Meta Andromeda: why creative diversity matters as much as targeting

What Andromeda is

Meta introduced Andromeda in December 2024 as a personalised ads retrieval engine. It works at the first stage of the recommendation system: it narrows candidates from tens of millions to a few thousand, before ranking models choose the ad that is shown.

According to Meta, the system improved recall at the retrieval stage by 6% and ads quality by 8% on the segments studied.

Why Meta built it

The reason is volume. With Advantage+ and generative tools, the number of ads exploded: Meta said at the time that more than a million advertisers had used its generative AI tools to create more than 15 million ads in a month. The previous retrieval system could not keep up.

What it changes for advertisers

When selection relies on the content of the ads, the creative itself acts as targeting: an angle, a person, a problem or a format speaks to different audiences.

Meta does not publish a precise rule on how many or which creatives to supply. But the logic is clear: ten versions of the same visual in different colours add little new information; three genuinely distinct concepts add much more.

Adapt the campaign structure

A few practical principles follow:

• Fewer, broader ad sets, so each one gets enough signal.
• Several genuinely different concepts per ad set: angle, proof, format, person on screen.
• A mix of formats: image, short video, carousel, creator-style content.
• A naming convention that shows which concept wins.
• A decision made on cost per qualified lead, not click-through rate.

What a genuinely different concept is

Two ads are different when they give a different reason to care about the offer, not when they change colour. A few concept families to combine:

• The problem: show the situation the customer wants to leave.
• The proof: a testimonial, a verifiable result, a before and after.
• The demonstration: the product or service in action.
• The comparison: what the offer changes versus the usual alternative.
• The person: the founder or an expert on camera.
• The offer: the price, the trial or the guarantee put forward.

A simple production plan

There is no need to produce fifty creatives. Three angles, each in two formats, for example an image and a short video, give six genuinely distinct ads. That is enough of a base to learn from.

Each month, keep the winning angle, replace the losing one with a new angle, and produce the winner in one more format.

Reading results without fooling yourself

A few habits prevent wrong conclusions:

• It is normal for spend to concentrate on one or two ads: that is how the system works.
• Do not cut an ad after two days; give it enough delivery to be judged.
• Judge by concept, grouping the formats of the same angle.
• Refresh a concept when its frequency rises and its cost per result worsens.

What not to conclude

Andromeda does not mean targeting has disappeared or that creative volume is enough. The quality of the conversion signal remains decisive: a system that optimises for the wrong event will find the wrong people very efficiently.

And no official figure says how many creatives you need. Be wary of recipes that announce a magic number.

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