With the rollout of Andromeda, Meta’s next-generation retrieval engine, the platform can now evaluate vastly more ad creatives than ever before. Advantage+ automation and Meta’s new GenAI tools are pouring millions of fresh ad variations into the system each month. 

What does this mean for you as an advertiser?

1. Your creative volume matters more than your targeting.
2. The brands that feed Meta the most variety are the ones Meta’s system now favours.

Now is the time to let go of the old playbook where a handful of “hero ads” carried your account for weeks. In the Andromeda era, retrieval engines reward constant creative input, which means more hooks, formats, variations, and angles for the system to match with real people in real time.

But it shouldn’t scare you. It should clarify something true for a while: if Meta wants more creativity, give it more creatives. Just don’t try to produce it all manually.

That’s where Andromeda gets interesting and where most creative teams hit their breaking point. This blog breaks down how Meta’s retrieval system actually works, why creative velocity is now the most important lever for performance and how to build that pipeline.

Before an ad ever reaches someone’s feed, stories placement, or reels, it has to pass through one critical gatekeeper: the retrieval model.

Retrieval-based ads are ads chosen through an AI model designed to sift through tens of millions of active ads and instantly narrow them down to the few thousand that might actually matter to a specific person at a specific moment. Think of retrieval as the world’s fastest, smartest filter, running in real time. Its job is to simply find the handful of ads worth considering and ignore everything else.

Only after retrieval does Meta’s ranking model step in to decide the exact ad that gets shown.

We all know that Meta is huge. But if you think of the scale it operates on, then it’s the kind of “huge” where the word basically stops meaning anything.

Here’s a surface-level process of what Meta is dealing with:

• Tens of millions of active ads
• Billions of people scrolling across Meta’s apps
• And the system has a few milliseconds to figure out which ad to show next

In no universe can Meta check every single ad for every single person in real time. This is where the retrieval models come into action. Think of them like a giant, super-fast filter that sits in front of everything.

Here’s what the filter does:

1. Looks at all the ads currently eligible
2. Predicts which ones might actually matter to this one person, right now
3. Sends only the most promising few thousand to the ranking system

Now, the important part here to understand is that if retrieval doesn’t pick your ad, the ranking system never even sees it. And this is exactly where most advertisers fall behind. It’s not because their ads are “bad,” but because they’re not giving the system enough options.

If you’re only uploading a handful of creatives every few weeks, you’re showing up to the biggest competition with the smallest lineup. Meanwhile, other brands are handing Meta a full menu of variations to test. So, the whole basis of retrieval is volume, timing, and giving the system enough variety to work with. The brands that keep feeding Meta fresh creative are the ones the system pulls in more often. They win because they show up more.

The more creatives you upload, the more chances your ads have to get retrieved, leading to better delivery, lower costs, and stronger ROAS.

Step 1: User signals

Meta starts with the person who’s about to see the ad. It looks at things like:

• What they’ve clicked on
• What they seem interested in
• The ads they’ve engaged with before
• How recent that activity was
• Where they are in the app (Reels, Feed, Stories, Search, etc.)

Meta’s retrieval system updates these signals constantly in real time because people’s interests shift quickly, and the platform needs to keep up.

Step 2: Ad signals

On the other side, Meta looks at the ads themselves. For each ad, the system reads:

• What the creative actually contains (image, text, product type)
• The category your business falls into
• Your campaign goals
• How similar ads have performed in the past

Now that advertisers are using AI tools (like Advantage+ creative and GenAI), the number of creatives in the system is exploding. Meta built Andromeda specifically to keep up with this growth.

Step 3: Retrieval model (Andromeda)

Andromeda takes all the user signals and all the ad signals and uses a much more advanced neural network to predict which ads are even worth considering in a split second.

A few important upgrades from Andromeda that actually matter to advertisers:

• It can handle way more ad variations than previous systems.
• It can process those variations much faster thanks to new hardware (NVIDIA Grace Hopper + MTIA).
• It captures more subtle relationships between a person and an ad (so relevance goes up).
• It’s built for the generative AI era, meaning it can handle the exponential growth in creative volume.

This is why more variety helps you now more than ever, because Andromeda is literally designed to take advantage of it.

Step 4: Candidate set returned

After all of that processing, the system shrinks the universe of ads from tens of millions to a few thousand candidate ads. Only those move to the ranking stage, the part that picks the actual ad that gets shown. If retrieval doesn’t pick your creativity? There’s nothing left for ranking to rank. If retrieval fails to select your creative, it cannot advance to the ranking stage, the process that determines which ad is actually displayed. Therefore, without a successful retrieval, the ranking mechanism has nothing to evaluate.

Meta has made one thing very clear with Andromeda and Advantage+ that it wants more creatives. Not because the platform is being demanding, but because the new retrieval engine performs better when it has a larger and more diverse pool of ads to choose from.

For creative teams, every new variation you upload gives the system another angle to match with a user. A different hook, a new crop, a fresh format. All of these become new entry points into the retrieval stage. And because Andromeda’s new neural networks can understand more subtle relationships between people and ads, even small creative differences can open up entirely new opportunities for relevance.

A. Andromeda can now evaluate far more ads at once

Meta rebuilt the retrieval system so it can handle exponential creative volume coming from GenAI tools and Advantage+ campaigns. That means your chances of being retrieved improve when you feed the system more variations and not just one or two “hero ads.”

B. Advantage+ automation widens your audience and the creative requirements

Advantage+ automatically expands targeting, placements, and budget distribution. With a broader reach comes more moments and more surfaces for your ads to appear. Each of those moments works better with a creative tailored for it. That means more audiences and more creative pathways require more variations.

C. Fatigue happens faster in a system that optimizes constantly
Andromeda is running non-stop experiments, which means ads burn out more quickly than they used to. Even great creatives have shorter lifespans now. The only real solution is to refresh your creatives more often so the system always has something new to test.

D. Most teams can’t keep up with this pace

The amount of creatives required is the real bottleneck. This is true for most marketing teams because they:

• Don’t have the bandwidth to produce variations weekly
• Get stuck in approval cycles
• Ship creative too slowly
• Miss opportunities the algorithm could have capitalized on

If Andromeda wants more creative, then you essentially need design delivered every day. Instead of stressing to make a handful of new ads each month, Design Pickle can help you keep a steady, predictable flow of ad creative going into Meta.

A. Design Pickle allows for daily creative output to match Andromeda’s appetite

With a 2-hour plan, teams typically see one of the following per day:

• 1–3 fully custom ads per day
• 4–5 templated variations per day
• Multi-format versions for Reels, Stories, Feed, and Advantage+ placements

Across a 5-day week, that equals 5–15 custom ads or ads with variations. That’s enough volume to keep Andromeda fed without burning out your team.

Note: Turnaround time can vary depending on the complexity of your request and what your designer is working on. The goal is always to keep work moving quickly.

And the process is very simple within the Jar. You can request new concepts inside the Jar, repurpose old ads into fresh variations, convert them into new placements, or even ask for editable Canva files so you can change copy and colors on your own.

B. Designed for rapid experimentation

Everything in Design Pickle is built for fast testing cycles, the exact kind that Andromeda rewards.

• Submit daily output requests
• Expect 24–48-hour turnarounds on most work
• Revise until it’s right with no extra fees
• Keep everything organized with queue-based submissions

This rhythm makes it easy to keep your creative pipeline moving instead of stopping every time a new idea or variation needs to be produced.

C. Variation-ready workflow

We have established that retrieval systems love creative variety, and Design Pickle is built for it. With us, you can request:

• Hook tests
• Offer variants
• Colour/theme explorations
• Placement crops (Reels, Stories, Feed, etc.)
• Promo overlays
• Seasonal refreshes

These are exactly the types of variations Meta’s new retrieval engine can absorb, test, and learn from.

Here’s how someone might request high-velocity Meta ads inside the Jar:

Project Title: Meta Variations for March Promo

Description:

"Produce a set of ad concepts, quick variations for [your campaign]. We need multiple hooks, formats, and layouts so Meta can test more options in retrieval.

Deliverables:

1. 3 new concept ads (1080x1080)
   • Concepts should follow brand guidelines
   • Include imagery
   • Include these hooks:
     • Holiday sale starts now
     • Upgrade for less this month
     • A fresher look for the holiday season
        
2. Placement Adaptations:
   • Resize all 3 concepts for:
     • Reels (1080x1920)
     • Stories (1080x1920)
     • Feed (1080x1350)
        
3. Variations:
   • 5 color variations (lighter backgrounds preferred)
   • 3 offer variants:
     • “30% off”
     • “20% off + free shipping”
     • “Buy 1 Get 1 50% off”
        
4. File Formats:
   • JPG/MP4 as needed
   • Canva-editable versions so our team can update copy later

Notes:

Please keep text minimal and ensure the visuals are readable in Reels. You can reuse elements from our February promo if helpful."

* and we always recommend you upload inspiration and/or your brand guidelines.

Here’s what that actually looks like in a single day using Design Pickle. It’s the kind of output rhythm most teams wish they could maintain in-house, but without the burnout, the bottlenecks, or the “we’ll get to it next month” delays.

Scenario A: Custom concepts (1–2 per day)

Fresh concepts from scratch when you need something new to test.

• New ad ideas built around your brand and your goals
• A visual system that keeps everything feeling consistent
• All the placement versions included (Reels, Stories, Feed, etc.)
• Copy and CTA structures are already worked in, so you can just add copy and go straight to Meta

This gives you the “net-new” creative Andromeda needs to keep widening your personalization paths.

Scenario B: High-volume variations (3-4 per day)

The fast, lightweight variations you need to stay ahead of fatigue.

• Simple image swaps
• New hooks to test
• Offer variations
• Colour or theme changes
• Light motion/animation for Reels and Stories
• Seasonal overlays or timely updates

These variations are the exact type of creative Andromeda can process at scale. This means more ways for your ads to qualify, get retrieved, and stay competitive.

There’s no single “right” way to scale your creative for Meta. The best approach is the one that keeps your volume high, your brand consistent, and your team out of constant production chaos. Here are two workflows we see clients use all the time. Both are built to keep up with Andromeda’s need for constant creative variety.

Design Pickle and Canva hybrid workflow

A perfect setup for teams who want professional templates but also need the flexibility to make fast edits on their own.

1. Template creation with Design Pickle

Your designer builds a library of reusable, brand-aligned templates, elements like layout systems, CTA placements, promo frames, and seasonal versions. Once they’re approved, you’ve got a foundation you can use over and over.

2. Variation tweaks in Canva

Your internal team can jump into Canva to swap images, adjust colours, update text, or create lightweight variations for different placements. No bottlenecks, no waiting.

3. Upload and feed Meta

Batch upload your new sets of ads into Advantage+ campaigns so Andromeda can evaluate more variations at once.

The benefit here is that you maintain brand consistency while massively speeding up your creative supply chain. You get volume without sacrificing quality.

Fully managed Design Pickle workflow

Ideal for teams who want to stay focused on strategy and testing while DP handles everything in production.

Just submit your requests inside the Jar for:

• New custom ad concepts
• All placement formats (Feed, Stories, Reels)
• Seasonal promos and product launches
• Hook, CTA, and offer variations

The benefit here is that Design Pickle becomes your creative engine, producing the volume Meta needs while managing templates, versions, and brand consistency for you. Your internal team gets time back for analysis, optimization, and planning instead of pushing pixels.

If Meta is asking advertisers for more creatives than ever before, the real question becomes: how much does it cost to actually produce that volume every week?

This is where most teams hit a wall. In-house designers are overloaded. Freelancers get expensive fast. Agencies move slowly and bill by the hour. None of these models is built for the kind of creative velocity Meta now rewards.

Design Pickle, on the other hand, is built for daily output, which changes the cost-per-creative math completely. Let's understand this magic with an example:

Scenario: Using the 2-Hour/day Design Pickle plan

On a typical day, you can expect ONE of the following:

• 1–3 fully custom ads
• 4–5 templated variations
• All formatted for Reels, Stories, Feed, and Advantage+ placements

Across a 5-day week, that looks like ONE of the following:

• 5–15 custom ads
• 15-20 variations
• All formatted for Reels, Stories, Feed, and Advantage+ placements

And because the cost of the plan doesn’t change based on output, your cost per creative drops dramatically as your volume increases. That’s the opposite of how agencies and freelancers work, where every new version means another invoice.

This is the kind of predictable, scalable production you need when Meta’s retrieval system is literally built to take advantage of higher creative variety.

Estimated cost of traditional resources 

*These numbers reflect typical industry pricing.

Vs. Design Pickle: $1,918/mo for approximately 20 pieces of content a week depending on complexity and needed changes.

If Meta’s retrieval engine is built to reward advertisers who ship more creative, more often, the smartest thing you can do right now is set up a workflow that matches that pace. The days of running a handful of ads for an entire month are gone. Andromeda needs volume, Advantage+ needs variety, and your performance depends on both.

The good news is that you don’t need to hire a bigger team or burn out the one you have. You just need a system that can deliver new concepts, fresh variations, and multi-placement versions every single week without slowing down your strategy.

That’s exactly what Design Pickle is built for. If you’re ready to give Meta the creative velocity it’s asking for, here are your next steps:

1. Start a high-velocity creative plan
2. Book a demo with us to match a plan to your ad volume

We’ll help you build a creative pipeline that keeps up with Andromeda and puts you ahead of every advertiser still trying to do this manually.