Spray-and-pray tactics and ad repetition risk alienating audiences

The news: Although ad frequency is a major focus for advertisers, the mindset of “the more views the better” risks negative reactions.

  • 60% of US consumers with a streaming subscription report seeing the same ad multiple times in one session on social media, per Omnicom’s Why Frequency Matters report, and 62% on streaming platforms.
  • 43% say repeated ads in one sitting on the same platform are very frustrating.
  • Over half (52%) would pay a premium just so they don’t have to watch the same ads on the same streaming platform.

A viable solution exists: Besides offering skippable ads, the most preferred solution for an improved customer ad experience is making sure that the same ad isn’t served multiple times.

The bigger picture: Serving the same ad repeatedly to get as many views as possible could come down to a lack of resources that makes producing a wide range of ad iterations difficult.

  • Content budgets of three-quarters of marketers increased only 1% to 10% in 2025, per 10Fold.
  • 32% of marketers report that producing enough content is their biggest content challenge.

This imbalance may feel like an impossible situation for some marketing teams—how can you maximize spending on a single ad without exhausting consumers’ attention and patience?

Recommendations for marketers: To prevent ad fatigue and increase diversity in branded content, marketers can lean on a mix of AI and agencies to broaden creative variation without blowing up budgets.

  • AI can help by making minor variations of copy, visuals, and formats based on geography, recent browsing activity, and audience segments to keep creative fresh while maintaining relevance.
  • Agencies can then be used to refine top performers and preserve brand quality by adding strategic oversight and creative polish. They can also help develop high-impact campaign concepts that can be iterated on at scale through AI.

This hybrid tactic helps marketers increase ad diversity, manage frequency, reduce ad fatigue, and keep human expertise in the loop without a jump in spend.

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