“She who dares wins” - Eileen Gillibrand

How Long Do Google Ads Last? Avoiding Ad Fatigue

One question I get asked frequently is how long do ads last? The surface answer is forever. However there’s a deeper answer that I am going to uncover. Ad fatigue. 

One crucial aspect of managing Google Ads campaigns effectively is understanding the lifespan of your ads and how to avoid them becoming stale. Here's a breakdown of the factors influencing ad duration and how to keep your audience engaged:

One thing to look at is your Campaign Settings: From here you can set it to run for a specific time frame or you can have it run indefinitely.

• End Date: By default, Google Ads campaigns run indefinitely. However, you can set a specific end date if you have a limited promotion or budget.

• Budget: Once your daily or campaign budget is exhausted, your ads will stop showing until the budget is replenished.

The second thing to look at is your Ad Performance & decide if your ads are running into Fatigue: These are some indications that you should pay attention to. 

• Click-Through Rate (CTR): The frequency at which users click your ad. A consistently low CTR can indicate a few things, one of which is ad fatigue – where the once higher rate starts to drop lower and lower indicating viewers are no longer finding your ad relevant.

• Impressions: The number of times your ad is displayed. Overly frequent impressions can lead to ad fatigue if the creative is not refreshed.

Strategies to Combat Ad Fatigue: These are a few ways that you can keep your campaign running and active with its targeted audience.

• Campaign Rotation: Regularly swap out ad variations (headlines, descriptions, images) to maintain viewer interest.

• Audience Targeting: Refine your audience targeting to ensure your ads are reaching the most relevant users.

• A/B Testing: Continuously test different ad variations to see which ones resonate best with your audience.

• Budget Optimization: Analyze ad performance and adjust your budget allocation to maximize impact.

So to answer the question “How long do ads last?”- Well there is no right single answer. Ad Fatigue can depend on some of the things that I have already touched on in this post. 

But if you are just getting your toes dipped into the world of Google ads; check out my previous post Here on which campaign structure you should start with.