Solved: Update Adset or Duplicate Campaign on Facebook?

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out!

It’s a common question and one that trips a lot of people up. You've got something that works, then it stops working, and the panic sets in. The good news is that performance degradation is normal, but how you react to it makes all the difference. Most people get caught in the "duplicate vs. edit" trap, but honestly, that's looking at the problem the wrong way round. The real solution is having a robust testing system in place from the start so you're never caught off guard.

I’m happy to give you some initial thoughts on how we’d approach this. Below is a detailed breakdown of not just what to do now, but how to structure your account to prevent this from being a major headache in the future.

We'll need to look at why 'Duplicate vs. Edit' is the wrong question...

I see this question pop up all the time, and it's understandable. You're worried about losing the "social proof" (likes, comments, shares) on your existing ad, and you're terrified of resetting the algorithm's learning phase. So, what do you do?

Editing the existing ad set: When you make significant edits to a live ad set (like changing the creative, targeting, or optimisation goal), you push it back into the learning phase. Facebook's algorithm has to start from scratch to figure out who to show your ad to. This can cause performance to be volatile for a few days, and there’s no guarantee it’ll come out the other side performing better. Sometimes it’s worse. It’s a bit of a gamble.

Duplicating the campaign/ad set: This is often seen as the 'safer' option. You keep your original, succesful campaign as a control and launch a new one to test new variables. This preserves the data and social proof of the original. The main downside is that it can lead to a messy, cluttered ad account if you do it too often. More importantly, if you're targeting the same audience with both the old and new ad set, you can create audience overlap, where your own ad sets are competing against each other, driving up your costs. It's not a sustainable long-term strategy.

The fundamental issue here is that both of these actions are reactive. You're waiting for something to break before you try to fix it. A professional approach is proactive. You should have a system that is *always* testing, *always* gathering data, and *always* looking for the next winning creative or audience. This turns ad fatigue from a crisis into a predictable part of the cycle that you're prepared for.

I'd say you need a proper campaign structure...

Instead of creating and duplicating campaigns every time you want to test something, you should build a permanent, evergreen structure based on the marketing funnel. This is how we structure accounts for pretty much all our clients, from eCommerce stores to SaaS companies. It keeps things organised and allows for continuous, methodical testing.

Think of it as having three core campaigns that are always on:

• Top of Funnel (ToFu) - Prospecting: This campaign's job is to find new customers. This is where you test your Lookalike audiences and detailed targeting (interests, behaviours). All your new creative testing should happen here first.
• Middle of Funnel (MoFu) - Retargeting (Warm): This campaign targets people who have shown some interest but haven't taken a high-intent action yet. Think website visitors, video viewers, or social media engagers. You'd typically show them different ads, maybe testimonials or case studies, to build more trust.
• Bottom of Funnel (BoFu) - Retargeting (Hot): This is for people who are close to converting. They've added a product to their cart, initiated checkout, or visited your pricing page. These ads are your last chance to close the deal, often using urgency or special offers.

Within each of these campaigns, you have multiple ad sets, each targeting a different audience. And within each ad set, you test several different creatives. When one ad set starts to fatigue (like yours has), you don't duplicate the whole campaign. You simply launch a *new ad set* with fresh creatives within that same ToFu campaign to test against your existing ones. This keeps your account clean and your testing isolated and measurable.

You probably should diagnose the performance drop first...

Before you even think about new creatives, you need to be a detective and figure out *exactly* where the performance is dropping. "Ad fatigue" is too vague. You need to look at your metrics and pinpoint the failure point in the customer journey. This tells you what you actually need to fix.

Look at your data over time. When did the drop happen? Compare the metrics from your 'good' period to your 'bad' period.

• Is your Click-Through Rate (CTR) going down and your Cost Per Click (CPC) going up? -> This is classic creative fatigue. The same people have seen your ad too many times, and they're bored of it. Your ad creative and copy are no longer grabbing attention in the feed. This is the most common issue and signals it's time to test new visuals and hooks.
• Is your CTR fine, but your landing page view rate is poor, or people leave the site immediately? -> The problem might not be the ad itself, but the targeting or the 'scent'. You might be reaching the wrong people who click out of curiosity but have no real intent. Or, the message in your ad doesn't match the message on your landing page, causing confusion and a quick exit.
• Are you getting lots of cheap traffic to your product pages, but no one is adding to cart or buying? -> The issue is almost certainly on your website. Your ads are doing their job, but your offer isn't compelling enough. This could be down to pricing, product photos, descriptions, lack of trust signals (like reviews), or a complicated checkout process. No amount of new ad creative will fix a broken offer.

For instance, I remember one campaign we worked on for an eCommerce client selling cleaning products. Their ads, which had been performing brilliantly, suddenly saw a drop in return on ad spend. A quick look at the data showed that the CTR was still high, so the ads themselves were still working. The problem was on the website; people were visiting the product pages but not adding to the cart. We realised the issue wasn't creative fatigue but a weak product page. After we helped them improve the product descriptions and add more trust signals like customer reviews, the conversion rate recovered, and we went on to generate a 633% return for them.

By diagnosing the problem properly, you know where to focus your energy. If it's a CTR problem, you need a creative director. If it's a conversion rate problem, you need a conversion rate optimisation expert. Don't just assume new pictures will solve everything.

You'll need a way to calculate what you can afford to pay...

One of the biggest mistakes I see is people optimising for the wrong metric. They get obsessed with a low Cost Per Lead (CPL) or a low Cost Per Click (CPC). But who cares if you're getting £1 leads if none of them ever buy anything? The only metrics that truly matter are your Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) and your Return On Ad Spend (ROAS).

To make smart decisions about when to kill an ad set, you need to know what a customer is actually worth to you. This is where calculating your Customer Lifetime Value (LTV) comes in. Once you know your LTV, you can determine your maximum allowable CPA. Any ad set performing above that CPA is losing you money and needs to be shut off. Simple as that.

Let's do some basic maths. For an eCommerce business, a simplified version looks at your Average Order Value (AOV) and Gross Margin.

LTV = (Average Order Value * Gross Margin %) * Average Number of Repeat Purchases

A healthy business model often aims for a 3:1 LTV to CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) ratio. This means for every £1 you spend to acquire a customer, you should be getting £3 back in lifetime value. So, your target CPA should be around one-third of your LTV.

This calculation removes all the emotion from your decision-making. You're no longer guessing if an ad set is "doing badly." You have a hard number. If the CPA is higher than your target, it gets cut. Below is an interactive calculator to help you figure out your own numbers.

This is the main advice I have for you:

So, to bring it all together, what should you actually do? Here is a step-by-step plan. This moves you from being reactive and chaotic to proactive and strategic. I’ve detailed my main recommendations for you below:

Following this process might feel like more work upfront, but it will save you an incredible amount of money and stress down the line. It's the difference between gambling with your ad spend and investing it intelligently.

This is obviously a lot to take in, and implementing a structure like this correctly can be tricky. It involves understanding audience nuances, writing compelling copy, producing effective creative, and analysing data correctly. Getting one of these elements wrong can throw the whole system off. It's why many businesses, even after understanding the theory, struggle to execute it consistently.

If you feel this is a bit overwhelming or you'd simply rather have an expert team handle this entire process for you—from diagnosis to building the structure and running the ongoing tests—then it might be worth considering some help. We do this day in, day out for our clients.

We offer a completely free, no-obligation initial consultation where we can take a look at your ad account together, discuss your specific challenges, and map out a more detailed strategy. It’s a good way to get a second pair of expert eyes on your setup.

Hope this helps!

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh