> There is an underlying principle in the world of sales / marketing etc that basically boils down to show the right people the right message at the right time.

> There is an underlying principle in the world of sales / marketing etc that basically boils down to show the right people the right message at the right time. That's kind of the industry mantra for us, marketers. The reality is much more complex than that, goes beyond that to be quite honest. You just have to ask the question: "What's the right time to reach the right someone, with the right message?" And you'll find out the answer to that exercise is a game of Darts, with hits and misses, and as a consequence a lot of wastage. But that's the game we chose to play. Now, of course if you're reaching people who left your eCommerce shop and you retarget them with the items they have on their basket, it's a personalized ad that has a great probability to get results because you are reaching people who expressed a very specific behavior. But this, as you know, it's a rather small slice of your potential customers. But for example, when you say: >useless audience group like “women 18-24” then your results are going to suck for a multitude of reasons. If your product offer is a pill that helps to relief period pain and cramps, why isn't this a valid audience? Or the pill needs to be a "a pill for early teen women that like skateboards and scratch off tickets"? In my point of view the problem isn't the lack of personalization, or the need for it, but more a matter of saturation of some media channels.