Growth Hacking Andromeda
Fanatics Markets campaigns need to acquire users who want to trade on sports markets, and pairing the sign-up offer with a specific matchup has proven to be one of the most effective creative formats for that goal. At first glance, these three statics look near-identical: same layout, same offer, same product shot. That's a real risk under Meta's current ad retrieval system, Andromeda, which rolled out in October 2025. When high-volume creative launches lean too similar, delivery can stall across the board as the system struggles to differentiate them.
The studio's solution was to load each static with enough fine-grained variation (team names, colourways, fixture dates, sport-specific background imagery) that Andromeda reads them as distinct creatives worth testing against distinct audiences. The result is a concept with real longevity. Every fixture gets delivery because every fixture gets routed to the fans most likely to care, whether that's Bayern supporters, Vegas hockey diehards, or Royals fans tuning in for a Monday night game.
The Process
We start by generating close-cropped, dramatic match-moment photography that's indistinguishable from the real thing. Using this as the backdrop gives Andromeda an extra layer of signal to optimise against, rather than relying on the sign-up offer text and UI alone.
Without access to licensed sports photography, the crops are deliberately tight: a hand on a ball, a foot mid-stride, a glove at the moment of catch. Close enough to feel premium, abstract enough that you can't tell it isn't a major league player.
Defaulting to obvious stock imagery of amateur players would undercut the brand instantly, so this approach lets us match the visual standard of officially licensed creative without the licensing.
The Pipeline
These statics are then generated every week at high volume, covering every fixture across all major leagues, through a proprietary automation pipeline built specifically for this campaign. Upcoming fixture lists are fed into the system, and within minutes a full set of platform-ready statics is produced and queued for launch.
The result is a creative operation that scales with the sporting calendar rather than with headcount. A typical week's slate of 200+ fixtures across pro basketball, hockey, baseball, and European football would take a design team weeks to produce manually. The pipeline turns it around in a single run, freeing the studio to focus on concept evolution and performance iteration rather than asset production.
The Result
The result is industry-beating, rock-bottom CACs for first-time deposits, coming in as low as $20 against a category where acquisition costs typically run several multiples higher. More importantly, it's a concept built to last. Because every fixture generates a fresh creative with new teams, colourways, and imagery, the system sidesteps the creative fatigue that usually forces sportsbooks and trading platforms to rebuild their acquisition campaigns every few weeks.
The framework also travels. The same pipeline can be pointed at any sport, any league, any market with a fixture list, whether that's expanding into college sports, international football, motorsport, or anything Fanatics Markets adds to its product in the future. What started as a campaign solution is effectively now an evergreen acquisition engine, with the studio's role shifting from constant creative production to ongoing optimisation and expansion.
