Your CPMs Are Rising - And It's Not the Algorithm
It’s your creative library. Here's the 30-minute audit.
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CPMs rising in Q1 is predictable. Operators immediately look at external factors: more competition, post-holiday auction dynamics, algorithm changes.
But those numbers can hide an internal flaw.
Here's why: Meta uses Entity IDs to group your ads internally.
When ads look or sound too similar - same visual style, same format, same product angle - Andromeda clusters them under a single Entity ID, regardless of how many unique Creative IDs you have in your account.
The result: delivery concentrates on 1-2 ads, the rest go dormant, and CPMs rise because the algorithm has fewer options to work with.
The threshold: when your Creative Similarity Score hits 60% or higher, Andromeda views your ads as redundant "clutter" and delivery suppression kicks in automatically.
This is the 30-minute audit to find out if your creative library is costing you - and exactly what to fix.
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The Metric To Watch
Meta's Creative Similarity Score is now visible in Ads Manager breakdowns. It measures how visually and conceptually similar your active ads are.
High similarity means Andromeda concentrates on delivery, stops exploring new audiences, and inflates CPMs.
Low similarity means delivery spreads, reach expands, and CPMs stabilize.
Meta also categorizes your ads into Top Creative Themes: lifestyle content, product-focused messaging, testimonials, humor, social proof, savings-oriented offers.
If 90%+ of your budget concentrates on a single theme, you're not giving Andromeda enough diverse nodes to explore.
You're paying higher CPMs because the system has fewer creative options to rotate through.
The 30-Minute Creative Diversity Audit
Pull up Ads Manager right now.
Step 1: Pull every active ad across all campaigns into one view.
Step 2: Tag each ad across three dimensions:
Format: Static image / Video / Carousel / Flex Ad
Tone: UGC / Founder-led / Polished brand / Editorial / Meme-style
Angle: Problem-aware / Product demo / Social proof / Lifestyle / Comparison / Urgency
Step 3: Build a simple grid and check for concentration:
If any single Format holds more than 50% of your ads → that's a format gap
If any Tone holds more than 40% → that's a tone gap
If any Angle holds more than 30% → that's an angle gap
Example:
80% of your ads are UGC videos → you have a format and tone gap
70% of your ads use social proof as the angle → you have an angle gap
60% of your ads are product demos in the same visual style → you have a similarity problem
Step 4: Your next round of creative production should specifically fill the gaps.
Andromeda needs genuinely different creative inputs, not 10 versions of the same thing with minor tweaks.
Don't make "more ads." Make ads in the categories you're missing.
Quick Wins That Lower CPMs Without Increasing Creative Budget
You don't need a massive production budget to repurpose existing winners into different creative DNA.
Here are three specific fixes (each takes 1-2 hours to produce):
1. Format flip:
Take your top-performing video ad and create a static carousel version with the same core message. Different format, same proven angle. This gives Andromeda a genuinely new Entity ID to work with.
Example: Your best UGC video is a customer testimonial. Turn it into a 3-slide carousel: slide 1 = the problem, slide 2 = the product in use, slide 3 = the result. Same message, different visual treatment.
2. Tone swap:
Take your best UGC testimonial and reshoot the concept as a founder-led piece to camera. Different tone, same social proof. Andromeda's visual analysis will register this as a distinct creative.
Example: Your top UGC ad is a customer saying "this product changed my morning routine." Reshoot it as the founder explaining why they built the product to solve that exact problem. New tone, same core message.
3. Angle remix:
Take your highest-CTR hook and build a completely different ad around it. Eg: different product angle, different visual treatment, same opening line = new Entity ID from the same proven hook.
Example: Your best hook is "I tried 12 skincare routines before finding this one." Use that hook in a lifestyle ad showing the product in daily use instead of a testimonial format. Same hook, different angle and format.
Each of these repurposes existing winners into genuinely different creative inputs for Andromeda. No new concepts required or additional creative budget. Just strategic reformatting of what's already working.
Healthy Benchmarks
Here's what to maintain for top performance:
Active creative variations: 8-12 variations per campaign. Aka, variations are spread across at least 3 formats, 3 tones, and 4 angles.
Refresh cadence: 25-30% of library monthly. Don’t replace underperformers with more of the same, add new combinations from the grid that don't exist yet.
Similarity target: Aim for active assets sharing fewer than 40% of the same visual and audio features. Above 60% triggers suppression.
The test: if CPMs have risen 15%+ in the last 60 days and you haven't added genuinely new creative, your Creative Similarity Score is likely the cause.
Case Study: HexClad's Head of Growth Connor Rolain described their process flip on The Marketing Operators podcast: "We used to make 75 ads per campaign. Now we make 6 that are genuinely different. The overlap's smaller, but the impact is bigger." (Listen Here).They chose diversity over volume, and CPMs dropped as a result.
Final Thoughts
Everyone's looking for the next targeting hack or campaign structure trick to lower CPMs.
The answer is less sexy: your ads look too similar.
Run the audit this week. Make your grid and fill the gaps.
Watch your CPMs over the next 14 days.
You don’t need to outspend the competition if you can out-diversify them.
To succeed in 2026, you have to know the difference between iteration (changing the hook) and variation (changing the concept).
This audit will tell you which one your account is actually doing
If you want a growth partner who is invested in helping you build a profitable business, someone who is going to push you to make changes that focus on profitable growth. Book a call - let’s chat.
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