Anyone cracked good targeting for dating promos?

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I’ve been running campaigns in a few different niches for a while, but online dating promotion has been one of the trickiest to figure out. It’s not that people aren’t interested — dating is always in demand — but getting the right people to click, sign up, and stay engaged takes more than just throwing ads out there. The first few times I tried, I either spent too much on broad targeting or ended up reaching audiences that had zero interest in dating sites.

At first, I assumed online dating would work like any other lifestyle offer. I built lookalike audiences, ran some interest-based Facebook ads, and used keywords like “singles,” “relationships,” and “love.” It got clicks, sure, but the conversion rate was all over the place. What I didn’t realize then was that dating campaigns depend heavily on audience behavior and intent — not just demographics or generic interests.

The biggest issue I ran into early on was the mismatch between audience mood and ad message. I was targeting people who were already in relationships or who liked romantic movies but weren’t actually looking to date. My CTR looked fine, but conversions told another story. I had to take a step back and rethink what kind of people I was trying to reach and what mindset they were in when seeing my ads.

After a few failed runs, I started doing something that helped: looking at audience intent signals. Instead of just going for “single” as a status, I started looking into behaviors — things like people visiting dating advice blogs, relationship meme pages, or even lifestyle influencers who talk about breakups and self-improvement. It turns out those signals were much more relevant. That small shift gave me a better quality audience without having to double my budget.

Location also made a huge difference. I learned that dating offers perform differently depending on how social or private people are in that region. For instance, urban areas tend to convert better because people are more open to meeting online. Rural audiences clicked a lot but didn’t follow through. So, I started segmenting campaigns by city clusters rather than targeting a whole country. This gave me better cost control and more accurate data.

Another thing that worked well was testing platforms beyond Facebook. A lot of people stick to Meta and Google, but dating ads can perform surprisingly well on native networks and push traffic. With push ads, I could test various creatives and get faster data on which angles worked best. Simple curiosity-based headlines like “Meet singles near you tonight” or “Who’s single in your area?” did way better than polished ad copy.

I also learned the hard way that creativity makes or breaks dating promos. The best-performing ones were never the most professional-looking. Authentic, natural-looking images with real people (not stock models) worked way better. I tested ads with couples, but single-person photos performed better overall. And videos — even short ones — made a big difference. Quick motion caught attention fast, especially on mobile.

Retargeting helped more than I expected. People rarely sign up the first time they see a dating ad. So, I started using retargeting campaigns to show softer, friendlier reminders instead of repeating the same pitch. For example, something like “Still curious who's online near you?” worked better than “Join now.” That little nudge brought back a decent chunk of lost traffic.

One of the most useful reads I found while experimenting was this blog on Targeting Tactics for Online Dating Promotion . It broke down how to segment dating audiences by intent and geography, and it matched what I had been discovering through trial and error. If you're testing the waters in this niche, it's worth checking out.

In the end, what worked for me was treating online dating like a “mood-based” campaign rather than a static product. You're not just selling a signup — you're appealing to curiosity, loneliness, or excitement. So the best targeting comes down to understanding why someone would click that ad at that exact moment.

If I had to sum it up, I'd say start narrow, test quickly, and adjust based on behavior, not assumptions. Broad targeting sounds good when you want volume, but in dating campaigns, precision wins every time. Also, don't underestimate smaller networks and fresh creatives — they can make your campaign look less like an ad and more like a real conversation starter.

Would love to hear what kind of targeting setups others are using for dating promos lately. Are you finding more luck with interest-based audiences or behavioral ones? I'm always tweaking things, so any new insights are welcome.