Meta Andromeda: The AI Engine Redefining Facebook & Instagram Ads in 2025
In late 2024 and rolling fully into 2025, Meta quietly introduced one of its most important advertising updates in years: Meta Andromeda.
Unlike surface level ad updates, Andromeda is not a new feature inside Ads Manager it’s the AI retrieval engine working behind the scenes, deciding which ads are even eligible to be shown to a user in the first place.
This marks a fundamental shift in how Facebook and Instagram advertising works.
What Is Meta Andromeda?
According to Meta’s own engineering team, Andromeda is a next-generation, AI-powered ad retrieval system designed to replace older, rule based ad selection methods with advanced machine learning models.
Instead of relying heavily on:
⦁ Manual audience targeting
⦁ Interest buckets
⦁ Demographic rules
Andromeda uses AI to:
⦁ Scan millions of ad creatives in real time
⦁ Predict which ads are most relevant for each individual user
⦁ Shortlist the best candidates before ranking even begins
This happens before bidding and delivery optimisation making it one of the most influential parts of the ad system.
How Andromeda Changes Ad Delivery (Simplified)
Meta now splits ad delivery into two major stages:
1. Retrieval (Andromeda’s role)
Andromeda decides which ads are worth considering for a user based on predicted relevance, creative signals, and behavioural data.
2. Ranking & Optimisation
Only after retrieval does Meta apply bidding, placements, and performance optimisation.
This means: If your creative doesn’t send strong relevance signals, it may never even reach the ranking stage.
What Meta Confirms Andromeda Improves
Meta has publicly stated that Andromeda has delivered measurable improvements across the platform, including:
⦁ Higher ad quality scores
⦁ Better recall and relevance
⦁ More efficient delivery at scale
⦁ Stronger performance for automation first campaigns
Independent marketing analysis also confirms that Andromeda works most effectively when paired with Meta Advantage+ campaigns.
Why Andromeda Makes Creative the New Targeting
One of the biggest consequences of Andromeda is this:
Creative has effectively become the new targeting layer.
Instead of asking:
“Who should I target?”
Meta’s AI now asks:
“Which message, visual, and format best matches this user’s intent right now?”
This explains why many advertisers are seeing:
⦁ Broad targeting outperforming narrow audiences
⦁ Creative variety driving stronger results
⦁ Manual micro segmentation losing effectiveness
Smart Web Design Insight
At Smart Web Design, we’re already adapting strategies around Andromeda by:
⦁ Prioritising creative diversity over audience complexity
⦁ Using founder led and UGC style content to send stronger relevance signals
⦁ Letting AI handle delivery while we focus on message, offer, and storytelling
⦁ Designing campaigns for learning speed, not rigid control
Andromeda doesn’t remove strategy it demands better strategy.
Brands that understand this shift will scale faster. Brands that fight automation will struggle.
What Businesses Should Do Next
To align with Andromeda in 2025:
⦁ Use Advantage+ campaigns wherever possible
⦁ Upload multiple creative variations, not just one ad
⦁ Focus on clear value propositions, not clever targeting hacks
⦁ Measure engagement quality (watch time, comments, saves)
⦁ Think like a content brand not just an advertiser
This is the future of Meta advertising and it’s already live.
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