PPC creative wear-out

How often should PPC copy be refreshed?

[big_al]

I was wondering if there is any research or thinking out there with regard to creative wear-out for PPC copy.

Creative wear-out is a familar concept to traditional advertisers i.e. the notion that advertising creative becomes less effective over time as individuals are exposed to it multiple times.

Does this apply to the PPC world? Do users search on the same search term on multiple occasions? Is there a certain number of impressions or time period after which creative should be refreshed? Or is it simply a case of keeping an eye on the CTR and refreshing the copy when the CTR starts to drop?

[seth_wilde]

I think creative wear-out is a much bigger issue with branding campaigns (both online & offline) than it is with CPC based SE advertising (which is generally considered more of a direct marketing approach). I usually do most of my ROI testing for adcopy up front and then make changes for specials or if the performance drops..

[martinibuster]

I like to test out new ideas now and then. You can never really know you have the best creative.

[big_al]

Sure. I was just wondering if there was any kind of best practice as to the frequency of swapping out creative e.g. every quarter or every x thousand impressions.

I'm also interested to know if there is any data on how often search engine users search on the same keyword multiple times. If this is rare then PPC creative wear-out is not a big issue. If it is common then wear-out becomes more of an issue.