Who should I actually target?

It's tempting to narrow targeting down tightly — a specific age range, specific interests, a small radius — believing that precision saves money. In practice, Meta's algorithm usually performs better with a slightly broader audience, because it has more people to learn from and can find the ones most likely to respond on its own, faster than a manually narrowed audience lets it.

For most trade businesses, the two settings that matter most are location (a radius around your actual service area — no point advertising to people you can't reasonably drive to) and a sensible age range if your service clearly skews toward homeowners (typically 28+ rather than including under-25s who are less likely to own a home needing trade work).

Interest-based targeting (people who 'like' home renovation pages, for example) can help but is often less reliable than it sounds — Meta's own inferred interests aren't always accurate. Location and basic demographics, kept broad, is usually the highest-leverage starting point.