🏕️ Opening Bite
Everyone is still trying to find that one perfect, high-ROAS ad.
Meanwhile, Meta’s new algorithm is making that whole strategy obsolete.
You’re fighting the algorithm, not leveraging it.
And it’s costing you customers.
The Big Marketing Story: Meta Isn’t Looking for Your Best Ad Anymore
Meta quietly changed how winning ad accounts are built, and most advertisers haven’t noticed yet. The platform is no longer optimizing ad accounts to produce a single, top-performing creative. Instead, the algorithm is building full customer journeys.
That means your ads are no longer competing with each other; they’re working together. That “low ROAS” ad you’re thinking about turning off? It might be the exact ad introducing your brand and making your highest ROAS ad convert later.
Meta’s budget distribution isn’t random. It’s data-driven guidance showing you which ads influence different stages of the buying process, not just the final click.
Why This Matters
Your ad strategy needs to evolve from finding a single winner to building an ecosystem. Stop asking, “Which ad converts best?” and start asking, “What role does each ad play in the customer journey?” Every potential question or hesitation a customer has should be addressed by a specific creative.
•You can now justify “low ROAS” ads with a clear role. That top-of-funnel video ad that gets a lot of views but few direct conversions? It’s likely the first touchpoint that leads to a search, a site visit, and a later conversion. Now you can map it to the journey.
•This is a massive advantage for small, agile teams. While bigger companies are stuck in old models of A/B testing single variables, founders and small teams can quickly build out a full-funnel creative strategy that addresses different customer personas and stages of awareness.
See It In Action
This isn’t about a single ad anymore. It’s about mapping your creative to the entire customer journey. Think of it like this:
What Operators Are Doing
Smart operators are auditing their ad accounts not for the best-performing ad, but for gaps in their customer journey. They’re mapping their existing creatives to each stage of the funnel (Awareness, Consideration, Conversion) and identifying where they have holes. They’re building a creative matrix that addresses different personas (e.g., analytical, identity-driven, skeptical) at each stage.
🧪 Try This Week
1.Audit your ad account for journey gaps. Look at your last 30 days of ads. Categorize each one by its role in the customer journey (e.g., introducing the problem, showing social proof, handling objections, closing the sale). Where are the holes? You’ll likely find you’re heavy on conversion and light on everything else.
2.Create one new ad to fill a gap. Don’t overthink it. If you have no ads that build trust, create a simple video testimonial. If you have no ads that handle objections, write a short post addressing the top 3 reasons people don’t buy.
3 Quick Signals
1.Meta is embedding Manus AI into Ads Manager. You can now use AI to help with report building and audience research directly within the platform. It’s a workflow efficiency play that could save you time.
2.Google Ads is letting you connect your own data. A new beta feature allows you to connect external data sources like BigQuery and MySQL to your conversion settings. This means smarter bidding and clearer attribution if you have first-party data.
3.Snapchat is becoming a reliable income stream for creators. Some creators are making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year on the platform, which they say is less saturated and more reliable than TikTok or YouTube.
Tool Watch
Humanz+ is a new AI platform that aims to be the operating system for creator marketing. It integrates AI across the entire campaign lifecycle, from research and briefing to creator discovery and monetization. They claim a 20-30% uplift in results for brands using their platform to create Partnership Ads on Meta, YouTube, and TikTok. [5]
Campfire Close
Stop looking for the one ad to rule them all.
Start building an army of creatives that work together.
That’s how you win on Meta in 2026.
See you around the campfire.
References
[5]: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/meet-humanz-product-humanz-bringing-140000378.html "Yahoo Finance, "Meet \"Humanz+\": The New Product from Humanz Bringing Results-Driven Creator Marketing to The AI Era","
