Are Your Advertising Campaigns a Victim of Ad Fatigue?

Did your team dream up an exciting campaign earlier this year that was an initial success? The first couple of months were a smashing hit—leads flooded in.

But now, the phone hasn’t rung as much, and you’re beginning to wonder why you even paid for advertising in the first place.

What happened between then and now?

Ad fatigue could be to blame. If you’re paying for people to see your advertisements, but they’re not interacting with them, ad fatigue might be the invisible brick wall in your way.

In this article, we will explain this phenomenon, take a closer look at how it could be hindering your campaign’s success, and share the antidote to ad fatigue.

What is Ad Fatigue?

Ad fatigue occurs when your audience sees your ads so often that they become bored with them. Due to familiarity, they stop paying attention. Your ads are still running, they just lose their effectiveness. Doesn’t sound like a good investment, right?

Think about the first time you watched a really good Super Bowl commercial versus the twelfth time—you paid a little less attention with repetition, right? Ad fatigue works the same way.

Signs of Ad Fatigue

To determine if your campaigns are suffering from ad fatigue, you have to know the symptoms.

1. Declining Click-Through Rate (CTR)

Click-through rates (CTRs) may be the most critical metric to watch to determine if your campaigns are suffering from ad fatigue. Google defines CTR as “the number of clicks that your ad receives divided by the number of times your ad is shown.” As Google gets to know your content and audience more, this number should increase with time.

If you see a steady decline in this number, that’s a good sign your campaign could be suffering from ad fatigue.

Pro tip: Unsure what makes a good CTR? To get an industry-level view of your ad performance, compare your current CTR to Google Ads Benchmarks in your industry.

2. Lower Engagement

This could look like fewer likes, comments, or shares on your boosted Facebook posts. Put simply, people have seen your content before and don’t care to interact with it again.

This doesn’t mean your content is bad—it’s just been seen before.

Think of a boosted Facebook post with the goal of viewer engagement like a conversation starter. Who likes having the same conversation twice? One solution here is to try out new visual assets. New visuals stir different emotions and garner different reactions.

3. Fewer Impressions

On Google, your viewers’ lack of engagement negatively affects your ad’s quality score in Google’s eyes, resulting in a drop in ad position. This inconvenient placement worsens the cycle of a decaying campaign, decreasing the chance that search engine users will interact with your ad the further down the search engine results page it goes.

4. High Frequency

There’s value in nuance. Some ad platforms, like Facebook, offer frequency ceilings to ensure your ad does not burn through its effectiveness by overexposing the same audience. Check your current frequency, and set a limit to ensure your content is reaching more potential customers.

If you are confident in your brand awareness, setting a low-frequency cap, around one or two impressions per week, can help your content reach a larger audience.

PHOS Creative’s Approach to PPC Management Combats Ad Fatigue

Once diagnosed, ad fatigue is not fatal. All “set it and forget it” campaigns will suffer from ad fatigue at some point. If you see the previously-mentioned markers of a fatigued campaign, take it as a sign to take a more active approach to PPC management.

At PHOS, our pay-per-click strategy is a far cry from putting your campaigns on autopilot. Rest assured that your campaign strategy will be updated routinely—ensuring new, engaging content is delivered to your target audience all year long.

Additionally, your inbound marketing team will run tests to inform creative media and ad copy pairings that stir up the most engagement from the type of customer you want to attract. Revive your ad campaigns with PHOS Creative’s campaign development and implementation.