December is one of the most competitive months in ecommerce. CPMs rise, brands fight for attention, new customer acquisition peaks, and consumers see more ads in 30 days than they do in most of the year.

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But the biggest threat to performance isn’t high competition — it’s creative fatigue.

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As an ecommerce marketing agency, we see the same pattern every year:
Brands enter December with great momentum from BFCM… and then performance suddenly drops between 7–18 December. ROAS falls. CTR weakens. Costs rise. Conversion rate declines.

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The reason?
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‍Your audience has seen your creatives too many times.

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Here’s why creative fatigue hits hardest in December — and what ecommerce brands can do to fix it.

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December CPMs Rise — Meaning Your Creatives Reach Fatigue Faster

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CPMs naturally increase in December due to:

• Gifting behaviour
  
  
• Retailers pushing last-minute campaigns
  
  
• High competition for feed placement
  
  
• Increased online browsing time
  
  
• Shorter buying windows
  
  

When CPMs spike, your ads get shown to the same people repeatedly in a shorter time frame.

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This accelerates fatigue because:

• Frequency increases
  
  
• Your hooks lose stopping power
  
  
• Audiences become less responsive
  
  
• CTR drops → CPC rises → CAC increases
  
  

Ecommerce brands often interpret this as “our targeting stopped working” — but usually, your creative stopped working.

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Audiences Behave Differently During December

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December shoppers are not passive scrollers. They’re actively comparing brands, searching for deals, and filtering thousands of ads.

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This means:

• Repetitive ads get ignored faster
  
  
• “Seen before” creative kills attention
  
  
• People are overwhelmed with similar messaging (“Last chance”, “Up to 50% off”, “Holiday Sale”)
  
  

Your creative needs to feel new, fresh, and differentiated — every week or 2, not every month.

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Meta’s Algorithm Prioritises Fresh Creatives During Peak Seasons

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Under Meta’s Andromeda model, creative is the strongest performance lever. In December, this is amplified.

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Meta rewards:

• High creative volume
  
  
• Fresh hooks
  
  
• Strong thumb-stop rates
  
  
• Fast creative iteration
  
  
• Multiple formats (UGC + product + lifestyle)
  
  

It punishes:

• Stale assets
  
  
• Fatigued visuals
  
  
• Repeated messages
  
  
• Low hook rate
  
  
• Slow refresh cycles
  
  

Brands that refresh creative weekly outperform brands refreshing monthly by a large margin in Q4.

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Most Ecommerce Brands Don’t Have Enough Creative Volume to Sustain December

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The biggest mistake ecommerce brands make:
Entering December with 5–10 creatives and expecting them to last 4 weeks.

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During this month, creative burn rate is 3–5x faster, meaning you actually need:

• 15–30 creatives
  
  
• 4–6 new hooks weekly
  
  
• 2–3 new formats weekly
  
  

This doesn’t mean completely new videos — it means variations:

• New hooks
  
  
• New overlays
  
  
• Different formats
  
  
• New first frames
  
  
• New CTAs
  
  
• Fresh seasonal angles
  
  

Small adjustments → big performance shifts.

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Catalogue Ads Also Fatigue — Unless You Update Assets

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Most brands assume Dynamic Product Ads (DPAs) never fatigue.

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Wrong.

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Catalogue ads fatigue when:

• The same lifestyle shot repeats
  
  
• Your feed assets never change
  
  
• Sale overlays remain the same
  
  
• Product sets are not updated
  
  
• New arrivals are not prioritised
  
  

In December, you MUST update:

• Feed images
  
  
• Price overlays
  
  
• Seasonal frames
  
  
• Product sets
  
  
• Cross-sell collections
  
  

DPA freshness is a major performance driver.

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Creative Fatigue Impacts Every Metric

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When your creative fatigues, you’ll see:

• Declining CTR
  
  
• Higher CPCs
  
  
• Lower thumb-stop rate
  
  
• Higher CPAs
  
  
• Lower conversion rates
  
  
• Declining ROAS
  
  

This isn’t a Media Buyer issue — it’s a creative throughput issue.

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The solution is not to “change targeting” or “increase budget.”

The solution is:
Refresh your creative pipeline.

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How Ecommerce Brands Can Fix Creative Fatigue (Quick Wins)

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Creative fatigue is solved through volume, variety, and refresh frequency. Here’s the streamlined version of what actually works:

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A. Increase Creative Volume

Aim for 10–20 new creative inputs per month across UGC, product videos, carousels, testimonials, and seasonal edits.

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B. Refresh Hooks Weekly

Update first frames and messaging every 5–7 days to maintain thumb-stop rates and keep ads feeling new.

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C. Add Seasonal Angles

Use holiday themes, gift messaging, festive colours, and delivery cut-off reminders to re-engage fatigued audiences.

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D. Vary Formats

Rotate Reels, 4:5 videos, 1:1 carousels, UGC, and lifestyle shots to broaden algorithmic reach.

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E. Update Catalogue Assets

Refresh DPA imagery, sale overlays, product sets, and new arrivals to prevent catalogue fatigue.

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F. Build a Simple Creative Rhythm

Introduce a weekly cadence of:

• New hooks
  
  
• New overlays
  
  
• Occasional new formats
  
  
• Seasonal variants
  
  

This prevents fatigue without overwhelming production.

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Final Thoughts

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Creative fatigue is the silent performance killer in December — a month when competition increases, attention spans shrink, and CPMs skyrocket. 

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The ecommerce brands that scale profitably during this period aren’t the ones with the most complex account structure — they’re the ones with the most agile, consistent creative pipeline. 

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By refreshing hooks weekly, diversifying formats, updating catalogue assets, and treating creativity as a performance lever, brands can maintain strong ROAS even during the most competitive weeks of the year. 

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As an ecommerce marketing agency, we’ve seen that the biggest December wins always come from brands that prioritise creative volume and speed over perfection.

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