Meta's Andromeda engine matches creative to users at retrieval, which means the creative is the targeting now. The working guidance is 10 to 15 genuinely distinct assets per Advantage+ campaign - concepts and angles, not colour swaps. Consolidated structures and volume beat granular audiences. And AI-generated assets now need disclosure.
For years, the paid social lever everyone reached for was the audience - stack interests, layer lookalikes, slice by behaviour. Meta's Andromeda retrieval engine has quietly moved the lever. Andromeda decides which of your creatives to retrieve and show to which user, from a much broader pool. In practice, the creative has become the targeting.
Building a creative system that actually feeds the machine - and knowing what to test next - is the core of how we run paid social.
What Andromeda changed
The system rewards feeding it a greater diversity, and often volume, of creative and showing it to a broad audience. Meta's AI then works out which messages, formats and angles resonate with different sets of people. Consolidation compounds this: advertisers who moved from fragmented structures to Advantage+ have seen up to a 32% CPA reduction, and 91% of Meta advertisers now run AI-optimised campaigns.
The numbers that matter now
The centre of gravity has moved from audience settings to creative supply.
Source: Meta announcements and advertiser reporting, 2026; compiled by The Digital Lighthouse.What 'distinct' actually means
This is where most accounts go wrong. Fifteen creatives that are the same idea in different colours is one creative. Andromeda wants genuinely different concepts - different hooks, formats, value propositions, and messengers. A founder talking to camera, a UGC unboxing, a bold static claim, a problem-agitation reel and a product-demo carousel are five distinct things. Five background-colour variants are one.
- Vary the angle - price, speed, status, problem, proof.
- Vary the format - static, reel, carousel, UGC, motion.
- Vary the messenger - founder, customer, creator, brand voice.
- Then let Andromeda decide - and read the winners weekly.
If you use AI tools such as Midjourney, DALL-E, ElevenLabs or similar to generate creative assets, those ads now need to carry a disclosure. It's easy to overlook when you're producing at volume - build it into your QA so it isn't a compliance problem later.
If your paid social is still built around audiences rather than a creative system, that gap is usually the single biggest opportunity we find. It's a typical focus of a strategic review.
Frequently asked questions
How many creatives do I need per Advantage+ campaign?
The working guidance is 10 to 15 genuinely distinct assets per campaign - different concepts, angles and formats, not colour or copy variants of one idea. Andromeda performs best with real diversity to retrieve from.
Does audience targeting still matter on Meta?
Less than it used to. With Andromeda and Advantage+, broad targeting plus strong, diverse creative usually outperforms tightly sliced audiences. The creative is doing the targeting work now.
Do I need to disclose AI-generated ads on Meta?
Yes. If you use generative AI tools such as Midjourney, DALL-E or ElevenLabs to create ad assets, those ads must now include a disclosure. Build the check into your creative QA.
What counts as a distinct creative?
A distinct creative is a different concept - a different hook, format, value proposition or messenger - not the same idea recoloured or lightly reworded. Think a founder video versus a UGC unboxing versus a static claim.