Andromeda has been a hot topic in the media buying and creative strategy group chats I'm part of.
For many brands, the Andromeda update has been "business as usual". For others, ads that used to last for half a year now die off in a month. In the worst cases, Meta has ceased to be a viable platform.
In this issue I'm going to share a simple primer on the Andromeda update, give you an example of bad/good/great ads and outline the full-funnel content strategy that Andromeda craves.
Before we get into it, I want to thank this week's sponsor: Move Supply Chain. Move Supply Chain helps fashion brands prevent stock outs, improve product margin and increase sell through rates. Think of Move as your fractional COO for supply chain.
Click here to book a quick fit check.
Meta's Andromeda Update 101
You can think of Andromeda as the "TikTok-ification" of Meta's organic and paid content matching algorithms.
Before this update, content was matched to Facebook and Instagram users based on a social graph: pages and users they followed, the content those follows followed, and search activity. This was enhanced with simple web browsing activity.
After Andromeda, content is matched to users based almost purely on engagement: likes, comments, shares, saves and (for videos) watch time. It is also informed by use of search within FB/IG and by web browsing behavior on pixeled sites.
This content matching model is basically a clone of TikTok's strategy. An individual user doesn't need to be following any other pages or users to start receiving high quality content.
As a result, there have been five big changes to both organic and paid strategy:
- Follower count, verification and other "authority" signals mean almost nothing now. Followers don't guarantee distribution on organic, and "legacy" brands aren't boosted in ad serving.
- The most scalable ads deliver entertainment value that is on par with viral organic content. That doesn't mean your ads have to be "ugly", but they do need to stop the scroll and trigger dopamine hits just like a viral video.
- An individual content tends to have a shorter lifecycle, because Meta does a better job at getting it in front of the most relevant audience, faster (at least that's what they say...)
- Audience-hacking strategies are nearly obsolete. If you've been scaling with 85 different $25/day ad sets, each targeting a different interest, you've probably seen that setup tank.
- The bar for creative diversity has been raised substantially. Testing the same image with 10 different headlines is basically a waste of time–Meta views these as a single ad.
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Nailing your Meta ads strategy is just the first step. Your ads won't convert if your top products go out of stock. And rising production costs can quickly eat into profitability.
But brands doing $1-20M/year in sales are often too small to bring on an experienced COO to bring structure to this chaos. And that's why so many fashion brands struggle to break out of this revenue range.
This is just is the problem Move Supply Chain was built to solve.
Move Supply Chain helps brands turn operational chaos into clarity with expertise that spans sourcing and vendor management, inventory planning, logistics and new product development.
If you want to reduce production lead times, reduce stock-outs, increase inventory turnover, or reduce your COGS, Move Supply Chain can help.
If you're frustrated by stockouts, long reorder times or slow sell-through, click here to book a free call with Move Supply Chain.
Anyone who books a call through that link before April 31st will receive a free trade sourcing support for Vietnam and China–a $1k value, absolutely free.
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Bad Ad, Good Ad, Great Ad
One thing hasn't changed for fashion brands post-Andromeda: your product is still your most powerful testing variable.
And to get the most potential out of each product, you have to present it according to some specific best practices.
I'm going to share an example of a Bad Ad, a Good Ad and a Great Ad to make these guidelines tangible
The Bad Ad
This is a gorgeous image...for a print campaign. But if I'm scrolling through Instagram and I have "the shoppies", this ad gives me nothing.
I have no idea what product is being sold here. If I haven't heard of the brand before, I don't even know what category of product they're selling.
I might click through because it looks cool, but odds are slim that this brand happens to sell exactly what I'm looking for. Click rates on ads like these will be middling, and conversion rates soft.
The Good Ad
Now we're getting somewhere. The mirror selfie with visible iPhone makes this look like platform-native content. That's going to stop me in my tracks if I'm a fashion fan.
There's only one problem: it's still a bit ambiguous what is being sold here. The blazer, jeans and shoes are all on point (it's actually an ad for the shoes).
Click rates on this ad will be strong, but conversion rates might be soft. Hint: if you get a lot of ad comments about products the model is wearing that you do not sell, you need to rework your creative.
The Great Ad
This ad is great because it features a scroll-stopping product and a scroll-stopping creative format. You know exactly what product is being featured, and you can see it from multiple angles on a real woman's body.
This type of "try it on in the mirror" video is consistently a top performer for my fashion clients.
Fashion Ads That Are Full Funnel & Conversion-Focused
Andromeda loves campaigns that include "full funnel" ads:
- discovery (TOF): eye-catching content that closely mirrors native organic social formats, but doesn't necessarily hard sell
- evaluation (MOF): these are the see it, like it, buy it ads I discuss here frequently–these ads focus on a single product
- trust (BOF): formats that answer questions and meet objections, like product reviews and founder videos
The brand Kill Crew does a really good job of producing ads that hit all stages of the funnel.
You would build out a campaign for each major product category (or for individual products in the case of best sellers), and then launch ads that cover each funnel stage and feature that category or product.