I’ve been messing around with loan ads for a while now, and honestly, targeting has been the part that confused me the most. When I first started, I assumed it was just about picking a country, setting a budget, and letting things run. Turns out, it’s not that simple. I kept seeing clicks but not much else, which made me wonder if I was even reaching the right people in the first place.
The biggest pain point for me was wasted traffic. I’d look at the stats and think, “Okay, people are clicking, but why aren’t they applying?” It felt like my ads were being shown to folks who were curious but had no real need for a loan. After talking with a few people in forums and testing things myself, I realized most of the problem came down to how I was targeting.
At first, I tried very broad targeting. I thought casting a wide net would give me more chances. What actually happened was the opposite. I got traffic from people who were students, retirees, or just browsing financial info with no intent to borrow. The clicks were cheap, but they didn’t mean anything. It was a classic case of quantity over quality, and it wasn’t helping.
Then I started narrowing things down. Location targeting was the first thing that made a real difference. Instead of targeting an entire country, I focused on specific regions where loan demand is usually higher. Even small changes here helped. I noticed fewer clicks overall, but the people who did click spent more time on the page and actually read the details. That alone felt like progress.
Another thing I tested was interest based targeting. This one was tricky. Some interest groups worked decently, like people already looking at finance related content. Others were a complete miss. I learned pretty quickly that not all “finance interested” users are looking for loans. Some just want news or investment tips. So I stopped relying only on interests and started mixing them with other filters.
What surprised me most was how effective timing and device targeting could be. For example, my loan ads seemed to do better on mobile during evening hours. My guess is people are more relaxed after work and more open to checking loan options then. Desktop traffic during office hours didn’t convert as well for me, at least not in my tests. This might differ for others, but it’s something worth watching.
I also experimented with different ad formats. When I used simple text focused ads, they worked okay for search type traffic. But when I tried loan display ads, I had to be more careful with targeting. Display can bring in a lot of eyeballs, but if it’s not shown to the right audience, it burns money fast. Retargeting helped here. Showing ads again to people who already visited my page gave me better results than cold traffic.
One thing I stopped doing was assuming there’s one perfect targeting option. That mindset slowed me down. What worked better was testing small changes one at a time. I’d adjust location, then interests, then device, and watch what happened. Over time, patterns started to show up. It wasn’t instant, but it felt more realistic than chasing some “magic” setting.
If you’re struggling like I was, my honest suggestion is to think about intent first. Ask yourself why someone would need a loan right now. Then try to match your targeting to that situation. Whether you’re running loan PPC campaigns or experimenting with display, the mindset really matters.
In the end, what worked best for me was a mix of location targeting, basic intent signals, and retargeting. Not perfect, not flawless, but way better than where I started. If you’re new to advertising for loan offers, don’t stress too much about getting it right on day one. Test, observe, and adjust. That’s really what made the difference for me.
