If you learned how to run Meta ads during the so called glory days of 2017, you’ve probably noticed something. The levers you used to pull don’t move the way they used to. Targeting behaves differently. Creative matters more than it ever has. And the sense of control you get when you log into Ads Manager has never been more misleading.
In this episode of The Marketing Made Social Podcast, Vicki sits down with Jon Loomer, one of the earliest and most respected voices in the Meta ads world, to unpack what’s really going on inside the platform right now. This isn’t a hacks and tactics episode. It’s a conversation about understanding the system you’re working with, so you can build a strategy that actually matches where the platform is in 2026.
The Wild West era, and the habits it left behind
Between roughly 2015 and 2018, Meta advertising felt like a playground. Clicks were cheap. Retargeting was hyper granular. Complex funnel structures with dozens of ad sets were the norm. Micro targeting down to “women aged 34 who like green smoothies and recently viewed a yoga mat” actually worked.
That era shaped an entire generation of advertisers. The habits it built, obsessive structural optimisation, detailed interest stacking, aggressive ad set splitting, are still visible in ad accounts today. The problem is that the platform has moved on, and the habits haven’t.
The illusion of control
One of the central themes of the conversation is control, and specifically how much of it you actually have.
Meta still lets you select detailed interests, build lookalike audiences, exclude segments, and structure multiple ad sets with bespoke targeting. All of that looks like control. But Jon shares results from his own testing that challenge a lot of long held assumptions about what’s driving performance.
When broad targeting is compared with carefully built custom audiences, the gap is often much smaller than advertisers expect. In some cases, broad wins outright. The targeting layers that used to be the job are now, increasingly, the wallpaper.
Why creative is the new targeting
If targeting is no longer your competitive advantage, what is? Creative.
The conversation digs into why that shift has happened, what it means practically, and where most advertisers are still behind. Topics include:
- What Andromeda is, and why it matters for how Meta now matches ads to audiences
- What creative diversification actually looks like in 2026
- Why you don’t need 50 ads to test properly
- How flexible format and multiple text variations create meaningful test data without bloat
- Why the old model of hunting for one winning combination is outdated
The core shift is this. Your job is no longer to build an elaborate targeting stack and feed it a couple of ads. It’s to give Meta a strong, varied set of creative assets and let the system do the matching. Get the creative right, and the platform rewards you. Get it wrong, and no amount of targeting cleverness will save the campaign.
Letting ads breathe
The conversation also explores something a lot of experienced advertisers struggle with. When do you step back?
Most of us were trained to turn off underperforming ads quickly, optimise aggressively, and make constant structural changes. In 2026, that behaviour often works against you.
Jon and Vicki discuss the halo effect of creative, the idea that not every ad in a campaign needs to convert directly to be pulling its weight. Some ads warm audiences. Some build recognition. Some carry messaging that makes the next ad land harder. Judging each asset in isolation and killing it early can quietly strip the value out of a campaign, even when the headline numbers look like they’re improving.
Overall account performance matters more than individual ad micromanagement. That’s a hard adjustment for advertisers who built their skills during a period when constant intervention was rewarded.
AI, automation, and the future of agencies
The episode closes on a question most people running ads professionally are thinking about. Where is this heading?
Will Meta eventually automate the entire advertising process? Could we reach a point where a business owner simply plugs in their website and lets the platform handle the rest?
Jon shares his view on what’s realistic, what’s unlikely, and where agencies, strategists, and in house marketers will still have a genuine role to play. The short version is that automation is increasing, and will keep increasing. But strategic thinking, creative direction, and a real understanding of the customer are still the parts of the job that don’t scale automatically.
The takeaway isn’t that the robots are coming for your job. It’s that the job itself is changing, and the advertisers who adapt will be the ones who understand the system rather than fighting it.
Who this episode is for
This conversation is for you if:
- You’re a founder running your own Meta ads and wondering why performance has drifted
- You learned advertising during the 2017 era and your instincts aren’t landing the way they used to
- You manage ads in house and need to articulate to your leadership team why the old metrics don’t tell the full story
- You work in an agency and want a clearer frame for what’s actually changed, beyond the usual “iOS 14 broke everything” shorthand
If you want an honest, grounded look at where Meta ads are heading and what’s worth focusing on next, this one is worth an hour of your time.
Want help applying this to your own account?
If you’re running Meta ads and the performance has drifted, or you’re planning into 2026 and want a second pair of eyes on your strategy, we offer an Ad Audit and Strategic Test Plan that goes deep on what’s actually happening in your account and what to do about it. Contact us to find out more.
