry for everyday style seekers in Austin, TX."
• Location Information: If you are a local business, having your address, service area, and hours filled out is non-negotiable. This heavily influences who Facebook shows your page to in local searches and suggestions.

3. Engage Strategically within Your Niche

Social media is a two-way street. Your engagement habits also teach the algorithm who you want to associate with. The idea is to create a "network effect" around your brand, where your Page is at the center of a relevant community.

Here's the plan:

1. Identify hubs where your audience hangs out: These could be Facebook Groups, pages of non-competitor brands in your industry, or local community pages.
2. Engage as your Page: When you find relevant conversations, join in as your Page (not your personal profile). Offer helpful advice, answer questions, and provide value without spamming your links. If a local bakery sees a post in a community group asking for birthday cake recommendations, responding helpfully from the bakery's Page is a powerful brand signal.
3. Reply to a T: When your ideal followers comment on your posts, give them meaningful replies. Ask follow-up questions. This not only builds community but reinforces to the algorithm that the engagement from these types of users is valuable.

Pay to Play: Using Ads to Precisely Target a New Audience

Organic methods take time. If you need to pivot your audience quickly or build a new one from scratch, paid ads are your best friend. Meta's Ad tools are incredibly powerful and let you get your message in front of practically any group of people you can imagine.

1. Boost Posts to the Right People

Boosting a post is the simplest form of Facebook advertising. But don't just hit the "Boost Post" button without a plan. The goal is to get your best content in front of a thoughtfully chosen audience.

Here’s a quick-start guide:

1. Go to a post that truly represents the audience you want. Don't boost a post that did well with your old, irrelevant audience.
2. Click "Boost Post."
3. Under the "Audience" section, choose to "Create new."
4. Now, build your ideal customer profile:
   • Location: Target specific cities, states, or even a radius around your business address.
   • Age & Gender: Set this to match your target demographic.
   • Detailed Targeting: This is where the magic happens. You can target people based on their interests (e.g., "organic food," "rock climbing"), behaviors (e.g., "frequent travelers"), or demographics (e.g., "new parents").
5. Save this audience so you can use it again for future boosts.

By boosting strategic posts, you get them in front of fresh eyes. People who engage with your boosted post are more likely to see your future organic content, effectively "seeding" your new target audience.

2. Run a Targeted Page Likes Campaign

A Page Likes campaign is designed specifically to get new, relevant followers. While "likes" are sometimes considered a vanity metric, this is one case where they are incredibly useful for building a foundational audience for a new or pivoting brand.

From Meta Ads Manager, you'll set your campaign objective to "Engagement" and then select "Page Likes" at the ad set level. Then, you can use the same detailed audience targeting tools described above to build your ideal follower profile. For an even more powerful approach, consider these audience types:

• Lookalike Audiences: Do you have an email list of your best customers? You can upload that list to Facebook and ask it to create a "lookalike" audience - a group of users who share similar characteristics to your existing customers. This is one of the most effective ways to find an audience that looks just like your best buyers.
• Engagement Audiences: You can create audiences of people who have watched your videos, visited your website, or engaged with your Instagram profile. Building an audience of people who have already shown interest in your brand is a fantastic way to warm them up into becoming followers.

A Little Spring Cleaning: Audience Restrictions and Removal

Sometimes, attracting the right audience also involves filtering out the wrong one. Facebook gives you a couple of blunt tools to accomplish this.

Page Restrictions

In your Page's settings under "Privacy," you'll find options to set age and country restrictions. This is less about targeting and more about exclusion.

• Age Restriction: Useful if you sell age-gated products (like alcohol) or if your content is intended for a mature audience only.
• Country Restriction: Perfect for brands that only operate or ship within specific countries. If you can only sell in the United States and Canada, restricting your page to just those countries prevents irrelevant followers from other regions and keeps your analytics cleaner.

Removing and Banning Followers

This should be used very sparingly, but it's a valid tool. You can manually remove a follower or ban them from your Page. This isn't for people who disagree with you, but rather for clear spam bots, trolls, or accounts that consistently leave off-topic comments. A healthy community sends good signals to the algorithm, culling obvious spam can help refine those signals.

Final Thoughts

Shifting your Facebook Page's target audience isn't about finding a hidden setting anymore. It’s a dynamic strategy that combines creating deeply relevant content, engaging in the right online spaces, and using the precision of paid ads to attract exactly who you want to serve.

Making sure the right content goes out consistently is a big part of that strategy. We know it's a lot to manage, especially when creating specific videos for Reels and Stories across multiple platforms. That’s why we built Postbase with a visual calendar and reliable scheduling that helps you plan exactly what your ideal audience will see, without ever worrying if a post is going to fail. It lets you focus on the creative side of attracting the right followers while we handle the rest.