What is Channel Fatigue for Performance Advertisers?
Search and social media have been the foundation of digital marketing plans for decades, but these tried-and-true channels are starting to fail. Performance marketing channel fatigue — in which customers’ attention is spread so thin that they lose interest and stop engaging with marketing — is a growing concern for marketers and businesses.
There are many potential causes of channel fatigue, including the fact that customers are being bombarded with repetitive messaging that can become boring and alienating, as well as continuous calls to action and solicitation that can essentially burn out customers. As platforms like social media continue to grow and marketing becomes more competitive, expenses rise, yet marketing efforts become less effective.
In short, marketing campaigns that rely on search and social are in trouble. It’s essential to overcome performance marketing channel fatigue — here’s how to go about it.
The Urgency of Addressing Marketing Fatigue
Marketing fatigue can negatively impact your business in many ways. If your business is to succeed and scale, you need to promptly address this issue. The reasons include:
Audience Fatigue Leads to Less Effective Ads
When channel fatigue occurs, your ads become less effective. Your target audience can become inundated with messaging, so it becomes difficult to create ads that will stand out from the competition. If you’re continuously reaching the same audience on the same platform, you can’t effectively grow your customer base. Even more importantly, an audience that’s tired of seeing so many ads is less likely to take action and click on your ads, or engage with your company.
Consider the growth that social media has experienced in just five years. According to Statista, there were 2.73 billion social media users worldwide in 2017. By 2022, that number had grown to 4.59 billion users. Such rapid growth and widespread use made social media a go-to marketing platform, but that also meant that more businesses were competing for users’ attention. Now, social media is a fundamental element of any marketing campaign. As marketing on these platforms has grown more competitive for businesses, it’s become overwhelming for users, so they’re simply tuning the messaging out.
The result of such marketing channel fatigue is that your marketing performance declines. You’ll face higher costs, such as higher CPC (cost per click) rates on paid ads. With your audience less receptive to and engaged in marketing, you’ll also see diminished returns from your campaigns. If you don’t overcome the issue, channel fatigue can drain your marketing budget, reduce the value you receive from campaigns, and ultimately limit your business growth and negatively impact profits.
Lack of Predictability and Consistency of Performance
Marketing channel fatigue also results in a lack of predictability and inconsistent marketing performance. Marketing pricing and competition on social media platforms, for example, can experience tremendous fluctuations. If large advertisers heavily invest in social media marketing, prices can spike for all businesses, and you’ll suddenly face steep competition.
Holiday seasons, beginning with messaging leading up to Black Friday, are a perfect example of this. During the season that’s most important for retailers to effectively reach their audiences, the competition and sheer volume of marketing on these platforms makes that more challenging and expensive than at any other point of the year.
When your campaigns depend on the same platforms and strategies that the majority of other businesses use, you’re subject to the fluctuations spurred on by this competition. When these fluctuations occur at crucial times, they can derail your marketing efforts.
Lack of Good Advertising Options
To meet your performance marketing goals and overcome channel fatigue, you might turn to demand-side platforms (DSPs). Unfortunately, DPS’ are increasingly focusing on brand awareness video experiences, especially in the realm of Connected TV (CTV), making them a less than ideal solution for performance marketing.
Smaller ad technology companies offer some performance solutions, but these often lack the ability to scale or to perform at your target levels. These companies are also increasingly focusing on so-called full funnel solutions, rather than on focused performance marketing.
5 Ways Marketers Can Overcome Performance Channel Fatigue
There’s no quick fix solution for performance channel fatigue. Solving the problem requires the willingness to reevaluate and refocus your marketing in several ways.
1. Personalize Your Marketing
Broad, general messaging won’t connect with your audience when they’re inundated with messages from your competitors. Whenever possible, personalize your marketing to make an impact: Address your audience’s specific pain points, anticipate what they need, and offer customized solutions. Adopting AI tools to help you achieve this in real-time can be the difference-maker in these situations.
Beyond personalizing marketing messages and materials, ensure that your audience can reach a human when they contact you. Have a real person monitor your social media and email inboxes, and promptly respond to messages. Being able to reach out to your company and connect with an actual human will build trust and customer loyalty.
2. Increase Your Value
In addition to personalizing your marketing, make sure that you’re providing your audience with real value. Create content that your audience needs, such as new research, a solution to their most pressing problems, or expert tips to make their life easier. Webinars that include plenty of information and advice can be a great way to build a relationship with your audience, since they can also foster conversation, allowing you to make a connection and gain information on their pain points and challenges.
Think about what makes your business unique and how that translates to the value you can offer your audience. When you provide value, your audience is more likely to be receptive to your marketing and to engage with your content, rather than passing by it because of fatigue.
3. Go Beyond Search and Social
Search and social alone aren’t enough for today’s marketing needs, and chasing performance across these channels can lead to poor metrics, wasted funds, and lackluster results. While it’s true that both have grown significantly, they’ve also become less efficient marketing channels in the process. At this point, it’s common for these platforms to become a drain on marketing budgets and staff time that are already stretched thin.
Instead, look for marketing solutions beyond the traditional search and social go-tos. A dedicated performance channel that drives growth for your business can help you to effectively scale your marketing and move beyond ineffective channels.
4. Step Away From the Full Funnel
It’s time to step away from the full-funnel marketing approach and, instead, focus on the performance funnel. Based on achieving measurable results like sales or clicks, it focuses your marketing on specific transactions: You don’t pay for marketing until you get those desired actions, offering a reprieve if marketing channel fatigue has drained your budget — and your faith in your marketing efforts.
Additionally, it’s easy to track KPIs to measure your performance marketing campaign’s effectiveness, and you’ll be able to see just how well your transition to this model is working, all while simplifying the process of continuously testing and improving your strategy. Performance marketing also allows you to prospect for high-intent users and to drive them down your funnel for higher conversions and better overall marketing results. Specialized tools can support you every step of the way, giving you the data and access needed to improve your marketing.
5. Adopt Performance at Scale
Overcoming performance marketing channel fatigue requires the implementation of new approaches, so be prepared to rework and re-envision the foundation of your entire marketing strategy. Doing so is a valuable investment in your business and in your marketing team, and it can pay off with increased conversions and overall success.
Drive measurable performance results, at scale, beyond Search and Social
Key Takeaways
Performance marketing channel fatigue is a growing problem that businesses and marketing teams face. As certain platforms, like search and social media, have become the go-to foundation for most marketing plans, audiences are overwhelmed with messaging and marketing becomes ineffective.
To overcome performance marketing channel fatigue, it’s important to move past only relying on search and social. Solving channel fatigue requires a comprehensive reworking of your marketing strategy, a transition away from the full funnel approach, and the implementation of new marketing solutions and channels that focus on performance.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Which metrics indicate performance marketing channel fatigue?
You may see indications of performance marketing channel fatigue in several metrics, such as lower conversions and fewer leads. Higher bounce rates can also indicate reduced customer engagement resulting from channel fatigue.
How can channel fatigue impact marketing teams?
Performance marketing channel fatigue not only impacts your marketing effectiveness and budget, but can also have a negative impact on marketing teams. Your marketing team may be frustrated when their ideas and efforts perform poorly, and channel fatigue can cause marketing team burnout. Businesses may struggle to find new marketing ideas and concepts, and may benefit from a total reenvisioning and new approach to your marketing.
