Proven creative or messaging is retired because the team is tired of it, not because performance declined.
Your team sees the ad a thousand times; your customer sees it twice. Retire creative when performance drops, not when the team gets bored. Pairs with Rule 13.
Ogilvy: "If you are lucky enough to write a good advertisement, repeat it until it stops pulling." And: "You aren't advertising to a standing army; you are advertising to a moving parade."
• "We need something fresh" with no performance drop behind it.
Owned — Best-converting landing page redesigned on a whim.
Earned — A winning story angle abandoned.
Paid — Top ads paused while still beating benchmarks.
Analytics — No fatigue threshold defined.
AI — AI used to churn out variants for novelty.
• Set fatigue thresholds (frequency, CTR decay, CPA rise).
• Retire on data, and challenge winners with tests, not replacements.
