Digital Horizons

Building A Content Locker For Meta’s Andromeda Update

• James Walker & Brian Hastings

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We break down Meta’s Andromeda shift from manual targeting to creative-led delivery and share a practical framework for building a content locker that the algorithm can use to match the right message to the right person. We map ten content buckets to the buyer journey and explain how to plan, produce, and optimise within ad limits.

• Andromeda’s move from targeting to content-led delivery
• The ten content buckets and why they matter
• How to plan a content locker across formats
• Balancing quick wins with complex productions
• Mapping ads to the messy path to purchase
• Using UGC, testimonials, and confidence ads
• When trend content fits the brand and when it doesn’t
• Turning objections into high-performing creatives
• Working around ad count limits and refreshing cadence
• Next steps on optimisation and measurement

Thanks for watching today. Really excited about these new Andromeda updates and hope that the information we're bringing is going to help you get better results with your Meta Ads campaigns.


The Digital Horizons Podcast is hosted by:

James Walker - Managing Director WHD
Brian Hastings - Managing Director Nous

SPEAKER_01:

It's a complete restructure in terms of how Meta is delivering ads. We've built out this framework which really looks at 10 different content concepts. We want to be filling as much pieces of content within each of these different buckets.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, here we are. We're back for Digital Horizons. This week we're talking about Andromeda's update to Meta and specifically how can businesses, advertisers, brands leverage the new content approach that Andromeda's requiring, that it's calling for. How can you produce a relevant stack of content to build out your meta framework and get the best results from your creative and campaigns in Meta? I'm Brian Hastings. This is James. This is Digital Horizons. We talk about strategies, tools, and tactics that marketers can use in digital and marketing for their brands that work now and that we're testing to see what's going to work in the future.

SPEAKER_01:

That's right. And we did a recent episode on Andromeda, which we had um well, more views than we had a typical episode or downloads than we typically would, because I think that it's something that a lot of marketers are really interested in because it's the first major, major change on meta ads in a very long time.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes.

SPEAKER_01:

In a meaningful way, not just, oh, hey, look, we've changed the algorithm, there's a few more buttons, there's a few different things, but it's a complete restructure in terms of how meta is delivering ads. And it's moved away from targeting, from you choosing who you want to show your ads to, to you uploading content into your ad account and letting Meta algorithm work out who should see your ads rather than you trying to decide who's right. Because Meta's got way more data than you understand about your customers. And so, I mean, why would you want to force it? And I know for years, as media buyers, we've always tried to push the platforms into the way that we want them to go. But I think now that we're starting to see, and from the results and the testing we've been doing, is just let them let Meta do its thing. It knows where to put your ads and when to put your ads in front of people, and it's what you should be doing in terms of the way that you're setting up your campaigns now.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm really excited that Meta is doing this because it's confirmation and it's and it's a push from Meta to get advertisers to invest more in their creative and not just an individual piece. It's suggesting and it's pushing advertisers to not just produce one big TVC that you use across everything or create one or two promotional ads. It aligns with what works in the real world, having multiple ad types for different messages that suit someone depending where they are in the funnel or where they are in the buying process. It's not so much a funnel anymore, it's kind of a messy path all the way to purchase. But this approach, I think, helps back the logic and strategy that would go into building out a good list of creative assets that would actually get the job done. So it's it's a really good step forward. The challenge will be getting advertisers, our clients as a brand building out all of these assets. Yeah. So that's what we're going to talk about today. What can they look like? What should you build out?

SPEAKER_01:

That's right. And so when an Andromeda and Meta is saying, hey, just give us a fuckload of assets, you'll be like, all right, well, where do I start? Yeah. And so now we're looking at, all right, well, how do we actually approach this in terms of a way that's consumable from our clients that we can communicate to our clients? And so we've built out this framework which really looks at 10 different content concepts that we want to be including or content pillars that people could potentially use, that we want to make sure that we want to be filling as much pieces of content within each of these different buckets. And so when we're talking about these 10, we're starting with us first them, then we're following by results and benefits, problems and solutions, user-generated content, a founder story or behind the brand style content, educational content, promos and offers, confidence, trending and objections. So these are 10 different content styles. And I think as media buyers and the way that we've run campaigns, we've already done this. Like these nothing, nothing here is new. This is just a framework for to be able to look at, all right, cool. Well, we know we need to supply meta with 30 to 50 new pieces of content every month. How are we going to do that? Well, we're just going to look at these 10 different things and go, all right, cool, well, let's do like three of these, four of these, a few of these, and let's make sure that we're continually refreshing and updating these buckets, turning off anything that's not working, but making sure we've got as much in each bucket as possible. And also we've found that there's also issues with limitations on the amount of ads you can put into a single campaign, which is kind of working against us because meta's like just use a single ad campaign, put all your assets in, we'll find your right customers. But then you can only put, I think it's 150 ads in an ad account that's got less than a million dollar ad spent. So then we'll there's there is limitations there. Exactly. So I guess we're still trying to navigate how we approach that. Um, but trying to work out a situation where we can fill out each one of these buckets with as many different styles and angles, if it's a video or carousel, you know, static graphics, whatever, and even just different designs within it. And so that way you're able to reach as many people as possible and test as much creative as possible.

SPEAKER_00:

So thinking about the strategy as to why these platforms have been picked and combined, what Meta and the Andromeda function is trying to do is consider the needs or the messages needed by an advertiser at different parts of the path to purchase or path to making a decision. And these initiatives or these ad types give the user a different message at those different parts of the journey. So if we look at close to conversion, there's the promo type ads. And on the other side of that, the initial research, maybe problem identification, is the problem solution type of content. So introducing a problem that the user might not know they even have, and then providing a solution for it. So two ends of the spectrum, you can see where introducing a problem, showing a solution. And then if some of these ad types have been hit all the way through, you're building trust and you're building a need and building engagement with that user. And then when they're pretty close to being ready to buy, you can hit them with your promo ad. That's it. Um, it might not necessarily happen that neatly, but you can imagine if you had an effective spread of ads across this whole buying journey, then Meta can find the right ad for the right time for that individual person.

SPEAKER_01:

100% and in the right format as well. Because some people might like video over graphics, some people may like carousels. And so if you're not, you're not just including all these different types of messaging, you're including it in different formats that's gonna allow the breadth of your campaign to reach more people that are more likely to purchase. I think as you were saying as well, that it's sort of taking people through this journey, it will also start understanding the data and and what is gonna happen if someone is likely to watch, all right, they've just seen us burst them ad, then they watch some UGC content, now they've seen a testimonial video, now we hit them with a promo, that's gonna lead to a conversion. And so previously what we're trying to do in our meta campaign setup was all right, we've got our level one campaigns, which are like complete top of funnel. We want to go, all right, cool. We think people between these ages that like these things want to see this ad. And then we want to show anyone who's seen that ad this kind of ad. And then if they've been to the website and checked out or gone to checkout and abandoned, then we want to show them this ad. This has taken all this out of our control now. Yeah. And it's sort of telling Meta, all right, cool, here's all our ads, you just work it out and show them the right ads at the right time that they need to see them to help them convert into a customer.

SPEAKER_00:

And people like Gary V and Hermozy have been saying this sort of approach works in social channels for years. It's kind of driving us to do it. Yes. I'm gonna think of your Andromeda 10 or the or this um requirement for content kind of like a weapons locker or a wall of weapons that you have on the wall, and you if you haven't filled up your wall of weapons, you're not running with everything, all the all the ammunition in your your pocket that you need. It's a good framework to go through, and you might not get them all done in one go, but you should be aiming to fill that wall of weapons or fill your locker with these ads, this content locker, if you will, with these ad types so that you're getting to a complete picture and a complete story. It doesn't have to tell the full story in every ad. It just has to deliver uh in each one of these areas.

SPEAKER_01:

That's right. And we can also look at them in terms of ease of creation. Like us versus them, I mean, jump on Canva, you can find a whole bunch of templates that are gonna suit this type of ad. Just put in some qualities about your business versus competitors, that can be done very easily. You found a story video, stuff like that, probably a little bit more complex. Yeah. So I think if you're looking through this list of different types of ads, you know, your promo and offers simple, put a graphic up to tell people you've got a sale on or whatever discount for your first purchase. But then again, you're educational more complex. So I guess it's trying to look at what you can get done quickly, but how can you make a plan to fill up as much of these types of content as possible and then as much variation as possible within each of the different buckets?

SPEAKER_00:

And like you said, it would be difficult to get both video and static, but you don't have to start with everything. You can start with statics for the hard to make ones, and then on your plan to completing this Andromeda 10 and or this content locker, you just add video when you can get to it. But we do typically find if you can feed the beast, if you can give it video and static, Meta will be able to do a better job with it.

SPEAKER_01:

That's right. So it's it's a framework that I think anyone can take away and look at right now, and then look at your own ad account. Look at what the kind of ads you've been running in the past and what relate to this, where do they fit within the bucket, start plotting down, all right, cool, look, we've got it, we've got a bunch of these types of ads. These are the other ones that we need to start looking at and start thinking, making a plan in terms of how can you roll these out. If you're if you're an e-commerce business, you're rolling into Black Friday, this is what you should be paying attention to right now because it's gonna allow you to get the most reach for your budget if you've got the mo a a very built-out ad library um running into that period.

SPEAKER_00:

So we're probably not gonna go through each one of these with uh a lot of detail around how you could build them out, but there are a few that we might touch on just before we wrap up. For example, user-generated content number four, uh that won't work in all business scenarios. Say if you're a a complex B2B type service, having a random user talk about the product or service won't deliver what you're looking for. That would probably work better with the education type videos. However, you can still get that user-generated content feel if you went for customer testimonials. Yeah. Um, you just might have to structure the testimonials a little bit more. So the user is actually a past customer rather than just sending a product out to be tested.

SPEAKER_01:

That's right. And some of these cross-line. So as you said, we've got the user-generated bucket, but we've also got our confidence bucket. And in our confidence bucket, we talk about case studies, testimonials, um, you know, any social proof you might have, but that can be done with user-generated content. So I think looking at Oracle, as you said, that that's a perfect example of not every bucket's going to be perfect for every industry. We've got one on here that's trending. So looking at trending sounds like that people use on TikTok and stuff like that, we do find that a lot of stuff that we do on TikTok will still pull across into meta. So whilst we are talking about meta here, looking at your TikTok ad library as well and seeing what can be moved into your meta ads library. But trending stuff might not be for every business. I know that there's there's limits for the uh amount of, I guess, flexibility that brands will go to to allow for creativity within their ads. So it's also looking at well, how can you tailor this to fit within your brand guidelines too?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, and I know employee generated content is really cuts through, but that might be where the trend type video works best to show the happy, fun culture of the business that you work in with trend-based content being produced by your employees. Maybe it's in there to just add a bit of texture and meta will generally push the other higher performing ads. But there is a good framework here that gives you the option to be able to build this out in a meaningful way to do it. I really like the objections one that I know you added this last. This was the last one.

SPEAKER_01:

We already had to throw in there because we're all going through and we're like, where does that fit? But it's something that we find works so well. So that's what we added in as our final step there.

SPEAKER_00:

And to, you know, to really cut through and be so bold as to start with what people either have said they don't like about your product, your industry, your service, and challenge that and either show a solution or a resolution to some of those perceived challenges with your product or service.

SPEAKER_01:

I saw a great one when I was um in Bangkok recently. There was a restaurant that just opened and they put up an ad and it was one-star restaurant, and then it showed all these one stars saying the parking, there's nowhere to park, it's always busy, too busy, um, can't get a park, and this is all the one-star reviews. And then they said, Yep, it's because we're so popular. And then it showed the street with a line down the road of all these cars trying to come in for all these people trying to check out this really cool new restaurant. And so I think looking at the negatives, looking at the objections people are having, flipping it into a positive and turning into, well, this is the reason why people are seeing this as a negative, is because it's something that we're doing in a positive way.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, and you know, anyone seeing that will go, okay, I won't drive, I'll get a new bike. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01:

I mean, that's pretty easy. I actually ended up going walking there in the rain because the traffic was so bad, but that was another story.

SPEAKER_00:

So we'll pop it up on screen one more time just to show you the uh Andromeda 10, the framework. Yes. In the future, as we we work through meta sessions uh on Digital Horizons, we'll break down what we're seeing in terms of each one of these ad types and structures to add a little bit more detail as we go through. Uh, but this is a really good starting point um and we'll we'll come back and chat here about how it's been working for us.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I'd like to for maybe the next one we can get into optimization. So it's like cool, we've got all these ads up and running now, they're all playing a part in the conversion path, but how are we turning ads on and or know what's working and what are we killing? And so I think we'll get into that next because it's a whole different way of optimizing our campaigns to pr compared to how we previously used to do where you just look at the CPA on a single ad and then just turn it off if it wasn't performing. Now we need to look at the whole picture.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, we inevitably follow what Meta wants us to do, but it doesn't always work out exactly like they'd planned. So we'll we'll report back here what we find and what we learn.

SPEAKER_01:

Thanks for watching today. Um, really excited about these new Andromeda updates and hope that the information we're bringing is going to help you get better results with your MetaAid campaigns. Cheers, thank you.

Contributor

Brian Hastings

Co-host