Refresh 20 to 40% of active creative every month, and 100% of creative every 90 days. Signs you have waited too long: rising CPL, falling CTR, audience saturation warnings in Meta/Google.
The cycle - Weekly: check frequency, CTR and CPL per creative. - Monthly: retire bottom-20% performers, introduce new variants. - Quarterly: full refresh of hooks, imagery, offers. - Annually: major brand / positioning review.
Warning signs - Meta frequency > 3 per user per week. - CPL rising 15%+ week-on-week. - CTR falling 20%+ from peak. - "Audience saturation" warning in Ads Manager.
Where to source new creative - Repurpose existing customer testimonials. - Record short adviser explainers. - Rewrite static graphics into UGC-style video. - User-generated style from real client journeys.