The Tragedy of the Commons in Marketing: Shared Attention, Platform Overuse and Diminishing Returns

Introduction: When More Attention Means Less Impact

There is a well-known concept in economics called the tragedy of the commons. It describes a scenario where individuals, acting in their own short-term self-interest, overuse a shared resource, until that resource becomes depleted or ineffective for everyone.

In marketing, the commons is attention. And right now, it is being overgrazed by the endless repetition of tactics, lookalike audiences, performance max campaigns, AI-written blog posts, influencer seeding on TikTok, often deployed with no long-term positioning.

When everyone uses the same channels with the same logic, results flatten. Diminishing returns set in. CAC rises. Organic reach falls. Clickthroughs shrink. The tactics stop working, not because they are broken, but because they are crowded.

How This Happens in Real Campaigns

Paid ads:

  • When ten competitors target the same intent keyword with the same headline and offer, the CPC spikes, CTR drops, and only the largest budget survives.

Email marketing:

  • When every ecommerce brand sends five-step abandoned cart flows with 10 percent discounts, inbox fatigue sets in. What once felt tailored becomes expected.

Content marketing:

  • When ChatGPT floods the internet with summarised guides and SEO clones, search engines downgrade pages, bounce rates increase, and thought leadership gets lost in noise.

Influencer channels:

  • When every skincare brand sponsors the same ten creators with nearly identical briefs, authenticity declines, engagement weakens, and follower trust erodes.

These are not hypothetical trends. I have seen it firsthand in DTC, SaaS, agency and marketplace models across industries.

Why This Happens: Misaligned Incentives and Platform Optimisation

Brands often optimise for what is easy to measure, clicks, impressions, sessions, rather than what is hard to replicate. Platforms like Meta and Google push automation tools that increase platform dependency and reduce creative surface area.

The result? Everyone moves in the same direction. And that is exactly when the market starts working against you.

How I Apply Scarcity and Differentiation to Escape

1. I Identify Over-Saturated Tactics Early

Using tools like:

  • Auction insights in Google Ads
  • Impression share diagnostics
  • Social listening and creative heatmaps
  • Organic CTR dropoff in Search Console

I map out when a tactic stops outperforming. This is not just about performance decline, it is about behavioural change. When the user begins to ignore, scroll past or bounce earlier.

2. I Build Scarce Assets and Unique Formats

Scarcity in marketing is not about fewer ads. It is about fewer predictable ads.

Examples:

  • A long-form story-driven quiz instead of a signup form
  • A 48-hour video email sent only to repeat buyers
  • Product pages written in narrative format with one CTA only

The key is: make something the algorithm cannot replicate. That is what resets attention.

3. I Change Platforms More Often Than My Competitors

When others scale on Meta, I explore:

  • Niche affiliate programs
  • Product integrations in Shopify apps
  • Country-specific publisher placements (e.g. DACH B2B blogs)
  • Partnerships with category-adjacent brands

By diversifying where I show up, I avoid crowd dynamics. This also lets me test different tones, languages and intent levels, which are usually averaged out on mainstream platforms.

4. I Apply Spend Defensibly, Not Generously

Instead of flooding all campaigns with budget, I:

  • Use incrementality testing to identify real uplift
  • Pair paid spend with referral loops or invite systems
  • Build in natural virality and feedback triggers (e.g. reward content shares, use FOMO-style product drops)

Scarcity is not just for copywriting. It is a structural principle I build into launch, scale and retention planning.

A Real Example: Breaking the Loop in Performance Max

A client in luxury homeware saw declining ROAS on Performance Max. Google kept auto-optimising spend toward branded and remarketing queries, but no new customers were converting.

What I did:

  • Paused PMax for two weeks and ran brand awareness ads via Spotify and niche home design newsletters
  • Created a landing page only accessible via these partner links
  • Re-launched PMax with exclusions for brand terms and fresh creative only

Result: ROAS rebounded by 63 percent. Scarcity of message and freshness of audience input allowed the system to reset. Without this, spend would have kept feeding noise.

Final Thought: Attention Is Finite, Treat It Like a Budget

The real tragedy of the commons is not inefficiency, it is erosion. When marketing tactics become commodified, they stop converting. When every brand acts the same, the user learns to ignore.

I work with businesses to escape this trap, by creating distinctiveness, protecting novelty, and avoiding race-to-the-bottom channels. If your paid and organic results are slipping, it might not be your message. It might be the field you are shouting into.

I can help you find new fields, build new playbooks, and get back to compounding returns, not diminishing ones.