Meta and TikTok ad guidesStraight answers to the questions advertisers ask us most.
How many ads to test, why winners tire, what hook rate tells you, what Meta's Andromeda changed, and how the options for getting ads made compare. Each guide answers one question in full, with its sources.
Where to start
New to running ads on Meta or TikTok? Read the four guides in this order. Each builds on the one before, and together they cover how an ad is chosen, judged, tested and replaced.
- Meta Andromeda: how Meta now decides which ads are even considered for each person, and why that makes the ad itself your strongest targeting.
- Hook rate: the first number to read on any video ad, how to work it out, and what published benchmarks say.
- How many ads to test on Meta: the limits, the learning phase turned into a budget, and how many distinct ideas your spend can judge.
- Creative fatigue: why every winner tires, the signs in Ads Manager, and how to have the next ad ready.
Guides
How many ads to test on Meta at once
How many ads to run per ad set on Meta, and how to tell when to add more.
Creative fatigue: how to spot it and fix it
Why winning ads tire, the signs in Ads Manager, and how to refresh before costs rise.
Hook rate: what it is and how to improve it
What hook rate is, how to calculate it on Meta and TikTok, and how to raise it.
Meta Andromeda: what it changed for your ads
What Meta's Andromeda retrieval engine changed, and what it means for the ads you make.
The terms in plain words
- Hook rate: The share of impressions where someone watched past the opening of a video ad, usually 3-second plays divided by impressions on Meta. Read the hook rate guide.
- Hold rate: How many people kept watching after the opening, built on Meta's ThruPlay count. Two formulas are in use, so always check which one a figure uses. How hold rate is worked out.
- Frequency: The average number of times each person reached has seen an ad. Rising frequency with falling clicks is one of the first signs that an ad is tiring. Read the creative fatigue guide.
- Learning phase: The period after launch or a significant edit when Meta's delivery system is still working out who an ad set should reach. It needs enough results to finish, which sets a floor on budget. Read the guide to how many ads to test.
- Creative fatigue: What happens when the people an ad reaches have seen it so often that it stops changing what they do, and its cost per result climbs. How to spot it and fix it.
- Andromeda: The retrieval system Meta uses to shortlist, from all the ads that could run, the few thousand worth ranking for each person. Read the Meta Andromeda guide.
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