What changed with Andromeda, and what does it mean for our account structure?
By Dan BartleyUpdated 3 minute read
The short answer
Andromeda is the system Meta uses to choose the few thousand ads each person could see from tens of millions of candidates, and it made the creative itself the main targeting signal. For account structure that means fewer, broader campaigns and ad sets, Advantage+ settings switched on, and many genuinely different ads, because near-identical ads give the system little new to work with.
What is Andromeda, in plain terms?
It is the retrieval stage of Meta's ad delivery, the first step, which narrows tens of millions of ad candidates down to a few thousand that could suit a person. Meta announced it in December 2024 and reported a 6% improvement in recall and an 8% improvement in ad quality on selected segments.
Ranking and the auction still happen after retrieval. What changed is how closely the shortlist fits each person, and your ads are the material it chooses from.
What changed for advertisers?
The ads now do most of the targeting. With a far larger pool of candidates matched to each person, the creative tells the system who an ad is for, so the variety in your ads sets how many kinds of buyer you can reach.
| Part of the account | Before | Now |
|---|---|---|
| Targeting | Interests and lookalikes chosen by the buyer | Broad or Advantage+ audience, with the creative as the signal |
| Structure | Many ad sets split by audience | Few ad sets, consolidated so each gets enough results to learn |
| Creative | A few winners rotated with small variations | Many distinct concepts, angles and formats |
| Testing | Separate testing campaigns with their own budgets | Tests inside the live campaign, or a small test campaign that feeds it |
What should account structure look like now?
Keep it simple: one or two sales campaigns with Advantage+ campaign budget, broad or Advantage+ audience, and a deep bench of distinct ads in each ad set. Consolidating gives each ad set enough results to learn, where splitting by interest divides them.
Meta has also merged Advantage+ shopping and manual sales campaigns into one setup. Meta's developer notes say a sales campaign counts as Advantage+ when it uses Advantage+ campaign budget, Advantage+ audience in at least one ad set and Advantage+ placements in all of them.
- A main sales campaign with Advantage+ on, carrying most of the budget
- Separate ad sets only where the goal is genuinely different, such as new versus returning customers
- Creative tests inside the main campaign, or in a small test campaign that moves winners across
- Ad names that record concept, angle and format, so results can be read by idea
How different do the ads need to be?
Different in idea, not only in finish. A new crop, colour or headline on the same photo gives the system almost nothing new to match, while a new buyer, setting or format gives it a new route to people.
- A different buyer, and the problem the product solves for them
- A different setting or scene for the product
- A different format: static, short video or carousel
- A different angle: quality, price, proof, use or gift
- A different opening: the first second of a video or the headline of a static
There is more on this in how different creatives need to be under Andromeda.
What has not changed with Andromeda?
Tracking, offer and product page still decide what the system has to work with. Andromeda picks better candidates, but it cannot repair a broken pixel, a weak offer or a product page that does not convert.
- Purchases reaching Meta through both the pixel and Conversions API, matching Shopify orders
- An offer that gives a stranger a reason to buy now
- Product pages that answer price, delivery and returns before checkout
- A breakeven ROAS that every target is set against
Other questions people ask about this
Do interests and lookalikes still work?
They still exist, but with Advantage+ audience your inputs act as suggestions rather than limits, and broad targeting with strong creative usually matches them. Test it in your own account before switching everything.
Read the full answerShould we still run ABO testing campaigns?
Some teams do, and it works if winners move into the main campaign quickly, ideally with their existing post so engagement carries over. The alternative is testing inside the main campaign so nothing it has learned is lost.
Read the full answerDid Andromeda make ads more expensive?
Not on its own. Costs move with competition, season and creative quality; what changed is that accounts with little creative variety reach their limit sooner.
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