Most marketers assume that poor ad performance is a targeting problem. When campaigns underperform, the instinct is to tweak audiences, add exclusions, or chase ever more specific segments. But after managing over $2M in monthly ad spend and analyzing thousands of campaigns across SaaS and performance-driven brands, a different pattern emerged: targeting was rarely the real issue.

In many cases, the targeting was already precise, data-informed, and well-structured. What was failing was the creative. Generic stock imagery, predictable messaging, and low-effort visuals were quietly killing performance before targeting ever had a chance to work.