If you’re running Meta Ads right now, you’ve probably noticed something: one ad does all the heavy lifting.
That’ll be thanks to Andromeda.
And the answer to that is creative diversification.
You might have already heard about creative diversification, but it can be hard to understand exactly what that means, how it plays out, and how you can practically work with it — especially if you’re a small business with a smaller budget.
We’re taking you through exactly what creative diversity is and how you can make it work within your budget.
- Creative diversification means building multiple ad creatives that are meaningfully different, giving Meta clear options to test and learn from.
- If your creatives are too similar, delivery can become limited, and your ads may struggle to move out of the learning phase.
- As a general guide, around 70% of each creative should look visually distinct for Meta to recognise it as new.
- For most small businesses, having 3–5 genuinely different creatives is usually enough.
So, what is creative diversification for Meta Ads?
Creative diversification is creating multiple, meaningfully different ad creatives so Meta has distinct options to test and learn from.
It’s not about more ads. It’s about different ideas.
It wants each creative to bring something new to the table — not just a different image or colour.
What Meta actually means by ‘different’
The whole creative diversification thing is, luckily, quite simple. Meta uses AI to analyse creatives at a pixel level. This means that while best practice-wise, yes, it should be about a new angle and idea from creative to creative, we aren’t just leaving it up to subjectivity.
Meta analyses creatives at a pixel level.
As a general rule, around 70% of each creative needs to look visually different for Meta to treat it as new.
So, you don’t just want to change the hook in a video or the layout of a static. The combination of your overall visual with your message generally needs to change to meet this benchmark.
Why this matters after Andromeda
As Meta’s AI abilities have grown, there’s a lot less reliance on targeting.
Interest targeting isn’t the primary lever anymore. It’s now all about the creative.
Your success in advertising on Facebook and Instagram is now based on your creative performance signals.
Meta uses machine learning to understand who resonates with which creatives and it continues to push your creatives out to people who it understands will engage with the ads.
But it wants those creatives to be unique.
If your creatives are too similar, then you’ll limit your delivery and your creatives likely won’t leave that learning phase.
What counts as diversified creative (and what doesn’t)
Here’s what does count:
- Different hooks (problem, benefit, urgency, story)
- Different formats (UGC, static, short-form video)
- Different visual styles (talking to the camera vs product vs lifestyle)
- Different angles (price, trust, convenience, outcome)
And here’s what doesn’t count:
- Same video with small edits
- Slight headline variations
- Colour or font tweaks
- Recutting the same footage with minimal change
Meta recommends 10+ creatives. What does this mean for smaller budgets?
Meta’s golden recommendation for creative diversity with Andromeda is to aim for 10+ creative variations per campaign..
It’s important to remember that when Meta suggests this, it’s thinking of traditional Meta Ads campaigns, like eCommerce brands with a broad suite of products.
If you’re a smaller business with a smaller budget and especially if you’re a service provider, that’s too many creatives.
You don’t need 10+ creatives to make this work.
For most small businesses, 3–5 genuinely different creatives are enough.
Just make each ad meaningfully distinct.
This might look like:
- 1 x UGC style
- 1 x product-focused
- 1 x problem/solution angle
- 1 x before and after
- 1 x testimonial
Why this matters after Andromeda
By giving Meta these genuinely different angles in your ad variations, you give the platform what it needs to actually test properly.
This means none of your spend gets wasted between creatives that are eventually deemed duplicates and it means you’re more likely to find your winning creative sooner.
And then, once you find the winner, it’s much easier to scale your campaign with the winning idea in mind.
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Creative is the new targeting. If your ads look the same, Meta’s going to treat them the same.
Need a hand with your Meta Ads campaign? We’d love to help 👋
