How to win at DTC advertising in 2027.

How Meta selects ads and what changed in 2026

When someone opens Facebook or Instagram, Meta has a huge pool of possible ads to choose from. Before it can decide which one to show, it creates a shortlist. That first step is called retrieval; the shortlisted ads then go through more detailed ranking.

In December 2024, Meta introduced Andromeda, a retrieval system designed to handle a growing volume of ads. It described organising ads in a layered index and focusing the search on the most relevant branches. ²

The October 2026 publication describes the next development: scoring every eligible ad in the candidate pool before selecting the strongest candidates. This gives the retrieval system a broader scoring approach. It doesn't mean every ad gets shown or receives equal spend. These publication dates also don't tell us exactly when an individual account experienced a change. ¹

Alongside retrieval, Meta has developed how its ranking systems learn from the order and timing of people's interactions. Its August 2026 explanation describes combining interaction history with fresh signals when ranking ads. ³

For your creative team, our takeaway is to give the system different, relevant reasons someone might respond. Meta's own guidance supports diversity in concepts, customer motivations and formats. ⁴ That makes customer understanding a useful starting point for your next brief.

Give different customers a reason to buy

Take a vitamin C supplement. The product stays the same, but people may approach it with different interests: everyday wellbeing, skin health or an active lifestyle. Those interests give you different starting points for an ad.

Before choosing an angle, look at customer reviews, support questions and conversations with buyers. What made someone consider the product? What did they want to understand? Use that evidence to refine your audience ideas rather than assuming everyone in a group thinks alike.

Here are three possible directions. These are creative planning examples; the audience groups can overlap and don't need to become separate ad sets. Any supplement claim must meet the rules and conditions for the product and market. ¹¹

Now zoom in on the health and wellbeing audience. The framework below maps three possible angles: immune support, tiredness and fatigue, and iron absorption. Each explores a different reason to pay attention. An angle becomes a creative concept when you decide how to tell that story and what makes it believable.

For the immune-support angle, explore five creative format groups: creator-led videos, founder-led videos, testimonials and reactions, static ads, and animations. Each gives you a different way to express the same angle. Then develop variations within each group.

This gives us the sequence in the framework: audiences, then angles, then formats, then variations. Three creators with three hooks can produce nine creator videos. Three founder story structures with three openings make nine founder videos. Three authentic customer clips with three openings give nine testimonial or reaction edits. Three visuals with three copy options make nine statics; three motion treatments with three copy options make nine animations. Together, that's 45 possible executions for one angle.

Extend the example to three audiences with three angles each and you reach 405 potential combinations. Treat that as a map of possibilities, then select the ideas your budget can meaningfully test. These format groups can overlap, so count each finished asset once. Filling every box isn't the goal.

Keep improving hooks and headlines. Just be clear about what you're learning: refining an execution or exploring a different reason to buy. A new hook can introduce a new motivation too, so judge the message, not just the label.

Give each test enough room to teach you something

It's easy to get excited about a long list of concepts. Before producing them all, look at what your budget can realistically test.

Start with what you can afford to pay for a customer. Allow for product and fulfilment costs, returns, discounts and the money the business needs to keep. If repeat purchases are part of the calculation, use customer behaviour you've actually observed and a payback period you can support.

Then choose a manageable batch of ideas. A smaller account may need to test concepts in stages. A brand with more budget and purchases may be able to explore several at once. There's no single weekly creative count or spend threshold that makes every test reliable.

Keep established performers running as you explore. Give each new ad a clear label for its concept and variation, and record the offer and landing page too. Later, you should be able to explain what you tested without opening every video again.

Remember that putting several ads in a campaign isn't automatically a controlled experiment. Meta may give them very different amounts of delivery. An ad with little spend may still be an unanswered question. If an important decision needs a cleaner comparison, plan an appropriate A/B test with your media buyer. Meta's measurement guidance makes the same distinction between observing campaign results and designing an experiment around your budget and timing. ⁶

Use AI to create more while keeping your brand human

AI has become a much bigger part of how agencies and marketing teams make ads. ⁵ In July 2026, IAB reported that nearly two-thirds of surveyed digital video buyers were using generative AI for creative, up from around half in 2025. ¹⁰

The attraction is easy to understand. AI can help teams explore ideas, create visuals and adapt content faster. For some executions, generating a new scene or variation can cost less than commissioning another creator shoot. Cost efficiency was the most frequently cited benefit in IAB's 2026 survey of advertising executives. ¹²

But as production becomes easier, your brand still needs to feel like your brand. The voice, visual identity and understanding of the customer should carry through whether an asset was filmed, designed or generated.

People buy from people. For us, that means keeping human connection and trust at the centre of the creative. A real creator can bring their own personality, routine and honest experience. AI can help expand what you build around that.

With our vitamin C example, you could film a creator showing how they fit the product into their day, capture accurate product footage, then use AI to explore supporting scenes and visual variations. The human experience remains real, and the creative team checks that every version still feels recognisably yours.

At EVOKE, we combine human creative direction, real UGC and product footage with AI. We choose the mix around the idea, keep personal experiences authentic and test what helps people connect with the product. AI makes more possible; your brand gives those possibilities a direction.

Look at what happens after the click

An ad can get people to stop scrolling and still struggle to sell. Attention is useful, but you also need to understand what happens next.

Use hook rate, watch time and click-through rate to investigate how people respond to the creative. Then look at purchase cost, the cost of acquiring a new customer and what the business keeps after advertising. Compare results using consistent reporting periods and attribution settings.

Suppose your vitamin C routine video attracts clicks but few purchases. Before asking the editor for another hook, follow the journey yourself. Does the page explain the product and the benefit that interested the customer? Is the price and offer clear? Can they find delivery information? Is the tracking working?

The numbers tell you where to look; they don't explain every cause on their own. A strong ad can send someone to a page that leaves them unsure, just as a useful page can receive visitors who were attracted by the wrong promise.

Carry the message through. If an ad explains an immune-support angle, make the relevant product information and substantiation easy to find on the page. If it shows an everyday routine, explain how the product is used.

Review what you're learning with your media buyer regularly. Decide which concepts need more evidence, which variations are worth developing and what customer question to explore next. As you increase spend, keep checking whether acquisition costs still work for the business.

Turn the ideas into a 30 day plan

You don't need to rebuild everything at once. Use the next month to make your creative process easier to understand and act on. Adjust the pace to the budget and results; some tests will need longer to answer the question.

1. Week 1: Look through recent ads and customer feedback. Group your creative by the reason to buy, then identify which motivations you've barely explored. Check your acquisition targets too.
2. Week 2: Brief a manageable set of concepts. Give each one a customer problem, a clear message, credible proof and a suitable format and landing page.
3. Week 3: Launch with your media buyer and check that measurement works. Watch how delivery develops and give each idea enough evidence before drawing conclusions.
4. Week 4: Develop variations of the most promising concepts, record what remains unclear and brief the next idea. Keep observing any tests that need more time.

A few questions that come up when planning creative