In the fast-paced world of advertising, CEOs and directors have shared their wisdom on keeping content fresh to combat ad fatigue. From refreshing and rotating ad creatives regularly to mixing safe and wild ad presentations, explore the twelve dynamic strategies these experts use to ensure their advertisements stay engaging and impactful.
- Refresh and Rotate Ad Creatives Regularly
- Implement Dynamic Creative Optimization
- Use Animated Storytelling for Engagement
- Personalize Ads Based on Customer Behavior
- Maintain Optimal Ad Frequency
- Tailor Ads With Dynamic Remarketing
- Proactively Replace Underperforming Creatives
- Rotate Ad Perspectives to Maintain Interest
- Implement Frequency Capping for Freshness
- Diversify Creatives for Niche Audiences
- Refine Segmentation and Vary Ad Formats
- Mix Safe and Wild Ad Presentations
Refresh and Rotate Ad Creatives Regularly
To combat ad fatigue and ensure our advertisements remain engaging and impactful, we focus on regularly refreshing our ad creative and targeting strategies. One specific tactic that has proven effective is A/B testing different ad variations and rotating them frequently. This approach helps us identify the most effective creatives and prevent our audience from seeing the same ads repeatedly, which can lead to fatigue.
For example, we recently implemented a campaign where we tested multiple versions of our ad copy, visuals, and calls to action. By analyzing the performance data, we were able to determine which combinations resonated best with our audience. We then rotated these top-performing ads while continuously introducing new variations to keep the content fresh and engaging. This method not only reduced ad fatigue but also improved our overall campaign performance by maintaining high engagement rates and conversions.
Entrepreneurs can learn from this approach by consistently testing and refreshing their ad creatives, closely monitoring performance metrics, and being agile in their marketing strategies to adapt to audience preferences and behaviors.
David Abraham
CEO, Bluesoft Design
Implement Dynamic Creative Optimization
A combination of creative strategies and data-driven approaches is needed to prevent ad fatigue. We have discovered that dynamic creative optimization (DCO) is a successful strategy. This includes consistently testing and changing different ad elements like images, headlines, and calls to action to determine which works best.
Using current data, we can quickly update and freshen up our ads to ensure they stay relevant and engaging for our audience. This method maintains up-to-date content and improves results by displaying the most effective ads. Consequently, we have observed increased engagement and improved return on investment, supporting the effectiveness of our campaigns and our audience’s interest.
Cody Jensen
CEO & Founder, Searchbloom
Use Animated Storytelling for Engagement
To combat ad fatigue at Breadnbeyond, we rely on animated storytelling in our advertisements. Unlike traditional ads, animated videos convey ideas in an engaging and entertaining way. For example, we create stories that resonate with our audience’s challenges and aspirations, making our messages more relatable and memorable. We also refresh our content regularly, updating visuals and approaches to stay relevant and maintain engagement over time. This strategy ensures our ads continue to captivate and drive results effectively.
Andre Oentoro
Founder/CEO, Breadnbeyond
Personalize Ads Based on Customer Behavior
In a market oversaturated with information, focusing on meaningful awareness is key to keeping ads engaging and impactful. We build our campaigns as communication cascades, based on our customers’ behavior and their criteria for the selection of products and services. We start by launching a general brand message to our audience, and then personalize it for narrower segments to maximize relevance. This way, people select products or services more consciously, which boosts brand awareness, conversion to the next purchase, and, ultimately, customer loyalty.
Carefully analyze your digital channels. It’s crucial for ensuring that your target audience is there in the first place, and to determine the best ways to reach them in terms of ad format (video, text, gallery), location, key messages, and visual presentation (colors, fonts, etc.).
This is where neuro-linguistic programming and cognitive sciences come in handy. I am forever indebted to Nobel Prize laureate Daniel Kahneman, who introduced the concept of “cognitive ease” in his bestseller Thinking, Fast and Slow. Since prehistoric times, our brains have been reluctant to make extra efforts, so creating ad messages that are easy to “digest” is a must—if we want them to reach the audience.
According to cognitive scientists, a message that is easily understood appears to be familiar, correct, and lucrative. To reach this cognitive ease, we should speak to our audience in their language, avoiding complex terms and long sentences. We can also provide numbers and facts, use contrasting colors for fonts and backgrounds, and include vivid images. Statistics reveal that adding an image boosts memory retention in three days more than sixfold, from 10% to 65%.
Andrew Bluemental
CEO & Co-Founder, Lemon AI
Maintain Optimal Ad Frequency
Keep ad frequency between 3-7. Ad frequency illustrates the number of times an ad creative appears to an individual each month. You can find this metric on all ad platforms, including Google, Meta, and LinkedIn.
There are three variables that contribute to ad frequency: audience size, daily budget, and the number of ad creatives in a campaign. If you find the ad frequency is too high, you can either reduce your ad spend, increase your audience size, or add more ad creatives to your campaign.
Ben Hilton
Founder & Managing Director, Switch Jam Digital
Tailor Ads With Dynamic Remarketing
You need to understand your customers’ journey and test new creative accordingly. No one wants to see the same ads being recycled over and over, especially when the audience is becoming more familiar with your brand. One strategy to reduce ad fatigue is to utilize dynamic remarketing campaigns once they’ve started interacting with your site to move them further down the sales funnel. This gives you the freedom to tailor the ads to the specific products they’ve shown interest in, making them more likely to strike a chord.
Emily Amor
SEO & Paid Social Manager, Digital Darts
Proactively Replace Underperforming Creatives
To combat ad fatigue and ensure that advertisements remain engaging and impactful over time, one highly effective tactic I have employed is the proactive replacement of images and videos as soon as an ad shows signs of slowing down. This strategy has been crucial in maintaining the freshness and relevance of our campaigns, thus sustaining audience interest and maximizing engagement.
The key to combating ad fatigue lies in the proactive and strategic replacement of ad creatives. By continuously monitoring performance, regularly refreshing visuals, and leveraging personalization techniques, I ensure that advertisements remain engaging and impactful, driving sustained success in our marketing efforts.
Doug Darroch
Managing Director, Renaissance Digital Marketing
Rotate Ad Perspectives to Maintain Interest
While our primary focus is business messaging, we’ve had to tackle ad fatigue in our own marketing efforts. One effective tactic we’ve employed to combat ad fatigue and maintain engagement is what I call the “Rotating Perspective” approach.
This strategy involves regularly shifting the focus of our advertisements to highlight different aspects of our service, much like rotating the view of a complex object to reveal its various facets. We’ve found this particularly effective in the B2B space where decision-makers often need to see multiple value propositions before converting.
Here’s how we implement this:
We create a matrix of our key service benefits, customer pain points, and unique selling propositions. Each month, we rotate our ad focus to a different combination of these elements. For instance, one month we might focus on the speed of our SMS delivery, the next on our global reach, and the following on our API integration simplicity.
A specific example of this in action was during a recent campaign for our omnichannel messaging service. We started with ads focusing on the efficiency of managing multiple channels through a single platform. The next month, we shifted to highlighting the improved customer engagement rates our clients experienced. The month after, we emphasized the cost savings of our consolidated approach.
In advertising, familiarity can breed indifference. By regularly shifting perspectives in our ads, we keep our audience engaged and continually showcase new facets of our value proposition.
This approach has yielded tangible results. We’ve seen a reduction in ad fatigue indicators (such as declining click-through rates) and an increase in overall campaign engagement compared to our previous static approach.
Moreover, this strategy has helped us attract a more diverse client base. Different perspectives resonate with different potential customers, allowing us to capture a broader market share.
For other marketers looking to implement this strategy, I recommend starting with a comprehensive audit of your product or service’s benefits and your customers’ pain points. Create a content calendar that systematically rotates through these elements, ensuring each ad set feels fresh and relevant.
Remember, the key is not just rotation for the sake of change, but thoughtful shifts that continually educate and engage your audience about the full spectrum of value you offer.
Uku Tomikas
CEO, Messente
Implement Frequency Capping for Freshness
To combat ad fatigue and keep your marketing efforts effective, one proven strategy is frequency capping. This technique involves limiting the number of times an individual sees the same ad over a specific period. Instead of bombarding your audience with redundant messages, frequency capping ensures your content remains fresh and engaging.
Imagine seeing the same commercial every few minutes; it gets annoying fast, right? The same applies online. By setting frequency caps in your ad campaigns, you can maintain a sense of novelty. This keeps your audience interested and prevents them from tuning out. It’s an essential tool for preserving the impact and relevance of your advertisements over time, making sure they hit the mark without becoming a nuisance.
Casey Meraz
CEO, Juris Digital
Diversify Creatives for Niche Audiences
We run advertising campaigns for a professional service in a very small, niche industry, so ad fatigue is an issue we constantly battle. The most effective method we have found to combat ad fatigue is to create a diverse range of ad creatives, each focused on a different benefit of our service and ideal customer profile, then rotate these ad creatives with a low frequency cap so our audience sees our messaging but is never overly exposed to any single ad. Some of our campaigns have a budget as low as $100 per month but produce lots of conversions and, just as importantly, make sure our target audience is aware of us and our latest offers.
The smaller your target audience, the more important it becomes to rotate ad creatives often, especially on social media platforms such as Meta and Reddit. I like to think of it as writing episodes of a TV show—you know your audience, but you need to keep them invested and amused in order to maintain their interest over the long term. In many ways, small campaigns targeting a clearly defined audience can be more fun than mass-market advertising, as you’re forced to think of new ways to be novel and interesting due to the smaller number of impressions available on a daily basis.
Nicholas Gibson
Director of Marketing, Hero Time
Refine Segmentation and Vary Ad Formats
In marketing, combating ad fatigue is crucial. A tactic I’ve found particularly effective is continually refining audience segmentation. By regularly analyzing our user data, we create highly tailored ads for various sub-segments of our audience, ensuring relevancy and keeping ad content refreshed.
Another strategy is the use of storytelling in our advertisements. We relay the success stories of our students or illustrate how studying with us can help them achieve specific career goals. This emotional resonance helps sustain long-term engagement.
Lastly, mixing up the ad format and channels—like interactive ads, videos, or podcasts—and publishing them on diverse platforms keeps our outreach dynamic and less likely to exhaust the audience. These strategies, taken together, have successfully kept our ads engaging and impactful over time.
Greta Maiocchi
Head of Marketing & Admissions, OPIT
Mix Safe and Wild Ad Presentations
I think it’s easy to get stuck in a combination of trying to be on-brand and doing what you’ve done before. I aim to present three ads: two that are “safe” and one that is “wild.” About half the time, when stakeholders review the third one, even if it’s not “the one,” it can spark a conversation to explore it further.
Julie Cadieux
Senior Marketing Editor, Genetec Inc
