Rat Race creates epic adventure challenges that push people to their limits – and inspire them to surprise themselves. With a naturally visual, story-rich brand, Meta is a powerful platform for them. But when Circus PPC came on board, there was a clear opportunity to make their content work harder, reach further, and resonate more deeply with the right audience.

Here’s how Q1 2026 compared to Q1 2025.

Rat Race had strong brand assets, but the creative mix wasn’t as diverse as it could be. Without a varied content strategy, the algorithm has less to work with – and less chance of finding the right people at the right moment. Alongside this, there was room to sharpen the campaign structure to support broader, more efficient reach.

Post boosting & UGC-style creative

We introduced a post boosting strategy that brought organic content – specifically UGC-style videos made by challenge participants themselves – into paid campaigns alongside existing brand assets. Real people, real adventures, real results.

The authenticity of this content is hard to replicate with brand-led creative alone. Seeing genuine challenge-goers document their experience connects with audiences in a way that’s immediate and compelling. It also delivered meaningful creative diversification – and in the era of Meta’s Andromeda algorithm, that matters more than ever.

Creative as targeting

You’ve probably heard it said that “creative is the new targeting” – but what does that actually mean in practice? With Andromeda, Meta’s ability to find the right users based on creative signals alone is stronger than ever. The algorithm reads what your ads are about and who they’re likely to resonate with, then finds those people – regardless of how broadly you’re targeting.

That’s exactly what we leaned into with Rat Race. By introducing UGC-style content alongside brand assets, we gave the algorithm a richer, more varied mix to work with. The ads that featured real challenge-goers flew – not just against interest-based audiences, but in broader campaigns too. Meta found the right people because the creative told it who to look for.

Campaign structure & targeting

To complement the creative improvements, we refined the campaign structure using both Traffic and Sales objectives, and adopted Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns to allow for broader targeting. Rather than narrowing the audience down, we let the creative do the targeting work – putting the right ads in front of the right people at the right time.

Spending 20% less than the same period last year, Q1 2026 delivered:

• +73% Impressions
• +404% ThruPlay video views
• +98% Link clicks 
• -54% CPM 
• +14% CTR 
• -59% CPC 

Ultimately spending less budget, but in return driving more reach, more engagement, and more efficiency.