Targeted vs. Recurring Content, Pt. 2: Ad Fatigue

Ron Torres, Showrunner of Original Content: This is the second episode of our second Two-minute Tuesday deep-dive topic, and we’re going to talk about ad fatigue. So let’s get goin’!

Ron: So, to further discuss the idea of targeted vs. recurring [content], I’m bringing in our resident distribution guru, our director of advertising, our head of advertising: Nick Paul. We’re going to talk about another facet of this, which is two-fold—what targeting really should be and also a concept called “ad fatigue.” 

So, let’s first talk about what the definition of targeting is. You may be thinking of targeting as one single video: “I’m making a video for my law firm.” That one video may work for YouTube, but then that YouTube video may not work for Facebook. And it definitely won’t work for Instagram, and it definitely won’t work for Hulu. So, that’s the idea of targeting.

Nick, can you speak on that, being somebody who focuses on distribution itself?

Nick: Yeah, totally. You have to keep in mind the buyer’s journey through all of this. Your clients are at different stages of their decision-making process. Some of them have found their way to your website after seeing other advertising channels from you. So they’re ready for a lengthy video that really dives into who you are. They’re ready to close the deal and pick up the phone. 

But we have to keep in mind that some of these other channels, like Facebook and Instagram, are interruptive advertising. It may match a demographic, but they’re not ready, or they may not be looking for you at the very moment. That totally shifts how you’re approaching video and the message you’re gonna push to these people who may not be familiar with you at all.

Ron: Which kinda goes into this other term called “ad fatigue.” I’ll let you explain it, Nick, but, long story short—one single video may become fairly redundant to a potential client pretty fast in the world of the internet. 

Nick: Yeah, I mean, there’s no question that video is incredibly valuable for advertising on social platforms. We very regularly see 4-10x the engagement rate with ads that have video over something like graphic ads. The thing to keep in mind is that people are watching at least 16 minutes of video every month on ads, specifically. Way more than that in non-advertising video, but at least averaging around 16 minutes of video each month. So, the concept of ad fatigue stumps a lot of advertisers and a lot of law firms. When they launch a campaign and it performs extremely well, but then, inexplicably, they see it drop off in performance, it doesn’t make any sense. Usually, this comes back to ad fatigue. It worked really well until people saw your ads 7 to 10 times, and then they got tired of the same ad creative. 

What we recommend with ad fatigue is to watch for the frequency of how often people are seeing your ads. Around 7 to 10 [views], that’s the time that you really should be considering swapping out your ad creatives. There are a lot of other things you can do, but the best-performing way is to really take a whole different message and approach with video so that your audience isn’t fatigued by what they’re seeing. 

Ron: Right, you’re doing one specific video, and suddenly now it’s gotten 16 impressions or has reached past the threshold of ad fatigue. It’s honestly like any other form of taste in human nature. If all you’re getting at the cafeteria is a hot dog, and you may love hot dogs, eventually, hot dogs are gonna get a little old. You need to refresh stuff. But, the best way to refresh that content is to actually have an overall plan. 

The thing that you want to think about is that a lot of the best pieces of content out there–Star Wars, the Marvel movies–they’re all kind of following the same pattern. They’re building a universe of cohesive overall branded storytelling, and then they’re consistently doing small variants of that across platforms. It’s the Mandalorian, then it’s a movie about Han Solo. But it’s the same world, and so there’s consistency, but variation among the consistency. And that’s really what a marketing plan does, that’s how you stop ad fatigue. 

Nick, from your perspective, if we’re building an overall campaign for somebody, an overall year’s worth of content, what are some of the best things to do?

Nick: You have to realize that every time you launch a new piece of content, the timer just reset. And it’s just a matter of time until your audience feels inundated with those new ad creatives. The other thing you have to realize is, taking a page from your Marvel example, these media companies are testing content. If they launch a new show like The Mandalorian, and there’s poor engagement and poor watch rates, you better believe that taught them something. You need to take the same approach with your videos, as you do with your ads and radio ads, all these different mediums. Video content needs to have the same approach, where you’re testing what your audience engages with, what resonates best with them, and what produces the best results. If you’re only planning on creating a new video every two the three years, that’s a real problem for your testing. It’s a very slow pace to determine what works and doesn’t work.

Ron: You’re not giving yourself the opportunity to truly know exactly what your local market’s desired information is. You’re kind of cutting the legs off your actual agency’s or marketing firm’s opportunity to give you the success that you’re looking for. 

Thank you so much, Nick, for taking some time out of your day for the Two-Minute Tuesday talk!

Ron: Hopefully, with this video, you have a little bit more information on the difference between a single one-off piece of content and a recurring video content plan. Again, we’re trying to practice what we preach by giving you consistent content around various topics for law firm marketing. If you yourself want to start your own recurring model of video content, please reach out to our main man, Chad Henkel [Director of Marketing], and he’ll get you set up.