---
title: Creative similarity and "entity IDs" — why 30 ads can get one ad's worth of delivery
slug: meta-creative-similarity-entity-ids
summary: How Andromeda clusters look-alike ads into one "entity" (industry term), which creative variables make an ad count as different (format, production style, audio, setting, persona), and how to tell similarity from fatigue.
domain: marketing
tags: [meta-ads, andromeda, creative-diversity, creative-testing, fatigue]
related: [meta-andromeda-gem-lattice, meta-iteration-vs-net-new-creative, meta-persona-angle-creative-dimensions, meta-ads-per-ad-set-and-budget-minimums, meta-ad-diagnostic-cheatsheet, creative-diversity-levels]
sources: [yt:ZqM6jPUAaeQ, yt:aNCUFwQw524, yt:kn4ByanAe-s, yt:cnWpC1g5qek]
updated: 2026-10-24
---

# Creative similarity and entity IDs

## TL;DR
- Andromeda groups ads it sees as conceptually alike into one cluster ("entity ID" — an industry term, not official Meta language). **30 near-identical ads ≈ 1 auction ticket at 30× the production cost.**[^1][^2]
- Symptom: you launch 20–40 ads and only 1–3 ever get spend.[^3]
- What makes an ad "different": **visual format/production approach** (iPhone UGC vs studio), **audio** (voice-over vs fast-cut UGC), **background/setting** (gym vs living room vs outdoors), and the **persona** it speaks to.[^4][^5]
- Changing only the on-screen text no longer creates a different hook; hooks must be **visually** different.[^6]
- **Similarity ≠ fatigue.** Fatigue is a time problem (CPM and CPA creep up on a former winner → refresh/rotate). Similarity is structural (ads never got delivery → make genuinely different concepts).[^7][^8]

## Details
**The mechanism.** Ignacio Manchi (Ready Set): when Andromeda evaluates ads that are too alike it clusters them and effectively runs them as one, so each additional clone adds cost but no new chance at the shortlist. 50 Oompa Loompas or 50 Minions read as one ad; 50 different monsters from *Monsters University* are 50 chances.[^1][^9] The goal isn't variety for its own sake but making sure each ad lands in a different cluster so it gets an independent shot at a different user.[^2] Meta's own definition of creative diversification is unique assets tailored to different personas or use cases.[^10] Meta was reported (mid-2026) to be rolling out creative diversity/fatigue scores in Ads Manager, not yet broadly available.[^11]

**Signals Andromeda likely uses** (practitioner inference): visuals and format, production approach, audio, background and setting. The same product in a gym vs on a sofa reads as a different context and potentially a different persona.[^4][^5] Josh Brampton (Motion): Meta groups entities by ID and serves each to the persona it deems most receptive; ads with no clear persona (e.g. a catalogue-style video of a jumper) get no persona at all — a prompt to rework them.[^12][^13]

**Practical thresholds.** Smart Marketer's Jan 2026 sweet spot is **15–20 ads per ad set, each a genuinely different concept** — not one ad with a new background colour.[^14] Before consolidating, one client (CleanEase) had 1–2 ads taking ~90% of budget and fatiguing fast; after loading ~15 diverse historical and new winners, spend spread across ~15 ads.[^15]

## Disagreements / caveats
- In 2023 (pre-Andromeda) Smart Marketer refreshed a decaying static by changing only the text overlay ("Tired of constant negativity from your child?" → "Do you have an anxious child?") and squeezed ~$100K more spend from it.[^16] Under the 2025+ system that kind of change is likely to be clustered with the original — treat the 2023 tactic as outdated for net-new testing, but possibly still valid as a fatigue refresh.
- "Entity ID" behaviour is inferred from results; Meta hasn't documented thresholds of similarity.

## See also
- [[meta-iteration-vs-net-new-creative]]
- [[meta-creative-fatigue-diagnosis]] — a third explanation to rule out: remarketing exhaustion mistaken for fatigue
- [[meta-persona-angle-creative-dimensions]] — a system for producing distinct concepts
- [[meta-ads-per-ad-set-and-budget-minimums]]
- People: [[people/ignacio-manchi]], [[people/josh-brampton]]

[^1]: yt:ZqM6jPUAaeQ @ 24:52 — Ignacio Manchi
[^2]: yt:ZqM6jPUAaeQ @ 23:49 — Ignacio Manchi
[^3]: yt:ZqM6jPUAaeQ @ 20:58 — Ignacio Manchi
[^4]: yt:ZqM6jPUAaeQ @ 22:51 — Ignacio Manchi
[^5]: yt:ZqM6jPUAaeQ @ 23:49 — Ignacio Manchi
[^6]: yt:aNCUFwQw524 @ 06:15 — Josh Brampton
[^7]: yt:ZqM6jPUAaeQ @ 19:18 — Ignacio Manchi
[^8]: yt:ZqM6jPUAaeQ @ 20:06 — Ignacio Manchi
[^9]: yt:ZqM6jPUAaeQ @ 25:40 — Ignacio Manchi
[^10]: yt:ZqM6jPUAaeQ @ 14:23 — Ignacio Manchi
[^11]: yt:ZqM6jPUAaeQ @ 21:46 — Ignacio Manchi
[^12]: yt:aNCUFwQw524 @ 39:18 — Josh Brampton
[^13]: yt:aNCUFwQw524 @ 56:10 — Josh Brampton
[^14]: yt:kn4ByanAe-s @ 29:02 — Molly Pittman
[^15]: yt:kn4ByanAe-s @ 54:49 — Molly Pittman
[^16]: yt:cnWpC1g5qek @ 39:24 — Molly Pittman