(5) Andromeda Algorithm during Black Friday

(5) Andromeda Algorithm during Black Friday

1. ANDROMEDA: How to face BFCM with this algorithm
2. ANDROMEDA: Creative Diversification Matrix
3. ANDROMEDA: CPM & Auction Dynamics
4. ANDROMEDA: My tests so far, what’s working

As we’ve said before,

What is Meta Andromeda?

• New ad delivery algorithm by Meta
• The engine that decides what specific ads do people see
• Initial implementation: March 2025
• Final implementation: July 2025
• It has created massive ROAS inconsistencies, CPMs increases and overall ads manager bugs for millions of advertisers
• This new algorithm uses GPU-accelerated (NVIDIA-class) to be able to process millions of ads before the auction
• Before every ad impression, Meta checks millions of ads and this happens:

What is the “Ad retrieval process”: first step where Meta gathers millions of eligible ads for a user (1 impression). After this huge pool, Meta goes into ranking the best ads and then it goes into auction to find the 1 ad that will get shown.

What has changed?

2021-2024 Algorithm:

• Machine Learning
• Gets the information from your pixel
• New ad set → Pick a sample audience of 8,000
• Understand who engages with the ad, who buys
• Look for people similar to those buyers
• We would target broad, but it was limited
• The goal of the algorithm was to learn WHO would buy and make audience matches

Andromeda

• GPU-accelerated and Artificial Intelligence, Predictive
• Gets the information from the full ad library available and from the user itself individually
• Goal: Predict which ad deserves exposure

ANDROMEDA: How to face BFCM with this algorithm

First let’s define what Meta Andromeda cares about:

• Personalization of ads
• Only show the most relevant ad to each user
• Strong signal quality, engagement signals
• Lots of creative options (Creative Diversity)

Now, the very first thing is to NOT work against it.

1. Horizontal duplication is no longer the best strategy
2. Weak signal: if you sell 90% to women and they are 40+, do NOT show teenagers in the ads, and do NOT show men in the ads - If the ad is the targeting, act accordingly
3. NO 1 hero ad sustaining the whole ad account

1. So for Black Friday, there is not 1 single ad that will save the ad account alone. It’s in the variety.
   
   We have to think about “ad packages”.
   
   We will see the CBO structure in the media buying blocks of this Mastermind.
   
2. Also, if we have 1 winning CBO, we will not duplicate it 5 times - I’m not saying we just do vertical scaling - I will still duplicate but more carefully, maybe just 1 time.
   
3. Focus on a lot of signal quality
   = Getting likes, clicks and purchases from the right people, so that Andromeda knows the ad is relevant to them and can push you up in the retrieval process

ANDROMEDA: Creative Diversification Matrix

Creative Diversification sounds good as a concept.

But it’s not so easy to put it into practice.

Diversity in what?

And also, we focus on covering the full spectrum of user intent, not just having random variety.

I will name it in this way:

Horizontal Creative Diversification:

• Ad formats
• Ad visuals (the graphic design of it)
• Messages
• Avatars

Vertical Creative Diversification:

• TOF: Discovery, curiosity, education, introduction
• MOF: Social proof, trends, authority, us vs them
• BOF: finish your purchase, discount, shipping, reviews

Andromeda Creative Diversification Matrix:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1FO9Jz12pAYR3YygzBglXsEu95ml1ZCXK4HjqtcNbL20/edit?usp=sharing

How to do creative diversification with 20 SKUs?

• CBO_Hero1_(CreativeDiversfication)
• CBO_Hero2_(CreativeDiversfication)
• CBO_Hero3_(CreativeDiversfication)
• CBO_ROPr(10pr)_(CreativeDiversfication)

In what order should we prioritize things?

This will help with CBO structure,

1. PRODUCT
2. AVATAR
3. ANGLE / BENEFIT / PAIN TO SOLVE
4. FUNNEL STAGE
5. AD FORMAT
6. AD CONCEPT

If I want to sell Magnesium to Women 30+,

I can do a CBO that has 3 ad sets based on the benefit / pain to solve:

• Ad set 1: Stress
• Ad set 2: Libido
• Ad set 3: Sleep

Inside each ad set I have ad format diversity, ad concept diversity, and different funnel stages.

If I want to sell boots to women 25-50

As there are no angles,

Option 1:

CBO_(Boots)

• Ad set 1: 20 prospecting ad creatives
• Ad set 2: 5 retargeting ad creatives

Option 2:

CBO_(Boots)

• Ad set 1: all ads together

ANDROMEDA: CPM & Auction Dynamics

Before Andromeda:

CPMs are determined by audience competition.

You compete with advertisers targeting the same audience.

If a lot of people target women 25-40 in LA, then it becomes very expensive.

Now (Andromeda):

CPMs are determined by creative competition inside the retrieval pool.

Meta retrieves hundreds of thousands of ad candidates for each impression.

Ads that perform better in early ranking tests (CTR, engagement, watch time, signal quality) are retrieved and ranked more often.

So, CPMs = how hard it is for your creative to win retrieval and ranking rounds.

**To be tested: how does this affect Cost Caps?

• First pass retrieval
• Then hack the auction

--

How to win in RETRIEVAL

• It means that your ad is seen by Meta and it appears in the candidate pool for that specific impression

1. Creative Diversity (Each format unlocks a different “retrieval entry point”)
2. Fresh Signals (Consistent daily engagement: likes, comments, shares, saves, video views, clicks, add to carts, …)

How to win in RANKING

• It means that you are ranked highly among other retrieved ads, so you outperform on predicted performance
• Andromeda uses neural ranking models to score each ad’s expected user value
• Make the algo believe your ad creates the best user experience

1. Hook Performance → CTR, watch time, first-frame retention. Scroll-Stopping capacity of your ad.
2. Signal Quality → Comments ratio, low hides, completion rate.

Are the users enjoying the ad?

3. User Match Relevance → Creative must feel native to that user’s intent or persona.

Avoid showing teens if 90% of your buyers are women 40+.

How to Win in AUCTION

• Among top-ranked ads, win the actual delivery spot, and get the impression
• Typical formula we already know:
  
  Total Value = Bid × Estimated Action Rate + User Value
  

1. High EAR: comes from consistent purchase data
2. Bid: Overbidding
3. User Value (like ranking): engagement, CTR, relevance, …

ANDROMEDA: My tests so far, what’s working

Tests done in the past with CBO Consolidation

United Kingdom, October 2024

Diversification = Lower CPM

And then later on in November, top 2 campaign

United States, October 2024

CBO Diversification = Best campaign in the ad account

CPM against ABOs in October:

Winner campaign in November:

Lowest CPM in the conversion campaigns:

To this day, that CBO is still active, 1 year:

In another account, I used to call this creative diversification CBOs, “Macro”:

Great performance on BFCM:

And then in evergreen, June-July I was also building CBOs with tons of ads inside, and they have kept stable performance for 4-5 months:

Looks like this at the ad set level, by ad format:

And like this, by color:

Now, Test in September / October 2025:

Ad Account #1:

1. One type of product, different colors
2. I lack creative diversification:
   → Split Screen image (Model / Product)
   → Single Product Images on white background
   → Multiproduct Collage image
3. No big breakthrough or crazy performance
4. In this account, I still have very strong ABO campaigns and manual retargeting at high budget, this could negatively affect these andromeda CBOs
5. Currently doing a real A/B test with the Meta tool, to fully comprehend the difference between only using 1 ad creative format and using 4 completely different ad formats

Ad Account #2:

The Andromeda CBO is the top performing campaign last 30 days:

The Andromeda CBO is the top performing campaign last 7 days:

But only diversifying does not guarantee low CPM, as it happens with overbidding:

Andromeda structure + Overbidding could be the key?

As I mentioned,

Currently doing a real A/B test with the Meta tool, to fully comprehend the difference between only using 1 ad creative format and using 4 completely different ad formats

Will share the results next week in the media buying part of the coaching.

Another thing,

We see the Andromeda CBO gets good ROAS,

Now let’s understand if 1 ad is doing prospecting and the other is doing retargeting.

Go into the ads:

Then select the prospecting ad (the one spending more money) and the retargeting ad (low spend, high roas):

Check the reach per ad and the total reach:

6460 + 1679 = 8139

Compared to the total unique reach of 8056,

That means that only 83 people are being retargeted from one ad to the other.

In this case it’s very low,

So the only possible way to see if the low spend ad is retargeting, is by looking at the frequency

Not very high - So not confirmed it’s retargeting.