Meta Andromeda: why Malaysian Facebook ads changed

If your Facebook ads cost more or get fewer results than they used to, Meta Andromeda may be part of the story. Meta Andromeda is the AI system that shortlists which ads each person on Facebook and Instagram can see. For a Malaysian SME, the fix Meta points to is fewer ad sets and more varied ads.

Last updated: 14 September 2026, checked against Meta's own pages.

Key takeaways

• Andromeda is ad retrieval, the first step of ad delivery. Meta says it narrows "tens of millions of ads to the few thousand we consider showing someone" (Meta for Business).
• Meta's advice has moved from targeting to creative. The focus "has shifted from niche targeting to creative diversification", Meta says (Meta for Business).
• Before blaming Andromeda, check the basics: the learning phase (about 50 results a week), budget flexibility (up to 75% over daily budget) and, for single-creative ad sets, creative fatigue (twice your past cost per result).
• Ads Manager now rates creative variety with a Creative diversity label per ad set, added in August 2026 (Meta Business Help Centre, Search Engine Land).

What is Meta Andromeda?

Meta Andromeda is Meta's machine learning system for ad retrieval, the first stage of choosing which ads a person on Facebook or Instagram might see. It narrows tens of millions of eligible ads to a few thousand candidates. Meta's engineers described it on 2 December 2024, and since Q4 2025 it "can now run on Nvidia, AMD, and MTIA" chips.

Advertisers call it the Andromeda update, but we found no Meta switch-on date, only a system "introduced in 2024" and improved since (Meta for Business). It is not a setting in Ads Manager (our guide to setting up Meta Ads Manager for a Malaysian business covers those) but the first of three stages: retrieval, then ranking by models Meta calls GEM and Lattice, then an auction that picks "the ad with the highest total value" (Meta Business Help Centre).

Why are my Facebook ads not working like before?

In our view, the usual cause is an account built for the old playbook: many small ad sets, narrow interests and near-identical ads. Meta's Help Centre warns that when you run too many ads at once, each ad delivers less often and fewer exit the learning phase. If your ads are not delivering at all, start with these six checks, each from Meta's Help Centre.

1. Ad review. Most ads are reviewed "within 24 hours", then "either rejected or allowed to run" (Meta Business Help Centre).
2. Account restrictions. Policy breaches or "high rates of failed payments" can restrict an account (Meta Business Help Centre). See our guide to rejected Meta ads and restricted accounts.
3. Learning limited. Meta's fixes start with combining ad sets and campaigns (Meta Business Help Centre).
4. Budget swings. For some accounts, Meta "may spend up to 75% over your daily budget on some days", but "won't spend more than seven times your daily budget" in a week (Meta Business Help Centre).
5. Creative fatigue. Flagged at twice the cost per result of ads you ran before, only for ad sets with one creative (Meta Business Help Centre).
6. Weak Pixel or Conversions API data. Meta says this data helps "decrease cost per result" (Meta Business Help Centre).

How long does the Facebook ads learning phase last?

An ad set usually leaves the learning phase after about 50 results in the week after its last significant edit, Meta says. Significant edits, such as adding a new ad or changing targeting or creative, restart it. While it lasts, the Delivery column reads "Learning".

Does Meta Andromeda group similar ads together (Entity IDs)?

Meta has not said so. "Entity ID" is a practitioner term, not a Meta one: Chris Pollard of Ads Uploader calls it "an explanatory device for this clustering behavior rather than an official term Meta publishes" (Ads Uploader). The closest Meta signal is the Creative diversity metric, which Meta does not link to Andromeda.

Closest Meta signal. Creative diversity labels each ad set by comparing its images and video thumbnails "to each other to determine similarity" (Meta Business Help Centre). It does not compare your text, and Meta calls it "estimated and in development".

The practical rule is Meta's own: a new ad should be "materially different from the original creative", not a tweak (Meta Business Help Centre).

How many Meta ads should a Malaysian SME run now?

Meta no longer gives a fixed number. Jon Loomer reports that Meta dropped its old advice of six or fewer ads per ad set, and his own view is that "a six (or so) ad maximum per ad set" still suits a moderate or modest budget. Meta's Help Centre adds that "one ad can contain multiple (up to ten) creative assets".

In our view, on a budget near RM 2,000 a month, start with one ad set holding four to six genuinely different concepts. The 3:2:2 format (three videos, two primary texts and two headlines, per marketer Charley Tichenor) is a practitioner format, not a Meta rule; Meta's guidance is fewer ads per ad set with diverse assets.

Should I still use interest targeting and separate ad sets?

In our view, most Malaysian SMEs no longer need stacked interest targeting or one ad set per audience. Meta's Advantage+ audience page says "by targeting the broadest possible audience, you enable our system to find more potential customers". Meta's Help Centre also suggests combining ad sets split only to report on each audience or to cover small areas.

Illustration (about ad sets): RM 2,000 a month is about RM 460 a week. At RM 15 an enquiry, five ad sets get about six results a week each; one ad set gets roughly 30, still under 50, so it may stay Learning limited.

For language, Meta says to "set multiple languages in a single ad set". Dynamic language optimisation lets one ad carry up to 48 more languages for "people who speak them". It works only for single image or single video ads, not ads that open a messaging app such as WhatsApp, and is moving into a new Translations step.

What Meta ads creative works after Andromeda?

After Andromeda, Meta recommends creative diversification: ads with "different themes, messages, and visuals". That means mixing formats, building each new concept as its own ad rather than a tweak of an old one, and checking the Creative diversity column for each ad set (Search Engine Land).

Adding an ad or changing its creative is a significant edit that restarts learning, and a new ad set per test also starts in the learning phase and splits the budget. In our view, add new concepts to your existing ad set together, and avoid swapping a live ad's creative.

Illustration (a made-up business): a Shah Alam aircon company, one broad ad set, five concepts:

1. Price: static image.
2. Same-day service slot: Reels video.
3. Warranty: carousel.
4. Customer review: WhatsApp review image, with permission.
5. Hot-weather breakdowns: a single video sending people to the website, with Malay, English and Chinese text via dynamic language optimisation.

Hiring an agency? Use our questions for choosing a digital marketing agency in Malaysia.

Why does your website matter more when Meta picks the audience?

When Meta chooses the audience, the ad and where it sends people do more of the convincing. In our view at Acclaira, a WhatsApp chat is a fine next step, but only a landing page is yours for Google and AI assistants to read. Meta's guidance for ad sets getting fewer than about 50 conversions a week points to landing page view optimisation, which needs a page.

In Q1 2026, Meta said ranking-stage changes to Lattice and GEM "drove a more than 6% increase in conversion rate for landing page view ads" (Q1 2026 remarks). See Instagram, WhatsApp or a real website.

Message Acclaira on WhatsApp for a second opinion on your ads and landing page.

Sources

• Engineering at Meta, Meta Andromeda: Supercharging Advantage+ automation with the next-gen personalized ads retrieval engine, 2 December 2024.
• Meta for Business, AI Innovation in Meta's Ads Ranking Driving Advertiser Performance, 27 March 2025.
• Meta for Business, The Creative Advantage: Unlocking the Power of Diversification with Meta Andromeda, 22 April 2025.
• Meta, Q3 2025 earnings prepared remarks, 29 October 2025.
• Meta, Q4 2025 earnings prepared remarks, 28 January 2026.
• Meta, Q1 2026 earnings prepared remarks, 29 April 2026.
• Meta, Q2 2026 earnings prepared remarks, 29 July 2026.
• Meta Business Help Centre, Creative diversity.
• Search Engine Land, Meta Ads: Why creative diversity matters more than volume, 26 August 2026.
• Meta Business Help Centre, About ad auctions.
• Meta Business Help Centre, About ads in review.
• Meta Business Help Centre, About advertising restrictions.
• Meta Business Help Centre, About Conversions API.
• Meta Business Help Centre, About managing ad volume.
• Meta Business Help Centre, About the learning phase.
• Meta Business Help Centre, Significant edits and learning phase.
• Meta Business Help Centre, About learning limited.
• Meta Business Help Centre, Understand fluctuations in ad performance.
• Meta Business Help Centre, About creative fatigue recommendations in Meta Ads Manager.
• Meta Business Help Centre, Create an ad using dynamic language optimisation.
• Meta Business Help Centre, Best practices for landing page view performance goals.
• Meta for Business, Advantage+ audience.
• Jon Loomer, Meta Andromeda: What It Means for Your Ad Strategy, updated 15 December 2025.
• Jon Loomer, No More Six Ad Limit Per Ad Set.
• Chris Pollard, Ads Uploader, Meta Andromeda Explained: Entity IDs vs Creative Volume, updated 4 June 2026.
• Charley Tichenor, Disrupter Dispatch, How to Build a 3:2:2 Ad, 6 February 2024.