The main reason for poor advertising performance is an audience or creative burnout.
In this article, we will explain what burnout is, what causes it, whether it is a continuous process, and how to work with it to get the results you want with the help of the team of our performance marketing agency Adsbalance.
Burnout. Myth or reality?
Unfortunately, it is a reality. But not everything that looks like burnout is it. What do aspiring internet marketers think? Creative gets seen for the first time and that’s it. After that, it’s no longer effective. Actually, this is not the case.
The first week of the creative launch is cream-skimming time. Creative is usually at its most effective during this period. After that, performance may take a downturn, but it’s not burnout yet. It’s a legitimate process.
Adsbalance media buyers say: “The pattern of burnout depends on the size of the audience you’re targeting. If your targeting is 100k people, it will burn out even faster than if you target 1k people”.
Clickability at first is usually between 0.5% and 2%. The rest see the ad. We haven’t worked through yet, and haven’t hooked. That’s why it’s important to keep working through. We have to reach every segment of the audience and get it interested. For example, we are promoting an online store mobile app for 1,000 items. And we have to get everyone interested, to show them the products or benefits that this particular customer needs.
Burnout will not occur if we constantly show something new and update the products in the ads.
Cases of burnout and measures to combat it
Burnout can occur if we work with narrow geo. Then we have to change:
- product images;
- phrases used in connection with the creo;
- the manner of presenting the product.
Signs of real burnout
- An increase in the price of the lead.
- Deterioration of the quality of the audience.
- A decrease in clickability.
You can tell if your creative is about to burn out before it does. If the graph on which you track effectiveness begins to show a decline in cumulative frequency, it means, that there are less and less interactions with the creative. Its effectiveness will only get worse. It is at this point that we have to substitute creativity. That way we don’t lose a week to a week and a half.
That is, the creatives have to be ready in advance. We change the message and the communication. And the schedule goes up again before reaching the lowest possible figures. You have to act in advance.
How long before burnout?
For each project, the time will be different. Some creos may burn out in three days, others only after three months. But if you work on a project for more than a day, you will be able to follow the pattern and prepare in advance. For example, you’ve been driving traffic to an online school app for six months, and you see that creatives burn out every month and a half. Accordingly, a month after the start of that project, you can start preparing new creatives.
The good news. If the life span of an offer is short, the creative may simply not have time to burn out. For example, the Adsbalance team’s offer has a lifespan of about 3 months. In 3 months, those creos that show good performance don’t burn out. But on such verticals as subscriptions, burnout will be a problem. Then we need to make a lot of similar conversion creos and restart the advertising campaigns.
Let’s describe it in as much detail as possible.
What should you do when burnout starts?
– Change the creatives completely.
– Change the colour of creatives. If the background was coloured, try it on a white background and vice versa.
– Change what’s on the existing creative. For example, if it was with a speaker, make it without. If it was without, place the product.
– Change the message. For example, the product can be photographed neutrally, or it can be in the hands of a person. A person uses it in some way: for example, a girl is styling her hair before a date or bragging to her friends about a purchase.
You get more touch-points with segments of your target audience by the enumeration method. Of course, to do this, it is important to know it well. What the pains, goals in life, and fears are.
– New approaches. New landing pages, for example. Then do a two-step job with retargeting. If the person doesn’t register on one landing page, lead for another.
– Substitute products if possible (e.g. you are promoting an online shop where there are many products).
– Expand your target audience, if in your case this is possible.
Let’s talk separately about messaging. Which ones to use? We prepared for you a list of triggers, so that you can choose what suits your creos.
- Scarcity.
- Time pressure.
- Missed profit.
- Exclusive.
- Gratitude.
- Greed.
- Intrigue.
- Novelty.
- Guarantee.
- Expertise.
- Pleasure.
Also, if possible, you can use reviews with a reference to a significant source. Conventionally: “Forbes wrote about me”.
Going through the triggers, you’re sure to find something that will boost your advertising figures.
And a little tip from the Adsbalance team: try hiring a creative producer. This option is suitable for those who work in a team. We also advise you to keep and analyse statistics, including comparative ones, for each creative. This will help you to find out more quickly what converts better and to make the most effective creatives for your advertising campaigns.
