For a long time, Meta Ads have seemed a little bit smoke-and-mirrors-esque.
Like there’s a metaphorical red velvet curtain between business owners and specialists, with some serious trickery and maybe even a bit of magic going on backstage.
For the unacquainted, it has often felt like there are thousands of levers to control, and only the best of the best know which ones to use and when.
- Campaign structure.
- Interest targeting.
- Lookalike audiences.
- Retargeting layers.
- Budget splits.
- Placements.
- Bidding.
- Learning phases.
- Attribution windows.
And for a long time, a lot of Meta Ads strategy really was built around that kind of manual control. But the world of Meta Ads has changed drastically.
Today, Meta’s platform is far more automated, more AI-driven and much better at using its own delivery systems to decide who should see which ad.
Updates like Andromeda and GEM are a huge part of that shift. And because of that, there has been a lot more discussion around ad creative and whether it now matters more than campaign setup itself.
But the answer is not quite as simple as saying one matters and the other does not.
Creative has become one of the biggest performance levers in Meta Ads. But that does not make campaign setup null and void.
The clearest way to think about it is this:
Your creative gives Meta the signals and your campaign setup gives those signals the best chance to work.
- Meta Ads have become more automated, which means creative now plays a bigger role in helping Meta understand who your ad is for and why they may respond to it.
- Strong creative is not just good design. It includes the hook, message, offer, format, proof and the different angles you use to speak to different buyers.
- Campaign setup still matters because Meta needs the right objective, conversion event, tracking, budget structure and testing environment to learn properly.
- The best results come from creative and setup working together: varied ad creative gives Meta strong signals, while a clean campaign structure gives those signals the best chance to perform.
Meta Ads have changed
A few years ago, a lot of Meta Ads strategy was built around manual control.
Advertisers would spend a lot of time building detailed audience segments, testing interests, creating lookalikes, splitting ad sets and trying to control exactly who saw each ad.
That world has not disappeared completely, but it’s definitely not at the centre of effective Meta advertising as it once was. A lot has changed in Meta over the last few years.
Privacy changes, reduced tracking visibility and major improvements in Meta’s machine learning systems have pushed advertisers towards broader targeting, cleaner campaign structures and stronger creative inputs.
In simple terms, Meta has become better at deciding who is likely to respond to an ad.
That means the ad itself now carries more weight.
Your creative is no longer just the thing people see. It is also one of the key ways Meta understands what you are offering, who it may appeal to and how people are responding to it.
That is why creative has become so important.
Not because campaign setup isn’t important.
But because the campaign needs strong creative inputs for Meta to learn from.
What Andromeda and GEM mean in simple terms
You don’t need to understand every technical detail of Meta’s advertising infrastructure to understand the practical impact.
The important thing is that Meta has invested heavily in AI systems that help decide which ads are retrieved, ranked and shown to different people.
Andromeda is part of Meta’s ad retrieval process. That means it helps Meta sort through a large pool of potential ads and decide which ones should be considered for a person before the final ad is selected.
A simple way to think about it is:
Andromeda helps Meta decide which ads are relevant enough to enter the auction.
GEM stands for Generative Ads Recommendation Model.
A simple way to think about it is:
GEM helps Meta predict which ads are likely to be relevant to each person.
It means Meta is becoming better at reading signals and matching ads to people. That means your creative needs to give the platform something useful to work with.
If all your ads look the same, say the same thing and speak to the same type of customer, you are limiting what Meta can use to learn.
If your campaign is structured poorly, your tracking is weak, or your optimisation event is wrong, you are also limiting what Meta can do with that creative.
And this is why the conversation shouldn’t really be “setup versus creative.”
It should be:
How do we make the whole thing work better together?
Why creative carries more weight now
Creative is one of the clearest signals you give Meta.
Each ad tells the platform something about:
- For example, imagine a business is running Meta Ads for a professional service.
- Another might speak to people who are comparing options.
- Another might focus on trust, experience and credentials.
- Another might explain the process in a simple way.
- Another might use a client story or testimonial style format.
- Another might lead with price, value or a clear offer.
Those are not just different designs. They are different strategic angles.
Meta can then use performance signals to understand which messages resonate with which people.
That is why creative diversification matters so much.
It’s not about making ten slightly different versions of the same ad.
It’s about giving Meta genuinely different ways to understand and match your offer to the right person.
Better creative is not just better design
One of the biggest mistakes you can make is thinking creative is just what an ad looks like.
Design matters. Trust us, a poor visual can absolutely hurt performance.
But in Meta Ads, creative is about way more than the design.
It includes the concept, the hook, the message, the format, the offer, the proof and how the ad fits naturally into the feed.
A polished ad with a weak message will still struggle.
A simple ad with a strong hook and clear relevance can often outperform something that looks more professionally designed.
Better creative usually means stronger variation across a few key areas.
Message variety
Different customers care about different things.
- Some are motivated by speed.
- Some care about price.
- Some need reassurance.
- Some want proof.
- Some are comparing providers.
- Some do not fully understand the problem yet
Your ads should not all say the same thing.
You may need ads built around different angles, like…
- Pain points
- Benefits
- Proof
- Education
- Comparison
- Common objections
- Urgency
- Trust
- Process
- Results or outcomes, where appropriate and compliant
Format variety
Different people engage with different formats.
- A static image may work well for a clear offer.
- A short video may work better for education.
- A founder-led video may build trust.
- A carousel may explain a process.
- A testimonial-style ad may help reduce hesitation.
The goal is not to create variety for the sake of it. The goal is to give Meta more meaningful signals and give your audience more ways to connect with the offer.
Hook variety
You have to hook people in.
Your hook is often what determines whether someone stops scrolling or keeps moving.
A good creative approach should explore different types of hooks, such as:
- Direct problem hooks
- Question hooks
- Myth-busting hooks
- Benefit-led hooks
- Curiosity hooks
- Proof-led hooks
- Comparison hooks
- Mistake-based hooks
For example:
“Still relying on boosted posts to generate leads?”.
That speaks to a very different person than:
“Here’s why your Meta ads might be getting clicks but not enquiries.”.
Both intros promote the same service, but they create different signals and attract different levels of intent.
That’s the point.
Better creative is not just about making ads look nicer. It is about testing different ways to communicate value.
But creative does not replace campaign setup
Because creative has become so important, it can be tempting to swing too far in the other direction and say campaign setup doesn’t matter at all anymore.
But that would be a mistake.
Meta is more automated than it used to be, but it still needs the right conditions to perform.
Campaign setup affects:
- The objective Meta optimises towards
- The conversion event used for learning
- How budget is distributed
- Whether the campaign has enough data to learn
- How creative is tested
- Whether results are easy to interpret
- Whether audiences are too restricted
- Whether ad sets are competing against each other
- How retargeting is handled
- Whether tracking and attribution are reliable
- How winning creative is supported
If the campaign is optimising for the wrong event, the creative may never get a fair test.
If the budget is spread too thin, Meta may not gather enough data.
If there are too many ad sets, the account might become fragmented.
If tracking is not set up properly, the data may be misleading.
If the structure is too restrictive, Meta may not have enough room to find the right people.
So, while creative has become a bigger growth lever, campaign setup still creates the environment that allows Meta to learn properly.
Why you shouldn’t rely too heavily on Meta’s setup suggestions
Meta’s recommendations can be useful, but they shouldn’t be followed blindly.
Not every account should be set up the same way.
The right structure depends on things like:
- Budget
- Offer
- Conversion volume
- Sales cycle
- Audience size
- Account history
- Lead quality
- Product price
- Funnel stage
- Creative volume
A small local service business doesn’t need the same setup as a national eCommerce brand.
A business with 20 conversions a month doesn’t need the same structure as one with 2,000.
The structure needs to match the reality of the account.
Why specialists still matter
As Meta becomes more automated, the role of a Meta Ads specialist has changed.
It’s less about manually controlling every tiny lever and more about building the right system around the business goal.
That means understanding what the campaign needs to achieve, how much data the account has, which conversion event Meta should optimise for, how much budget is available, what creative inputs are needed, and how to structure everything to give the platform the best chance to perform.
A specialist helps make sure the campaign isn’t just technically set up, but set up in a way that makes sense for the actual business.
Because a technically “best practice” setup is not always the right setup for every account.
For one business, the priority might be generating enough conversion volume for Meta to learn.
For another, it might be improving lead quality.
For another, it might be giving Meta more creative variety, since the account has become too reliant on a single message or format.
It’s why specialist management is still so important.
The platform may be more automated, but automation still depends on the quality of the inputs.
So, what matters more: campaign setup or creative?
Meta’s automation, broader targeting and AI-driven delivery systems have made creative one of the biggest levers for performance.
But if you are asking what actually drives performance, the answer is the combination of creative and setup.
Great creative can still fail in a poor campaign structure.
A perfect campaign setup can still fail with weak creative.
The two work together.
Creative gives Meta the message, angle and signal.
Campaign setup gives Meta the right objective, structure and conditions.
So, the strongest Meta Ads accounts usually have three things working together:
- A simple, well-structured campaign setup
- Clean tracking and the right conversion events
- Strong, varied creative
That is where performance improves.
Not from obsessing over one lever in isolation, but from building a better system.
What should you do about it?
If your Meta Ads aren’t performing, don’t assume the answer is simply “fix the targeting.”
That may have been the default response years ago, but it’s rarely that straightforward now.
Instead, ask:
- Are we testing genuinely different creative angles?
- Are our ads speaking to different buyer motivations?
- Are we giving Meta enough creative variety to learn from?
- Is the campaign optimising for the right event?
- Is our tracking set up correctly?
- Are we judging results based on lead or sale quality, not just volume?
- Does the campaign structure match the budget and business goal?
- Is the landing page aligned with the ad?
If the answer to any of those is unclear, there may be more than one issue holding performance back.
Need a hand with your Meta Ads strategy? We’d love to help out 👋
