It depends on the animal, not the calendar
Asking how often to refresh ad creatives is like asking how often to feed a pet without saying whether it’s a goldfish or a Great Dane. The honest answer has no number in it. Refresh when the ad tells you it’s tired, and it does tell you.
Sign one: frequency keeps climbing
The same people are seeing the same ad again and again. By the fifth time, it’s furniture.
Sign two: click-through rate slides while the ad stays the same
Nothing changed except the audience’s patience.
Sign three: cost per result creeps up
Slowly, then suddenly, then you open the report and wince.
Read the trend, not the day
Look at those three over several days, not one grumpy Tuesday. A single bad day is usually noise, and reacting to noise is how good ads get pulled early.
How fast you get there depends on your setup
Small audience or big budget, you burn through creative fast, so keep the next version ready before you need it. Big audience or modest budget, a winner can run for a long time and the best move is usually to leave it alone.
Refreshing is not starting over
Change the first three seconds, the image or the angle. Keep the offer and the audience that worked. Small swap first, full rebuild last.
The classic mistake is retiring a winner because you are bored of it
Your team has seen that ad a hundred times. Your customer has seen it twice. Boredom is a terrible reason to touch something that is still printing.
So don’t refresh on a calendar
Refresh on evidence, and keep one new idea in the oven at all times.