Digital platforms and AI have improved targeting and optimization, yet audiences show exhaustion and tune out repetitive creative. Social CPMs rose sharply in 2025—Instagram averaged $9.46 per thousand impressions in Q2—driving higher cost per impression. User engagement with digital ads is flattening as consumers encounter identical creative across feeds, streaming, and search. Ad fatigue occurs when repeated exposure leads to diminishing returns, lowering click-through rates, increasing cost-per-click, and harming brand perception. Oversaturation of near-identical creative accelerates fatigue in competitive markets like the Bay Area. Avoiding ad fatigue is essential to protect ROI and redeploy spend toward innovation.
Marketers face a paradox in 2025. On one hand, digital platforms have never been more advanced, with AI delivering smarter targeting, automated optimization, and predictive insights. On the other hand, the audiences they're trying to reach are showing signs of exhaustion. Rising CPMs mean every impression costs more, yet consumers are tuning out repetitive creative faster than ever. Ad fatigue-when exposure leads to diminishing returns -is becoming one of the most expensive hidden costs in marketing.
Consider this: social CPMs climbed sharply again in 2025, with Instagram averaging $9.46 per thousand impressions in Q2, higher than Facebook's rates. At the same time, user engagement with digital ads is flattening, as consumers encounter the same creative across feeds, streaming services, and search environments. The result is a double squeeze: higher spend for lower impact. For brands, avoiding ad fatigue is central to protecting ROI in a market dominated by a few powerful platforms, evolving AI tools, and ad-weary consumers.
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