Techniques for targeting media content items for weakly connected devices are described. In some embodiments, a model building method in preparation for approximated personalization is performed at a server. The server uses data from fully connected devices to build a full model, which classifies profiles into clusters and tags targeted content with content rankings. The server also builds device models that approximate the full model. The server then sends the device models to user devices for targeted content selection. In some embodiments, a content selection method for approximated personalization is performed at a user device. The user device receives parameters of a device model trained by a server. The user device then executes the device model using local user data to assign a profile to a cluster and selects targeted content for the profile based on the cluster assignment and the rankings of the targeted content.