Creative fatigue is a gradual decline in ad performance caused by the same audience seeing it too often. It shows characteristic signs: the click-through rate falls and the cost per result rises, even though neither the targeting nor the budget has changed, while the average frequency rises at the same time. The speed of wear-out depends on the size of the audience and on the format, with striking visuals with a strong first impression tending to fatigue the fastest. The solution is not necessarily an entirely new campaign – often changing the visual, altering the opening seconds of a video, or offering a different angle on the same offer is enough. It is practical to prepare creatives in sets, keep a stock ready in advance, and plan refreshes according to the data, not according to the feeling internally that everyone is already sick of looking at it.
See also: Frequency capping, Multivariate testing, Impression share.
