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Ad fatigue: how long brands keep Meta ads running

To see when ad fatigue sets in, we measured how long over 180,000 live Meta ads from over 1,600 brands have run.

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The short answer

The median live Meta ad from an online brand has run 19 days. 22% are under a week old and 11% have run 90 days or more. Brands cut new ads fast, at least 31% within a week, while 48% keep at least one ad running past 90 days.

median age of a live ad
19 days
of new ads are off within a week
31%
of brands keep an ad past 90 days
48%
live ads at the median brand
54

Most live ads are under a month old

63% of live ads started in the last 30 days. 11% have run 90 days or more.

Share of live Meta ads by days running
  • Under 7 days · 40,242 ads · 1,302 brands22.3%
    Under 7 days: 22.3%
  • 7 to 13 days · 32,350 ads · 1,168 brands17.9%
    7 to 13 days: 17.9%
  • 14 to 29 days · 40,904 ads · 1,256 brands22.6%
    14 to 29 days: 22.6%
  • 30 to 59 days · 32,200 ads · 1,094 brands17.8%
    30 to 59 days: 17.8%
  • 60 to 89 days · 14,966 ads · 768 brands8.3%
    60 to 89 days: 8.3%
  • 90 to 179 days · 14,444 ads · 720 brands8%
    90 to 179 days: 8%
  • 180 to 364 days · 4,701 ads · 359 brands2.6%
    180 to 364 days: 2.6%
  • A year or more · 1,002 ads · 114 brands0.6%
    A year or more: 0.6%

Base: 180,809 live ads from 1,679 brands. Days running counts from the ad's start date to the latest check.

New ads get a week to prove themselves

We followed 14,814 ads that 249 brands launched over two weeks. At least 31% were off within seven days.

What happened to newly launched ads in their first three weeks
  • Off within a week
  • Off in weeks 2 to 3
  • Still running after 3 weeks
  • Not rechecked yet
  • New ads · 249 brands31% off within a week
    New ads, Off within a week: 31.5%New ads, Off in weeks 2 to 3: 8.4%New ads, Still running after 3 weeks: 25.4%New ads, Not rechecked yet: 34.8%

Ads from brands we were already following when they launched. Some brands had not been rechecked three weeks later, so the first share is a floor.

Test fast, then cut

Most new ads stop inside a week, so judge a test in days.

Keep a few evergreen

Half of brands keep one ad running for over three months.

Send winners somewhere specific

Long runners point at listicles and homepages more often than new ads.

Bigger advertisers keep more winners

75% of brands with 500 or more live ads keep one past 90 days. 36% of brands with under 25 do.

Brands with at least one live ad 90 or more days old, by brand size
  • Under 25 live ads · 508 brands36%
    Under 25 live ads: 36%
  • 25 to 99 live ads · 637 brands47%
    25 to 99 live ads: 47%
  • 100 to 499 live ads · 469 brands58%
    100 to 499 live ads: 58%
  • 500 or more live ads · 65 brands75%
    500 or more live ads: 75%

Brand size is the brand's live ads at the latest check. Every group has over 60 brands.

Ad age by brand size
Live ads per brandBrandsMedian days, typical brandBrands with a 90+ day adBrands with a 1+ year adLanding pages per brand
Under 255081736%7%3
25 to 996371747%6%10
100 to 4994692058%6%19
500 or more652375%17%43

What long-running ads have in common

Year-old ads lean on carousels and send more clicks to listicles and homepages: 10% to a listicle, against 5% for new ads.

Format, by days running
  • Video
  • Carousel
  • Image
  • Under 30 days · 113,496 ads55% video
    Under 30 days, Video: 55.1%Under 30 days, Carousel: 33.8%Under 30 days, Image: 11.1%
  • 30 to 89 days · 47,166 ads53% video
    30 to 89 days, Video: 53.1%30 to 89 days, Carousel: 36.3%30 to 89 days, Image: 10.6%
  • 90 to 364 days · 19,145 ads50% video
    90 to 364 days, Video: 49.8%90 to 364 days, Carousel: 39.8%90 to 364 days, Image: 10.3%
  • A year or more · 1,002 ads43% video
    A year or more, Video: 43.2%A year or more, Carousel: 41.5%A year or more, Image: 15.3%

Share of live ads in each age band by format.

Landing page, by days running
  • Product page
  • Collection page
  • Offer page
  • Homepage
  • Listicle, advertorial or quiz
  • Everything else
  • Under 30 days · 1,577 brands38% product page
    Under 30 days, Product page: 37.6%Under 30 days, Collection page: 30.0%Under 30 days, Offer page: 13.9%Under 30 days, Homepage: 9.0%Under 30 days, Listicle, advertorial or quiz: 4.5%Under 30 days, Everything else: 5.0%
  • 30 to 89 days · 1,190 brands41% product page
    30 to 89 days, Product page: 41.0%30 to 89 days, Collection page: 26.4%30 to 89 days, Offer page: 13.0%30 to 89 days, Homepage: 9.9%30 to 89 days, Listicle, advertorial or quiz: 6.4%30 to 89 days, Everything else: 3.3%
  • 90 to 364 days · 791 brands41% product page
    90 to 364 days, Product page: 40.7%90 to 364 days, Collection page: 22.9%90 to 364 days, Offer page: 11.8%90 to 364 days, Homepage: 12.9%90 to 364 days, Listicle, advertorial or quiz: 7.5%90 to 364 days, Everything else: 4.2%
  • A year or more · 114 brands33% product page
    A year or more, Product page: 33.2%A year or more, Collection page: 26.1%A year or more, Offer page: 7.2%A year or more, Homepage: 16.8%A year or more, Listicle, advertorial or quiz: 10.1%A year or more, Everything else: 6.6%

Share of live ads in each age band by the page they open.

Traits of live ads by days running
Days runningLive adsVideoOffer in the adCustomer story hookHomepageListicle, advertorial or quizCopies per ad
Under 30 days113,49655%28.1%5.9%9%4.5%3.0
30 to 89 days47,16653.1%24.7%6.5%9.9%6.4%3.1
90 to 364 days19,14549.8%22.7%6.8%12.9%7.5%1.9
A year or more1,00243.2%25.2%3.7%16.8%10.1%1.7

Food brands keep ads the longest

The median live ad in Food & Drink has run 26 days. In Health it is 15.

Median days running, by store category
  • Food & Drink · 263 brands26 days
    Food & Drink: 26 days
  • Pets & Animals · 43 brands23 days
    Pets & Animals: 23 days
  • Beauty & Fitness · 432 brands19 days
    Beauty & Fitness: 19 days
  • Home & Garden · 212 brands19 days
    Home & Garden: 19 days
  • Apparel · 310 brands18 days
    Apparel: 18 days
  • Health · 165 brands15 days
    Health: 15 days

Top-level store category, each with over 40 brands. Weighted by live ad.

Six ads that have run over a year

Long-running live ads from brands in our library, with the page each one opens.

See more ads by brand in the ad library and UGC ad examples.

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How we counted

  • A live ad is a Meta ad that was running at its brand's latest check: 180,809 ads.
  • Days run from Meta's start date to that check; live ads may run longer.
  • Brands are online stores matched to their Meta ads: 1,679 of them.
  • The launch group counts only brands we followed before they launched those ads.
  • Formats, hooks and page types come from classifiers, so some ads will be misfiled.
  • Every segment shown has at least 40 brands. No spend, sales or reach estimates.

Cite this study

Replo, "How long brands keep Meta ads running," replo.app/reports/meta-ad-lifespan

Link to this page when you quote a number.

Download the data

Every chart and table on this page as one CSV file.

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More from the same library: where brands send their ad traffic, the brand directory, and Black Friday ads brands are running.

Questions about this study

  • Long enough to judge it, then as long as it keeps selling. The median live Meta ad from an online brand has run 19 days. Brands switch off at least 31% of new ads within a week, while 11% of live ads have run 90 days or more.

  • Ad fatigue is when the people who see an ad stop responding to it because they have seen it too often, so clicks fall and costs rise. In our data, 63% of live ads are under 30 days old, which is how often brands replace them.

  • The median online brand in our data runs 54 Meta ads at the same time and launches about 63 new ones every four weeks. Brands with 500 or more live ads keep an ad past 90 days far more often: 75% of them, against 36% of brands with under 25.

  • A little. Video is 55% of ads under 30 days old but 43% of ads running a year or more, where carousels and images take a larger share. Median age is similar across formats, so the creative matters more than the format.

Research competitor ads

Replo pulls every ad your competitors run, with the page each one sends shoppers to.

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