Fix the creative not the audience

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🧩 Your CPA spike is probably a creative problem

CPA jumps 30% on a Tuesday. The reflex is to open the ad set, swap interests, widen the lookalike and wait.

That fix made sense when targeting drove delivery. Since February, though, every new Sales campaign opens with Advantage+ switched on. 

Underneath sits Andromeda, the retrieval engine Meta's engineers say runs at 10,000 times the complexity of the system it replaced, and it reads your creative to decide who sees each ad.

For a sharper read on where creator-handle ads fit in that system, Billo CEO Donatas Smailys walks through Meta's Partnership Ads data on October 7 at 11 AM ET. 

He's joined by Curtis Howland ($100M+ in Meta spend managed) and Meta Partner Manager Reyna Baker. It's free, and recordings arrive within 24 hours. You can secure your free spot.

Meanwhile, here's how to debug the account in the right order.

Stop at the first rung that fails:

1. Spend concentration. One ad taking over 70% of ad set spend means you're running a single-ad account.
2. Hook decay. Divide that ad's 3-second plays by impressions, week over week. As a rule of thumb, a slide of more than 20% flags fatigue before CPA does.
3. Concept count. Fewer than five genuinely different angles live gives the system little to work with.
4. Audience. Check this only after the first three pass.

Media buyers report that near-identical ads get grouped, with one taking the delivery. Test every new idea against a simple rule: if two ads look alike in the first two seconds, treat them as one.

Build angles on a grid instead. List four buyer types down the side and three proof styles across the top, such as demo, testimonial and founder story.

For a dog food brand, a picky-eater owner with a demo becomes a different ad from a vet-bill worrier with a testimonial. Brief each cell with one sentence covering who, which moment, which objection and which proof. Ship the four cells furthest apart first.

Keep managing:

• Location limits that match where you ship
• Age minimums for regulated categories
• Your existing-customer list, so new-customer goals stay honest

Stop touching interest stacks and lookalike percentages. Advantage+ treats them as suggestions.

If you're splitting ad sets by audience to "test targeting," merge them. The split fragments learning and tells you very little.

Count the live concepts in your biggest campaign today. Under five means your next dollar goes to the matrix.

Together with AirOps

What 300+ Marketing Leaders Are Changing Now 

Marketing teams are increasingly inheriting revenue goals their budgets were never designed to support. When the plan breaks, marketing still carries the full commercial cost of the shortfall.

AirOps surveyed 300+ CMOs and VPs to measure exactly how widespread that pressure has become and reveal where leaders are reallocating resources as AI search rapidly changes the channel mix.

Use the report to:

• See how 71.2% of high-growth teams are changing their performance metrics to rethink what belongs on your scorecard.
• Find out where budgets are moving as 47.7% of marketing organizations cut agency spend.
• Discover what teams are funding instead of hiring, as nearly 4 in 10 with bigger budgets added no roles.

The Marketing Leaders Reality Index gives you a practical reference point for evaluating whether your operating model can support the results leadership expects.

See which moves other marketing leaders are making before they become standard practice.

Get the Marketing Leaders Reality Index.

🛒 Amazon wants its ads to follow what shoppers need next

Amazon is connecting more of its ad business under one AI-powered system, while also using purchase signals to advertise services that naturally come after a product purchase.

The Breakdown:

Amazon Ads Gets One Brain - Amazon Ads Agent brings DSP and the ad console together, while DVA+ combines Sponsored Display, Sponsored TV, programmatic display, video and audio into one AI-managed format.

Alexa Gets Sponsored Conversations - Starting January 2027, U.S. brands can brief Alexa on product differences, comparisons and bundles. Amazon says shoppers clicking sponsored prompts convert 48% more and spend 21% more.

A Purchase Can Trigger a Service Ad - Amazon’s new Sponsored Services uses Yelp to show relevant local professionals after shopping activity. Buy a faucet, for example, and Amazon could surface a nearby plumber.

Hiring Happens Inside Amazon - Service ads can appear on product, order confirmation and package-tracking pages, with shoppers able to call a business or request a quote without leaving the Amazon experience.

Amazon’s ad business is stretching beyond selling products. Its AI tools are bringing campaign management and conversational ads together, while Yelp lets Amazon monetize what shoppers may need after a purchase, turning commerce signals into potential leads for local businesses.

👨‍💻 Quick Hits

🎬 Meta is adding an AI assistant to its Edits app that analyzes Instagram metrics, comments, trends, and audience interests to suggest content ideas and performance improvements directly inside the editing workflow.

📊 OpenAI is expanding ChatGPT Ads with bulk product campaign creation, deeper conversion reporting and product review tracking, while extending self-service Ads Manager access across seven new markets in Southeast Asia and Taiwan.

🛍️ AI shopping recommendations heavily favor large retailers, with ChatGPT and Gemini choosing national chains up to 70% of the time. Adding “independent” more than doubled recommendations for smaller stores.

🛒 Nearly two-thirds of U.S. shoppers are considering Amazon Prime Big Deal Days, while a similar share of planned participants expect to shop competing sales from Walmart and Target.

🥳 Events 

🔥 What Meta’s Own Data Says About Creator Ads Right Now

October 7 | 11 AM ET | 60-Minute Virtual Event

Hear Reyna Baker from Meta break down Partnership Ads performance, then see how Curtis Howland applies those signals after managing $100M+ in Meta spend. You’ll leave knowing which creator-ad setups deserve testing and what to change before your next campaign.

✅ Secure Your Free Spot

Can't attend the session live? Register anyway, and you’ll get the recordings in 24 hours.

🔥 What Makes a Creator Program Worth More Budget

October 21 | Online | Free Festival

See how experienced teams prove creator impact before asking for more spend. Leaders from Adobe, ŌURA, Edelman, Ogilvy, and more will break down the metrics, campaign decisions, and operating systems that help creator programs earn trust, budget, and room to scale.

✅ Reserve Your Free Spot

Can't attend every session live? Register anyway, and you’ll get the recordings in 24 hours.

That’s a wrap for today! Tell us your thoughts about today's content as we line up more Shorts! And don’t hesitate to share this with someone who’d adore it. 🥰