01 · Say it in the ad
Local words do the targeting
Name the towns, show places people know, and say who it's for: 'for Coast homeowners', 'Wyong to Toukley'. Visitors scroll past. Locals stop.
Social media marketing Central Coast
Social media,
Central Coast.
For a Coast business, social media marketing mostly means Facebook and Instagram ads to a small local audience. Small is the point and the problem: the right people see you fast, then keep seeing the same ad. And Meta's location setting counts visitors as locals, unless the ad itself does the sorting.
Written by Dan Picken, based on the Central Coast. Last checked 1 November 2026.How big is the audience?
Smaller than
it looks.
- 65.3%Of Australia's population can be reached with Facebook ads (end of 2025)
- 56.0%Can be reached with Instagram ads
- ~225,000People on the Coast, if it matches the national Facebook share
The Coast's figure is my estimate: about 345,000 people in the 2021 estimate, times the national Facebook share. Add an age range, or keep to one part of the Coast, and a typical local audience drops to tens of thousands. That's why frequency, not reach, is usually the number to watch here.
Same-faces check
How often will
they see you?
A Coast audience runs out quickly. Tick where your customers are, pick a platform, and put in your weekly budget and the CPM from your Ads Manager (what you pay for 1,000 views). It shows how many people you can reach and how often each of them would see your ad.
$12 is only an example. Use the CPM column in your own Ads Manager. Your audience will be smaller still once you add an age range or interests.
Estimated people you could reach
0
Views a week
Times each person sees you, if you reached them all
An estimate: Meta never reaches everyone, so real reach is lower and real frequency is higher.
The 'recently in' problem
Meta can't tell a local
from a visitor.
For most accounts, Meta's ads now have one location option: people living in or recently in the area. You can no longer pick 'people who live here' on its own. In most places that barely matters. On the Coast, with 5.9 million visits in the year to June 2026, it does.
A holiday-maker in Terrigal for a week is 'recently in' Terrigal. For a café, perfect. For a bathroom renovator, that's a click from someone who'll be back in Penrith on Sunday. Since the setting can't fix it, three other things have to.
02 · Draw it tighter
Smaller areas, not the whole Coast
If your work comes from the north, target the north. A smaller area holds fewer visitors, and the budget isn't spread across people who'll never drive to you.
03 · Check it
Look at where the money went
Ads Manager can break results down by region. In the first weeks, check where the spend went and adjust before it adds up.
What I see most often
Where Coast social
budgets go.
- 1
Pressing 'Boost' and walking away
A boosted post with the suggested audience reaches people who like things, not people who buy things. It feels like marketing and rarely rings the phone.
- 2
One ad for three months
On a small audience, the same ad turns into wallpaper within weeks. The Coast runs out of new faces faster than a Sydney campaign would.
- 3
Sydney-style content for a Coast crowd
Stock photos of a city skyline, slang nobody here uses. People trust businesses that look like they live here.
- 4
Counting likes instead of calls
Likes are cheap. If the tracking can't say which ads brought calls, messages or bookings, there's no way to know what to keep.
The honest bit. When a pipe bursts, nobody opens Instagram. For urgent services, Google is where the money should go first. Social works best for things people don't know they want yet, like a new café, a renovation, a gym, or for staying in mind until they do.
Questions
people ask.
Facebook or Instagram for a Central Coast business?
Usually both, run from the same Meta account, with Facebook doing more of the work. Nationally, Facebook ads reach more of the population than Instagram ads (65.3% against 56.0%). Food, fashion and lifestyle businesses often lean more to Instagram, so test both and let the results decide.
Is boosting a post worth it?
Now and then, for something people would share anyway, like an event or a new opening. As a way to get customers, a proper campaign in Ads Manager is better: you choose the result you want, the area and the audience, and you can see what it brought in.
Why are my Facebook ads reaching people who don't live here?
Meta has one location option now: people living in or recently in the area. On the Coast that includes visitors. Use a tighter area, local wording in the ad, and check the regional breakdown in Ads Manager.
How often should a Coast business post?
Often enough to look open, which for most small businesses is once or twice a week. Real jobs, real people and local places beat polished posts. If posting is eating your week, put that time into ads and reviews instead.
What do I get in the free Meta ads audit?
I go through your Facebook and Instagram ad account: tracking, structure, audiences and the ads themselves, and send the 3 fixes that matter most. Then a 20-minute call to go through them.
Related
Keep
going.
- ServiceMeta ads (Facebook and Instagram)The full service, anywhere in Australia.
- RegionGoogle Ads, Central CoastLocation settings and an ad radius checker.
- RegionSEO, Central CoastArea pages, Google Maps and reviews.
- RegionCentral CoastThe Coast by the numbers, and how Coasties search.
- LabHow to use the Meta Ad LibrarySee what other Coast businesses are running.
- IndustryHospitality marketingFor cafés, venues and stays that live on visitors.
Get a free
Meta ads audit.
Takes a minute. Audits come back within 1 to 2 business days. For anything else, I'll get back to you as soon as possible.
What happens next
- 1I'll ask for read-only access, or just your website for a search audit.
- 2I go through it and write up the 3 biggest fixes.
- 3A 20-minute call to walk you through it. No pitch unless you ask.