Meta doesn’t want you managing your own ad campaigns anymore. That’s the TL;DR of Andromeda, Meta’s new AI-driven ad platform quietly rolled out under the hood of every campaign you’re running right now, whether you like it or not.
This isn’t a tweak or a new setting. It’s a full-stack, neural network-powered automation engine that rethinks how ads get delivered, to whom, and when.
It’s also caused a minor existential crisis across the Facebook Ads subreddit, where tour operators and media buyers alike are throwing up their hands. It’s like they replaced the engine while the car was moving and didn’t tell anyone.
It’s a completely new system. The strategies and tactics that have worked for years don’t apply anymore.
I run paid media for tourism brands across the country, and this shift hit fast. Audience structures we’ve used for years – retargeting, prospecting, segmented funnels – stopped working. The campaigns that kept running “like always” saw their numbers slip. The ones we rebuilt for the new system found their footing. In some cases, they outperformed last year’s benchmarks.
This post is for tourism marketers who aren’t in the ad trenches every day. If you oversee performance, bookings, or budget, and you’re wondering why your Facebook and Instagram numbers feel off lately, this is what’s going on, and what to do about it.
What is Andromeda?
Think of it as Meta’s “Don’t worry, we’ll take care of everything” button.
Andromeda is the AI backbone of Meta’s new “Advantage+” ad structure. It’s an automated campaign manager that doesn’t need your strategy – or your brand – to do its thing.
In the old days (a.k.a., 2024), running Meta ads meant building out structured campaigns: separate audiences for prospecting, retargeting, and retention. Each had its own creative, budget, and funnel strategy.
Now that structure is suddenly obsolete.
Instead of you choosing who sees what ad, Andromeda uses machine learning to determine the audience segmentation at the ad level. Prospecting, retargeting, and high-intent are distinctions that now happen automatically, based on creative and behavior either within the social platform or on the website. Andromeda figures it out for you: this ad should go to prospecting users, this one to someone considering a purchase, and this one to someone ready to convert.
Your role is to feed the system lots of creative in multiple formats (more on that later). Meta decides which users see which ad. You don’t build funnels anymore. You build asset libraries. Andromeda handles the targeting.
Meta’s goal is simple: make it super easy for small businesses to hand over a credit card and a URL, and let the robots do the rest.
In practice, however, Meta’s automation – especially when it comes to creative assets – is still in its beta stage, and requires a guiding hand.
Why Andromeda matters for tourism marketing
If you run a tour company, museum, attraction, or destination, you probably rely on paid social to drive both volume and quality traffic.
Most of our clients have seasonal demand, niche audiences, and booking windows that matter. That used to mean carefully crafted ad sets targeting planners vs. spontaneous travelers. Locals vs. tourists. Families vs. couples.
Now, Meta wants that all in one big pile.
All that careful audience building is gone. That polished 3-ad rotation you had dialed in – sorry. It no longer scales.
To break it down, the shift to Andromeda means:
- You can’t rely on interest-based and lookalike audiences
- You can’t retarget site visitors with custom messages the way you used to.
- You can’t build a handful of perfect ads and expect them to scale.
The new game relies on creative diversity and volume. The system needs a big library of ad creative to chew on – 12 to 20 assets minimum – across every format: vertical video, static images, carousels, GIFs, product ads, you name it. The more assets you give it, the more chances the AI has to get it right.
Diversity also applies to style. Traditional highly-refined creatives aren’t enough anymore. Because of the ad-blindness of some users, Meta expects a mixture of traditional creatives as well as more native-looking ads (think: user-generated content) in order to serve the right ad to the right user.
As paid social media experts, we’ve almost stopped thinking of ourselves as media buyers when it comes to Meta. We’re more like creative art directors now.
In other words, optimizing your targeting is yesterday’s game. Curating creative is where it’s at.
What Happens When You Don’t Adapt (And What Happens When You Do)
Case #1: Back From Dead
A well-established tour operator saw performance collapse in 2025. Purchase volume dropped so much we had almost written off Meta as a viable platform. They were looking to move their ad spend budget to another channel.
They asked for our help and we rebuilt it into one broad campaign with 20+ creatives (vertical-first), and leveraged native-looking organic posts as key advertising assets.
Result: Since launching, year-over-year ROAS increased 175% and we’ve been able to scale the account by 50%
Case #2: Early Adopters Get the Edge
Another client with a seasonal experience typically sees weakness in September. We launched a new campaign aligned with Andromeda’s model:
- 20+ assets (vertical videos, static images, product-base carousels)
- Hook-focused editing (text overlays + strong intros)
- Broad targeting only
Result: We were able to scale spend for the client by 98% without any drop in efficiency (ROAS). Typically we’d see a significant drop in efficiency due to diminishing returns by scaling the account by such a large amount.
What Blend Is Doing Differently (and What You Should Do, Too)
We’re not letting Meta drive blind.
Yes, we’ve adjusted. Our campaigns now run broader. We build way more creative, especially vertical video with strong 3-second hooks.
But we’ve kept manual control over the things that still matter: messaging, visuals, voice, and above all, brand integrity.
We aren’t using AI-generated creative today because, frankly, it’s not yet that good. The system Meta wants you to trust doesn’t understand tone. It puts trap music on museum ads. It overlays “MEOW MEOW KITTY” on B2B conference spots. It changes the language of the ads to Arabic for users that only speak English. We’re not letting that thing touch your brand while it’s making these kinds of mistakes.
We do let it run campaigns. Turns out, it’s really good at that. But every creative choice, from copy to soundtrack, is still ours.
At Blend, we’ve rebuilt every campaign to work with the system, not against it. For tourism brands, that means:
- Running broader campaigns with larger creative libraries
- Prioritizing vertical video
- Editing for strong first impressions (sound, text overlay, energy)
- Mixing in UGC-style content alongside polished branded visuals
- Keeping creative choices in human hands
The Results So Far
It’s a mixed bag.
The honest answer: Andromeda isn’t a silver bullet. It hasn’t magically improved every metric across the board. But when we meet the system’s requirements – volume, variety, vertical – we match or slightly beat last year’s performance.
In some cases, we’re seeing genuine lift. Turns out, the AI’s guesswork about your ideal customer is better than Meta’s old targeting tools ever were.
Clients for whom we’ve made the shift are seeing:
- Stronger CTRs
- Lower acquisition costs (in some cases) or higher AOV.
- Higher stability in cost per purchase
- Fewer mid-season surprises
Best of all, they’re spending less time wondering why the old targeting tricks aren’t working.
Overall we’re still seeing the same rates of success for our clients using this new platform as we always have. It hasn’t tanked ROAS, but it hasn’t shown much improvement either.
What Tourism Marketers Should Do Right Now
If you’re managing your own Meta ads but not in the weeds with it on the day-to-day, ask yourself these questions:
How many creatives are we running?
If it’s under 12 creative assets, you’re not competitive. You need 12–20 creatives per campaign. Period. That includes video (vertical-first), carousels, images, and more.
Are we getting UGC-style content into the mix?
Polished is out. Native-looking, less slick, “recorded-on-an-iPhone” content is what cuts through (at least for now). Clips with real people and real moments outperform across the board. Mix it in with your branded assets.
Are we running primarily vertical videos?
If not, you’re missing the formats that perform best. This is true no matter where you place the ads – in your feed, reels, or stories. Every successful format on Meta is vertical. Start there, not with 1:1.
Does our content have a hook?
You’ve got 3 seconds to make an impression. If you’ve got your video, sound, text overlay, and vibe right in those first three seconds, you’re going to perform better than leading in too slowly.
Am I in control of what matters?
Don’t trust Meta to get your voice right. And Meta should not be creating your brand look. Use their AI to manage your ad delivery, not to write or design your content.
The Bottom Line
Meta’s Andromeda AI is here. It’s not optional. It rewards scale, punishes nuance, and eats creative libraries like popcorn. But if you understand the shift and rebuild accordingly, you’ll survive the algorithmic overhaul just fine.
Remember: Meta’s targeting and delivery tools are strong. Its creative instincts, well, aren’t. Keep control where it matters – your brand and your message. Leave the rest to the robots.
If you fight it, you lose. If you adapt, you can still win. But you have to change how you think about these campaigns. The control you used to have is not coming back.
