For a long time, discussions of PPC performance within agencies have focused on bidding – manual vs. automated, CPA targeting vs. increasing conversions, scaling arguments, budget compatibility and operational limitations.
But by 2026, that focus is increasingly being missed. In all Google Ads, Meta Ads, and other major platforms, bidding is largely resolved automatically.
What is now holding back performance on many accounts is not the way bids are set, but the quality, volume, and variety of creative offered in those systems. Recent platform updates, especially Meta’s Andromeda program, make this change impossible to ignore.
Bidding has been automated
Most advertisers today use broadly similar bidding structures.
Google Smart Bidding uses real-time signals across device, location, behavior, and intent that people can handle at scale. Meta’s delivery system works in a similar way, preparing predictable results rather than static audience descriptions.
Essentially, this means that many advertisers are now competing with the same optimization engines.
Google has made it clear that Smart Bidding evaluates millions of content indicators in each auction to optimize conversion results. Meta also stated that its ad system prioritizes predicted action rates and ad quality over manual bid manipulation.
The explanation is simple. If many advertisers use the same optimization engines, bidding is no longer a sustainable competitive advantage. Table poles.
What differentiates performance now is what you give those algorithms to work with – and the most impactful input is creativity.
Andromeda makes art a delivery gateway
Andromeda’s Meta update is clear evidence however that creativity is no longer just a performance lever. It is now a delivery requirement. This is important because it changes what is shown, not what works best once it is shown.
Meta has published a technical deep dive detailing Andromeda, its next-generation ad discovery and ranking system, which is radically changing the way ads are selected.
Instead of evaluating every suitable ad equally, Meta now filters and rates ads early in the process using highly trained AI models on creative signals, improving ad quality by more than 8% while increasing retrieval efficiency.
What this means in practice is important for marketers. Ads that don’t generate strong communication signals won’t enter the auction profitably, regardless of goals, budget, or bid strategy.
If your art doesn’t work, the platform just doesn’t charge you more. It limits your access completely.
Dig deeper: Inside Meta’s AI-driven advertising system: How Andromeda and GEM work together
Meta repeatedly states that creative quality is one of the strongest drivers of auction results.
In its marketer’s guide, Meta highlights creativity as key to delivery efficiency and cost control. An independent analysis reached the same conclusion.
A highly cited Meta Collaborative study showed that campaigns using high volume unique creatives saw a 34% reduction in cost per acquisition, despite low impression volume.
The reason is straightforward. Creating more gives the system more signals. Multiple signals improve matching. Better contrast improves results.
Andromeda accelerates this effect by learning faster and sorting harder. This is why many advertisers encounter mountains even with stable bidding and budget. Their creative ideas do not match the learning needs of the system.
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Google Ads is quietly making the same change
Although Google didn’t brand its changes as prominently as Meta, the direction is the same. Performance Magnitude, Demand Gen, Responsive Search Ads, and YouTube Shortcuts all rely heavily on creative assets to open inventory.
Google clearly states that asset quality and diversity impact campaign performance. Accounts with limited creative assets often underperform those with strong assets, even if bidding strategies and budgets are otherwise similar.
Google reinforced this by introducing creative-focused tools like Asset Studio and Performance Max testing that allow marketers to test different creatives directly. Like Meta, an algorithm can only improve what is provided.
Powerful creativity increases reach and efficiency. Both are weak creative constraints.
Dig deep: The silent setting of Google ads can change your creativity
Plains crisis centers continue to hit
Most agencies see the same pattern across accounts. Performance improves after layout adjustments or bidding changes. Then it’s flat.
Increasing spending leads to diminishing returns. The instinct is to revisit bids or active targets. But in most cases, the real limitation is creative exhaustion.
Audiences have seen the same hooks, visuals, and messages too many times. The marriage is declining. Average action ratings are decreasing. Delivery is expensive.
This is not a platform problem. It’s a creative cadence problem. Smart check is the missing feature for optimization in older accounts.
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The agency bottleneck: The production of creativity
Most agencies are structured to develop bids, budgets, and designs faster than they can produce new art.
Creativity takes time. It requires strategy, copy, design, video, approval, and iteration. Many conservators still treat art as a one-off or an add-on rather than an essential function. The result is predictable. Accounts are technically savvy but creatively hungry.
If your account has had the same ads running for three months or more, performance is likely limited by creative volume, not optimization ability.
The best performing accounts today look cluttered with too many ads, too many hooks, frequent updates, and constant checking. That is not unemployment. That’s how modern PPC works.
Creative testing is a process, not a campaign
One of the biggest mistakes agencies make is to treat creative testing as a piece. Introduce new ads. Wait four weeks. Review the results. Announce winners and losers. That approach is very slow in terms of how quickly platforms learn and audience fatigue.
High-performing teams treat creativity like a product roadmap. There is always something new in development. There is always something to learn. Every thing is retired.
Effective creative testing focuses on one variable at a time: a hook, opening line, visual style, presentation frame, social proof, or call to action.
It’s not about finding the “best ad.” It’s about building a library of messages that an algorithm can send to the right people at the right time.
Dig deep: Your ads are dying: How to spot and stop creative fatigue before it affects performance
What structures should do differently
Once you accept that creativity is a limitation, practical implications are inevitable. If creativity is the primary responsibility, agency practices must change.
Art should be organized around the media, not behind it. Curators should include ongoing production of art, not just development time. Evaluation frameworks should be transparent and documented.
At a minimum, agencies should ask:
- How often do we renew creativity through the platform?
- Are we testing new hooks or just new designs?
- Do we have enough volume for the algorithm to learn?
- Are we feeding operational information back into creative strategies?
The best agencies now work closer to content studios than a development factory. That’s where the value is.
Creative is a performance protector
Bidding, tracking, and layout are still important. But in 2026, those are table stakes.
If your PPC performance is stuck, the answer is rarely another way to bid. There is almost always a better creation. A lot of it. Fast replication. A smart test.
The forums told us this. The data supports it. The narrative proves that.
Creative is no longer a nice to have. It is an operating lever. The structures that see that are the ones that will continue to grow.
Dig deep: Cross-platform, not copy-paste: Smart Meta, TikTok, and Pinterest for creating ads
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