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How Meta Actually Works in 2026
Description
Meta has fundamentally changed how it targets and delivers ads, and most brands are still operating on the old rules. In this episode, CTC's VP of Paid Media Tony Chopp breaks down the CTC Methodology for Meta advertising: why creative is now the targeting, how Meta's Andromeda and GEM systems make decisions no human operator can match, and the counterintuitive principle that defines how our profit engineers manage accounts every single day.
Topics covered:
How Andromeda and GEM replaced audience-first targeting
The breakdown effect and why historical ROAS doesn't predict future ROAS
Campaign structure: evergreen vs. marketing moment campaigns
Signal quality, CAPI integration, and event match quality scores
Budget liquidity and why day-to-day spend variance is a feature, not a bug
The four-phase framework for solving underspend
Why turning off ads is the single most common mistake brands make
Key stat: Meta's Andromeda enables a 10,000x increase in model capacity per impression opportunity.
Show Notes:
Book a free demo at tapcart.com/ctc to learn how brands like Aviator Nation, BEIS, Athletic Brewing, and thousands more are winning with Tapcart
Explore the Prophit Engine: https://commonthreadco.com/pages/prophit-engine
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