The New Meta Ad Playbook: Avoiding Creative Similarity on Meta

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Creative similarity is quietly killing Meta ad performance and most brands have no idea it’s happening.

In this episode of D2C Diaries, we dive into the biggest update to Meta’s creative delivery system since Andromeda: how visual similarity between ads is now being flagged and penalised, even when the creator, script, or copy is different.

Read Olly's update here: https://x.com/oliverwhudson/status/1975537673470132358

This isn’t theory. We’ve seen the impact inside high-spend accounts over the past 6 months.

Brands that look like they’re iterating are actually just reskinning. Meta sees it. And performance suffers.

We share how one client went from £54k to £622k/week in spend by building persona-led creative that delivers stronger signals. We unpack what Meta really wants from your ad account in 2025 and why creative diversity now matters more than creative volume.

We also break down the 3 new in-platform creative metrics Meta is rolling out (Creative Similarity, Fatigue, and Top Themes), how CPMR and New Visitor % are changing how we benchmark creative success, and why testing strategies need to evolve beyond micro iterations.

Read Jason Yim's update here: https://x.com/jasonyimco/status/1975687580449710215

🚨🚀 If you're a brand spending £100K/month, we'll run your ads. Apply for your free audit here: https://eu1.hubs.ly/H0nQwmw0

0:00 Intro
2:51 How Meta reframed creative diversity
9:30 Asset similarity explained
10:35 Persona-led strategy 
13:55 Volume vs quality of assets
15:25 Signal engineering: how Meta reads engagement
17:00 Tracking Meta performance
24:23 Creative strategy: vehicles, angles, and hooks
26:20 Concept-level variations and visual diversification
33:00 Meta introducing 3 new creative metrics
39:20 Brand consistency vs creative diversity
42:14 Creative production scale challenges
43:40 Sora’s leap in speed, cost, and realism
48:20 OpenAI + Shopify + Stripe integrations 
50:20 Further AI advancements
55:35 Tactical Section: Black Friday prep 
1:01:28 Final Thoughts 

From the team behind Soar With Us and Hambi Media: www.soarwithus.co

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Twitter: https://x.com/oliverwhudson

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