Perpetual Traffic Podcast Summary

Episode: How We Slashed nCAC $44 to $25 in 10 Days with Meta Andromeda
Date: November 18, 2025
Hosts: Ralph Burns (Tier 11) & John Moran (Tier 11)
Context: This episode dives deep into a case study where the Tier 11 team leveraged Meta’s Andromeda update and a rigorous creative diversification strategy to reduce new Customer Acquisition Cost (nCAC) from $44 to $25 in just 10 days for a digital products/lead gen client.

Main Theme Overview

This episode breaks down, step-by-step, how Tier 11 tactically implemented Meta Andromeda-driven creative diversification to rapidly reduce nCAC. The conversation goes beyond theory, sharing hands-on insights, campaign tweaks, and fundamental shifts in Facebook/Meta advertising best practices that other agencies and advertisers are either missing—or too slow to adopt. The result? A proven playbook for leveraging creative variation and system harmony to drive measurable reductions in customer acquisition costs.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Meta Andromeda Update: Game-Changer for Performance Marketing

• The Big Shift: Meta’s Andromeda update, released December 2024, is a dramatic change in how ads are delivered and optimized—arguably the biggest since the early Facebook “right rail” days.
• Creative Diversification Is Essential: Success now means deploying at least 80% differentiated creatives regularly, in harmony with matching copy, to ensure Meta recognizes and favors their novelty.
  • “One of the biggest discoveries that we've made is that you actually have to have your creative and your ad copy in harmony with each other.” —Ralph Burns [07:15]

2. Creative Diversification in Practice

• The 5x5 Model:
  • Five insight-driven, net new concepts per month—each exploring different hooks, pain points, or offers.
  • Rapid iteration: When a creative starts winning, immediately build smarter variations of that winner.
• Meta Wants Variety & Alignment: Ad variants must differ meaningfully (not just tweaks) and should have matching messaging in both visuals and copy. Mismatched ads underperform due to Meta's improved semantic understanding.

3. The Case Study: Slashing nCAC in 10 Days

• Background:
  • Client is not traditional ecommerce; it’s a digital products/lead gen business focusing on college courses.
  • Tracking had been off for two years, focusing on micro-conversions (e.g., “begin checkout”) versus final sales.
• The Playbook Execution:
  • [11:10] Spent increased from $9,600 to $13,000 for scaling.
  • [12:35] Initial scale caused CPA to jump (“diminishing returns”); response was rapid creative iteration.
  • [13:51] New creative sets uploaded, with iterations over 3-day increments.
  • [14:17] CPA drops from $45 to $34, then to $25 as creative iterations continue.
  • Tracked over approximately 11 days and 3 rounds of creative updates—“In just 10 days, we dropped nCAC from $44 to $25.” —John Moran [19:59]
• Results Quantified:
  • 62% increase in conversions from creative refreshes with only a 23% increase in spend.
  • Additional creative updates lead to a 24% decrease in CPA, with spend nearly unchanged.
  • The bottom-line, blended nCAC from all creatives is what matters—NOT individual ad CPAs.
    • “You don't really care about any of the other ones. That's your universal NCAC from all your assets.” —John Moran [21:36]

4. Lessons in Modern Media Buying & Attribution

• Let Meta’s Engine Work:
  • Caution against “over-managing”—let Meta allocate spend to high-engagement creatives, even if individual CPAs seem high at first glance.
    • “If Meta says, ‘I'm going to do it, it works’ and you'll see a better result. The media buyer for some reason thinks that to hop in and like pause this one, it's like, do not touch it.” —John Moran [16:48]
• Understand Attribution Nuances:
  • Meta defaults to last-click attribution, but most customer journeys are multi-touch and require a range of supporting creatives.
    • “When we are importing first click CAPI imports, remember what's Meta's attribution model? Last click. Bingo.” —John Moran [19:38]
• Creative Iteration as Process, Not Event:
  • The real “unlock” is consistently generating and iterating on new creative—finding hooks that resonate and doubling down.
    • “All we basically did is find the 130 different accolades about our product that everyone loves. And we're just like telling the world.” —John Moran [24:02]
  • Media buying has been “snuffed” and creative iteration “buffed.” [25:18]

5. Practical Strategies for 2026 Planning

• Now is the Time to Plan:
  • Avoid “January Syndrome”—start planning Q1 while things are slower in late November/December.
  • Tier 11 is offering end-of-year creative diversification packages: 30 fresh, diverse creatives per month, including free media buying and Tier 11’s proprietary data suite.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On creative/copy harmony:
  “If you have a creator content video that talks about something in the art space...but your copy talks about...a more generalized audience...Meta won't understand what that ad is all about...The two of those things don't match...You have to have very, very specific copy and very specific creative that matches.” —Ralph Burns [07:15]

• On media buyer tendencies:
  “The media buyer for some reason thinks that to hop in and like pause this one...do not touch it.” —John Moran [16:48]

• Turning process into systems:
  “When I say that media buying is technical, media buying has been snuffed and the creative media buying has been buffed...think of creative first. What are your concepts? Hook, pain points, offers?” —John Moran [24:19]

• On the necessity for speed and iteration:
  “No one else knows this stuff like we know it. And we've shown it every single week here on Perpetual Traffic...You could learn it all yourself, but you might figure it all out by mid-2026 and then it's too...so get your goals, get your business, get your plan in place right now.” —Ralph Burns [08:09]

• Jargon moment:
  “This is where...if you learn attribution, everything else becomes so much easier. So don’t skip the hard part because you’re making the easy part hard.” —John Moran [19:12]

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [07:15] — Major insight: Creative & copy must be in harmony for Meta to “get” the ad.
• [10:36] — The “5x5” Insight-Driven Creative Diversification Model explained.
• [13:51] — The start of creative iteration and update cycles, tracking incremental improvements.
• [14:17] — CPA drops and rapid impact of creative iteration timeline.
• [16:48] — Why media buyers shouldn’t over-control; letting Meta optimize spend.
• [19:12] — Attribution lessons: how modeling impacts perception of ad performance.
• [21:36] — Looking at total/blended nCAC as the real metric.
• [24:02] — The impact of ongoing creative testing for evergreen results.
• [25:18] — Media buying technical vs. creative; “snuffed and buffed.”

Conclusion

The episode is a tactical masterclass for advanced performance marketers, emphasizing that Meta’s Andromeda update changed the game—requiring continuous, insight-driven creative diversification tied closely to matching ad copy. The results are quantifiable, and the process demands discipline, iteration, and a willingness to let the platform’s AI optimize spend—often running counter to old-school media buying instincts.

Takeaway:
If you want to dramatically lower your nCAC in today’s Meta landscape, prioritize creative iteration over manual bid/campaign tweaks, ensure harmony between copy and creative, and allow Meta’s algorithms to do their job. Adopt these new practices now—otherwise, by the time you catch up, your competition will have already lapped you.

Resources & Further Learning:

• Watch the full episodes and screen shares: PerpetualTraffic.com/YouTube
• Creative Diversification package info: Tier11.com/cd
• Book a planning call: Tier11.com

Hosts:

• Ralph Burns — @ralphburns
• John Moran — Tier 11

Episode summarized by AI Podcast Summarizer.