Marketing tips
Meta Ads in 2026: Andromeda, Advantage+ and What Changed
By Jantien Vanderbeke. Updated 27 October 2026
Meta advertising in 2026 runs on automation. Advantage+ audience, placements and budget are on by default, Meta's Andromeda picks which ads get a chance, and detailed targeting exclusions are gone. What you control as a marketer is the input: varied creative, clean conversion data and a clear goal per campaign.
Below: what changed in 2025 and 2026, with dates and sources, and what I would do with it in your campaigns.
What is Meta Andromeda?
Andromeda is Meta's ad retrieval engine. It narrows tens of millions of ads down to a few thousand candidates for each person, before the auction decides what shows. Meta introduced it in December 2024 and reported +6% recall and +8% ad quality on the segments it tested.
What it means for you: ads that look alike get treated almost as one ad. Jon Loomer advises varying concepts, angles, formats and personas, and using one campaign per goal with broad ad sets. Small tweaks to one ad give Andromeda little new to work with.
What changed in Meta ads in 2025 and 2026
| Change | When | What it means for you |
|---|---|---|
| Detailed targeting exclusions removed; existing campaigns that used them stopped delivering (Social Media Today) | Jan 2025 | Steer with creative and conversion data |
| Advantage+ audience, placements and budget on by default for Sales, App and Leads campaigns. Advantage+ Shopping became Advantage+ Sales (Jon Loomer) | Feb 2025 | Check every new campaign: the defaults are on |
| Threads ads open to all eligible advertisers, Threads placement on by default (PPC Land) | Apr 2025 | Check if Threads fits your brand, or switch the placement off |
| Generative AI for ads: brand-consistent images and text, image-to-video (test), virtual try-on (test) (PPC Land) | Jun 2025 | Faster creative variations. Always check them against the brand |
| WhatsApp announced ads in Status and promoted Channels (TechCrunch). Live in Europe by March 2026 (ITdaily) | Jun 2025 / Mar 2026 | A new placement. No ads in personal chats |
| Incremental attribution in Ads Manager: machine learning predicts whether an ad caused a conversion (Social Media Today) | Sep 2025 (docs update) | Compare it with your usual attribution before you change budgets |
| Political, electoral and social issue ads stopped in the EU (Meta) | 6 Oct 2025 | Check if your client's topic falls under "social issues" |
| 7-day view and 28-day view attribution windows removed from the Ads Insights API (PPC Land) | 12 Jan 2026 | Update your dashboards and reports that used these windows |
| EU users get a choice between personalised ads and ads based on less data, after a Digital Markets Act ruling (European Commission) | From Jan 2026 | Expect weaker targeting signals for part of your EU audience |
| Old Advantage+ Shopping and App campaign APIs blocked in all API versions (PPC Land) | Q1 2026 | Tools and scripts that create campaigns need the new structure |
Where Meta is heading: ads built by AI
According to a WSJ report covered by Marketing Dive, Meta wants brands to create and target a whole ad from a product image and a budget goal by the end of 2026. Meta's ad business keeps growing: Q2 2026 ad revenue was $59.36 billion, up 27% year on year (Meta).
For you, the work moves to strategy, creative direction and data. That is the part AI can't decide for you.
What I would do in your Meta campaigns in 2026
- One campaign per goal, broad ad sets. Let Advantage+ find the audience.
- Build creative variety. Different concepts, angles, formats (image, video, carousel) and personas, so Andromeda sees real options.
- Feed it good data. Clear conversion events and a goal per campaign. Meta learns from what you tell it counts.
- Check your reporting. Remove the 7-day and 28-day view windows from dashboards, and test incremental attribution next to your usual model.
- Check the EU rules. Social issue topics can't be advertised in the EU anymore, and part of your audience sees less personalised ads.
FAQ about Meta ads in 2026
What is Meta Andromeda?
Andromeda is Meta's ad retrieval engine. It selects a few thousand candidate ads per person out of tens of millions, before the auction. Varied creative gives it more real options to choose from.
Is detailed targeting still useful in Meta ads?
Less and less. Detailed targeting exclusions were removed in January 2025, and Advantage+ audience is on by default. Creative and conversion data now steer more than interest targeting.
Can I still run social issue ads in the EU?
No. Meta stopped political, electoral and social issue ads in the EU on 6 October 2025, because of the EU's political advertising regulation.
Which attribution windows were removed?
The 7-day view and 28-day view attribution windows were removed from the Ads Insights API on 12 January 2026.
Want a second pair of eyes on your setup?
In Upskill coaching we work on your own marketing every week, Meta campaigns and reporting included, so you and your team learn to use AI in every part of it.