5 Early Signs that Indicate the onset of Ad Fatigue

[Free Takeaway Included – Must-Use Analytical Techniques across Marketing Life Stages]

There was a legendary story in advertising about the great auto pioneer Henry Ford. He had a layout of the company’s latest print ad tacked to his wall. He viewed this every time he entered his office. Eventually, one day he loudly announced that he was tired of seeing the same ad and it was time to create a new one.

However, his assistant stammered “But Mr. Ford, the ad hasn’t even started running yet”.

It’s only natural for your audiences to also grow tired of seeing your ads if it’s being repeated again and again. So, how can you determine when your audiences are feeling tiresome of your ad campaigns and take the right measures to combat fatigue?

What is Campaign Fatigue?

One of the oldest principles of marketing emphasizes the rule of seven – Your prospects need a minimum of seven exposures to your marketing messages to recognize and recall your brand, and eventually take action.

While the number isn’t set in stone, the principle goes on to say that repetition is necessary to imprint an idea on the memory of the crowd.

This naturally leads marketers to over-serve their ads to the same viewers by increasing the ad frequency or exposure.

However, it leads to audiences viewing your ads so often that they become bored and stop paying attention. And, before you know it ad fatigue sets in!

Ad fatigue occurs when your campaign frequency gets too high, causing your target audience to encounter the same ads repeatedly and therefore become less responsive to them.

The pervasiveness of digital advertising across multiple channels had led to the sad state of ad fatigue. The rise of re-marketing ads combined with multichannel ad placements has increased the odds of over-saturating your audience with a marketing message.

Ad fatigue can have a detrimental effect on campaign performance, impacting its overall effectiveness by decreasing your ROAS (Return on Ad Spend). That is why it’s recommended to recognize the signs of fatigue before it’s too late.

Signs your Audience has Ad Fatigue

In an e-marketer survey, 77% of the consumers complained that they viewed far too many of the same ads from the same retailer. 78% of them also stated that they received ads for products they already bought.

The following are some symptoms you might experience if your audience is growing tired of viewing your ads:

1. Declining Click-Through Rates (CTR)

CTR is one of the most important metrics to track in order to identify and address campaign fatigue. It demonstrates how engaging and compelling your ad is for visitors to click and explore your brand further.

If your CTR is declining over time, it could be because of unresponsiveness from your audiences due to fatigue. Most importantly, if your ad impressions are high, but CTR is low, this could be a telltale sign of ad fatigue. This is probably because your audiences have already viewed your ads and are no longer interested to explore further.

2. Low Engagement

Are your paid ads generating social engagement such as likes, comments or shares? If not, your audiences may be disengaged as a result of seeing the same ads again. A reduced social engagement could be a sign that you have inflicted fatigue on your followers as it makes them less motivated to interact with your content.

3. High Frequency

Another important metric to track for recognizing digital advertising fatigue is Frequency. Frequency is the average number of times people view your ad – the number of times your ad was displayed divided by the number of unique visitors it was shown to. A study suggested that if frequency of ads were too high, CTR decreased by 50% and led to development of fatigue. Capping the ad frequency to an optimal number can prevent audiences from viewing your ads again and again.

Source - Adespresso

4. Fewer Impressions

Paid ad networks compute a relevancy and quality score to show the most relevant ads to users. If people fail to interact with your ads, search and social media algorithms will not rank your content or show them to users. This means your ad impressions will drop drastically. The greater the ad fatigue, the lesser the attention it might get on screen. And, if your impressions have decreased over time, it might be time to revamp your ad campaigns.

5. Increasing Cost Per Click (CPC)

Cost per click is the actual cost you pay each time a viewer clicks on your ads. An increasing CPC signifies that you are paying more to generate clicks. The typical CPC can vary based on your sector and target audience. When you start paying more per result, it means your campaign's performance is declining and your ads are becoming less effective in moving people down the sales funnel.

Don’t Set and Forget, Track Campaign Metrics Closely

Capturing and tracking campaign performance is key to preventing the onset of ad fatigue. By leveraging analytical martech solutions, marketers can evaluate key metrics that indicate early signs of fatigue and take the right measures to fix them.

Ad fatigue is a relatively new phenomenon with extensive research and studies on it just emerging. Marketers should include ad fatigue as part of an analytics plan to keep customer engagement and campaign ROI high, as well as to protect the brand integrity of a product or service.

Here’s a free download of ready-to-use analytical techniques that can be applied across marketing life stages

Once you have diagnosed ad fatigue via close examination of campaign metrics, follow it up with a suitable prognosis to mitigate the risks and gain a full recovery. Want to learn the best ways to combat campaign fatigue? Stay tuned and watch this space for more...