Thinking
January 16, 2026
Read time:
3 Minutes
Everyone’s recently been saying run fewer ads post-Andromeda. They’re wrong.
Running fewer ads means less variation in your account. Most people have completely misunderstood how this algorithm works.
Before Andromeda, you built audiences and served them ads. You’d create an audience, launch multiple ads, and target that created audience. The ads were the variable, the audience was the constant. Simple.
Now it’s the complete opposite.
Each creative finds its own audience on a 1:1 basis. Ad sets and audiences don’t do what they used to do. The creative IS the audience.
Here’s where most people go wrong.
If you only have one creative, you can’t tell if that audience profile is successful.
If you have completely different creatives with nothing in common, same problem - no way to validate what’s actually working.
You’re just throwing random ads at the wall hoping something sticks.
The Creative Concept Stack
You need multiple variations of the same concept. This is completely different from just “testing new ads.”
Example:
Product-in-use with testimonial overlay works for most ecommerce brands. Your job isn’t to find one good execution and move on. It’s to find 3-5 variations of that exact concept.
- Different products in use with different testimonials.
- Different settings with the same overlay format.
- Different customer types, but with the same concept.
You’re stacking variations to let Meta find the audience that responds to this concept.
Then you find your next concept and do the same thing.
- Maybe founder story variations explaining the brand origin.
- Maybe lifestyle statics showing the product in aspirational settings.
- Maybe problem-solution formats highlighting specific pain points.
Stack each concept with multiple variations, let each concept find its audience, and validate what actually works at scale.
This is why the “run less ads” advice is killing accounts. It’s never been more important to have diverse creative, but “diverse” doesn’t mean every single creative should be completely different.
It means multiple variations of proven concepts, stacked together. Then allowing the algorithm to find the audiences that respond to each concept type.
If you’re running 5 totally different ads with nothing in common, you’re not giving Meta enough signal. If you’re running one ad per concept, you can’t validate if the concept works or if you just got lucky with one execution.
Stack concepts, validate patterns, scale what works.
Is Your Creative Strategy Actually Working?
Most brands we audit are either running too few concepts or have little variation within each concept. Both kill your ability to scale.
Book a free growth audit and we’ll show you:
- Which concepts are finding profitable audiences (and which aren’t)
- Creative concepts you are missing out on
- How to scale your ad account past 7 & 8 figures
We’ve used our frameworks to help scale 250+ ecommerce brands.
Check if your account qualifies for a free growth audit below.
