Read Time: 2.5 Minutes

If your Facebook Ads stopped working in July last year, you're not alone.

I've had countless authors message me with the same underlying concern: 

"Matt, I didn't change anything. The ads just... stopped working."

Here's what happened.

Meta quietly rolled out an algorithm update called Andromeda. It fundamentally changed how ads get matched to people.

And most of the advice out there? Outdated overnight.

The Old Way Is Over

For years, the Facebook Ads game was all about targeting.

Find the perfect interest stack. Layer audiences. Obsess over lookalikes. Create one "perfect" ad and let it run for months.

I taught this. It worked.

Past tense.

Andromeda changed all of that.

Meta's old problem was they had millions of ads and couldn't efficiently match them to the right people. Their retrieval system was clunky.

So advertisers compensated with hyper-specific targeting.

But now? Meta invested billions into their new AI-powered algorithm that solves this problem. Their retrieval engine is scary good.

Which means targeting in 2026 is working against you; it throttles your performance and reach.

What Actually Matters Now

Meta's algorithm has always analyzed your ad creative to help decide who sees it.

But since Andromeda, this capability has gone into overdrive.

Meta analyzes:

→ The words in your Primary Text and Headline
→ The content of your image (words, person, gender, age, location, animals, landscapes, etc.)
→ The content of your video (transcript, person, objects, music, duration, etc.)
→ The destination URL (it crawls the website page you're sending people to)

Meta analyses every part of your ad and decides who should see it based on what it finds.

Any interest targeting you add is now treated as a suggestion, and nothing more. Meta can and do go outside of any interest targeting you provide.

For brand new ad accounts, a little interest targeting can nudge the algorithm in the right direction. But it's not essential. The algorithm is sophisticated enough now to read your ad and figure out exactly who you're trying to reach.

That "evergreen" ad you've been running for six months? Meta gets bored. They want novelty. They want variety.

The algorithm now rewards creative diversity over targeting complexity.

This Isn't Just Theory

I've spent the past few months testing, testing and more testing.

Thousands of dollars in ad spend. Countless campaigns. More spreadsheets than I care to admit.

But the patterns are clear:

Broad targeting with compelling creative beats narrow targeting with average creative. Every time.

Multiple genuinely different ads beat one "perfect" ad run into the ground.

The authors seeing the best results right now aren't the ones with the cleverest targeting.

They're the ones feeding the algorithm what it wants: fresh, diverse creative that speaks directly to their ideal readers.

What This Means For You

If you've been struggling with Facebook Ads lately, it's probably not you.

It's that the rules changed and nobody sent you the memo.

The good news? Once you understand the new game, it's actually simpler than before. Less fiddling with audiences. More focus on creating ads that connect with readers.

The bad news? Everything you learned before July 2025 needs updating.

Speaking Of Which...

I've just finished completely overhauling my Facebook Ads Mastery For Authors course based on everything I've learned from all the testing I've been doing.

New strategies. New campaign structures. New creative frameworks. All built for the post-Andromeda world.

The rules have changed. Time to play a different game.

That's all for this week; thank you so much for reading.

See you next week.

To Your Success
– Matt