Fact: Creative fatigue is one of the fastest ways to kill paid media performance. Yet, most brands don’t have a clear strategy to combat it. Most brands struggle to determine the optimal number of ad creatives to test for meeting performance goals, and end up falling into two traps:
- Testing too few creatives and limiting platforms like Meta from finding true winners
- Testing too many creatives and wasting budget on variations that will never scale
Our data shows that only 2% of creatives actually become winners — meaning ads that can efficiently scale with strong performance. If a brand is testing just 10 ads per month, it could take months (and a lot of budget) to find just one or two winning ads. The key isn’t just testing more — it’s testing smart. That’s why the brkfst.io team analyzed data from hundreds of Meta ad accounts across industries to develop the Creative Testing Calculator (available for download below) — a tool that helps brands determine the optimal number of creatives to test based on their media strategy and KPI goals.
The Truth About Meta’s Algorithm and Creative Testing
Meta’s ad delivery algorithm doesn’t distribute spend evenly across all ads in an ad set, it prioritizes performance at the Ad Set level. The platform automatically allocates the budget to the top-performing ads based on engagement and conversion signals. This means that even if you launch multiple ads, only a small percentage will receive significant spend and scale successfully.
Because every brand is different – their budget, their sales cycle, their product – not every brand needs to test the same number of ads. The right number depends on three factors:
- Spend volume: How much budget is being allocated to Meta per month.
- Conversion volume: How many conversions are driven in platform.
- Creative costs: How much is being spent on ad production.
Spend Volume: Why It Matters
Ad spend and creative testing go hand in hand. The more you spend on Meta, the more creative variations you need to maintain good performance and prevent fatigue. But the key isn’t just to increase both at the same rate — it’s about understanding the ideal ratio of ads per dollar spent.
Based on data from ad accounts spending anywhere from tens of thousands to millions per month, brkfst.io has found that the ideal number of ads per dollar spent changes as budgets grow. At lower spend levels, brands need to test more ads per dollar to increase their chances of finding winners. But as budgets increase, that ratio begins to level off. At higher spend levels, Meta’s algorithm has more data to work with, allowing it to optimize performance across relatively fewer ads per dollar.
What does this mean? Brands that increase media spend without also increasing creative output will eventually see stagnant performance. The best-performing ad accounts continuously introduce new creative at a sustainable cadence, not just during key sales periods, but as an always-on strategy.
Conversion Volume: Why It Matters
Meta’s algorithm is also only as good as the data it receives, which is why clearing the Learning Phase is crucial. Meta recommends that each ad set receive at least 50 conversions per week to allow its algorithm to optimize efficiently. This number directly impacts how many ads a brand should be testing at any given time.
If your brand has a longer sales cycle or higher CAC, conversion volume may be lower, meaning you need to be more strategic about how many ads you test. Launching too many ads at once spreads conversion data too thin, making it harder for Meta to optimize spend effectively. In this case, testing fewer ads is better. On the other hand, if your brand has a shorter sales cycle or lower CAC, testing more ads simultaneously is ideal. With more conversion data available, Meta can quickly determine which ads work best and distribute spend more efficiently.
Creative Costs: Why It Matters
Creative production is one — if not the most — overlooked factors in ad performance, yet it plays a critical role in efficiency. While most brands allocate 15–20% of their media budget to creative production, there’s no one-size-fits-all rule. The key is finding the right balance between creative volume and cost-efficiency. Some brands factor creative costs into their CAC or ROAS targets to ensure their media budget covers production expenses. Others try to minimize creative costs altogether, which can limit creative diversity and ultimately hurt performance in the long term.
The real challenge is balancing total creative costs with media spend. As media spend increases, creative production should take up a smaller percentage of total spend, since the absolute dollar amount grows. This helps brands invest efficiently without overproducing. One way to maximize output without overspending is to diversify creative sources. A mix of branded content from an in-house team or agency partner (like WITHIN), influencer content, and UGC from a partner like brkfst.io, ensures a steady flow of fresh, high-performing creatives while optimizing costs.
Finding Your Brands Ideal Ad Volume
Even with extensive historical data, predicting which ads will win is nearly impossible. Meta’s black-box algorithm doesn’t reveal why certain ads win — it simply allocates spend based on performance signals. That’s why guessing isn’t a strategy. The only way to consistently improve performance is to test the right number of creatives at the right scale.
Our Creative Testing Calculator will help your brand determine the exact number of ads you should be testing at any given time. Whether you’re looking to prevent creative fatigue, optimize budget allocation, or scale efficiently, this tool helps you make data-driven decisions that improve performance and eliminate wasted spend.
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