Advertisers Losing Consumers to Ad Fatigue

• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, 4 hours ago

Ad fatigue negatively impacts viewers' purchasing decisions, with 61% of participants to a survey released this week saying they are less likely to want to buy products or use services from the company that shows the same ad back to back, and 49% said in the past they had decided not to purchase a product from a brand when they see repetitive ads too often.

Adults under 55, men, parents of children under 18 and adults with children in the household are significantly more likely than their respective counterparts to agree.

“Not only are consumers getting fatigued, but the investment could also be detrimental to what you’re trying to accomplish,” said AD-ID CEO Nada Bradbury. “I’m spending all this money to bring consumers to my product, but because someone isn’t controlling frequency like they should be, I may be turning people off from my product, brand or entire category.”

Bradbury wants advertisers to use media budgets wisely, pointing to findings from the AD-ID and The Harris Poll study released this week.

Data from the poll is from a survey of more than 2,000 U.S. adults ages 18 and older. About 1,921 watch TV or view content on streaming. The study shows how ad fatigue negatively impacts viewers’ purchasing decisions.

The American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA) and the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) are the industry bodies that developed and support AD-ID.

When 59% of viewers cite seeing the same ads repeatedly, this leads to a negative impact on their viewing experience, with 50% saying they get annoyed and 26% saying that it has negatively impacted their purchasing decisions. 

It’s not all bad news, but the data shows why advertisers need to pay attention to frequency capping to get through to consumers.

Three-quarters of consumers who view the ads say they would like to see ads targeted at their interests, with 33% saying they don't mind watching ads that are relevant to them.

Some 63% said they have purchased a product and/or service they were unaware of because of an ad they saw and 18% said targeted ads have aided in their purchasing decisions.

Bradbury said there is a point of diminishing return, but it varies by category and brand. 

“That will be the next step -- knowing how many times is too many,” she said. “What I do know is seeing the same ad two or three times in a row is too many. You can’t keep showing the same ad and expect a positive response. They must be interspersed, and I think we are failing our clients if we can’t control that.”