Ask Why does a well-targeted ad still reach people who clearly have no interest in the product?

[Newman]

Targeting feels more precise than it actually is. When you set your audience by age, interest, or location, the platform is still working with guesses based on past behavior. Someone might have clicked one fitness article a year ago and now keeps seeing gym ads even though they have moved on. Platforms also tend to expand your audience on their own, especially early in a campaign, to gather more data. So some portion of your budget will almost always go to people who were never going to care. How do you think advertisers can reduce that kind of waste without hurting reach too much?