Fighting PPC Ad Fatigue And Getting Your Energy Back

Chad Faith
Chad Faith

Director of Content

Fighting PPC Ad Fatigue And Getting Your Energy Back

Serving an ad at the right moment certainly feels magical. If the ad speaks the language of your audiences, they will listen. What if they are seeing ads that they don’t want to see? That will result in ad fatigue. This happens when familiarity breeds boredom, which makes your audience stop paying attention. Your ad campaigns then lose their strength and effectiveness over time, hurting your ROI down the road. Here are some tips to help you combat PPC ad fatigue and fix sloppy campaign performance:

Vary Your PPC Ads

Whether your PPC campaign is on remarketing, paid search, or display network, you should always have a collection of varied ads. This ensures that you have sufficient options to test and determine one that works best with your target audience. The production of varied ads is useful for both tackling ad fatigue and A/B testing. Found an ad format that has been producing great results? Even if you have conducted multiple A/B split tests, it is still a good idea to try new formats, especially if CTR begins to plummet.

Swap Backgrounds of Your Image Ads

How do you feel after a vacation? It will be safe to say that you feel refreshed. Well, your PPC audience does too. Sometimes, they need a change of scenery after being exposed to the same visuals repeatedly. If they are numb to such content, they will eventually stop noticing them. Display ads are vulnerable to ad fatigue because the same audience often see the same ad multiple times. So, make the effort to swap out over-used and outdated image ads with a new background color. This move is sufficient to re-engage fatigued users who may have stopped noticing your ads.

Adjust Ads Frequency

A sound way to preserve CTR and ROI, and tackle ad fatigue at its source, is frequency capping. To prevent boredom and frustration from building up among your audience, you should limit the number of times an ad is served to the same user. However, you do not need to limit ads to one view per user. When a web user browses the Internet, he or she may encounter lots of distractions. Your ad may need to appear a few times before getting noticed and tempting them to click. Make sure that you serve up ads during relevant days of the week and times of the day. If you are a storefront that is closed between 10PM and 6AM, you shouldn’t be serving up the same ad that says, “Drop by now!” when you aren’t open for business.

Review Your Value Proposition

Another way to entice users to click on your ad is to change your value proposition. It must adapt to changing consumer demand and A/B testing can help find one that works for you. The focus must also be on perceived benefits rather than just credentials. Make sure that you also highlight any promotions or discounts your website may be hosting.

Re-Evaluate the Size of Your Audience Pool

If you are offering a niche product or service, your audience pool is naturally smaller. The likelihood of the same individuals seeing your ad more than one time increases. If you are serving up PPC ads to a smaller pool, make sure to use a lower frequency cap. This way, you can limit your ad spend and avoid irritating your valuable target market.