Frequency: what it means in advertising

Definition

Frequency is the average number of times each person saw your ad, calculated as impressions divided by reach. A frequency of 3.0 means the average person in your audience saw the ad three times. Rising frequency alongside falling CTR is the standard signature of creative fatigue.

How it is calculated

Frequency = Impressions ÷ Reach

What to know

There is no universal frequency ceiling. A cheap impulse product tolerates far less repetition than a considered purchase, and a retargeting pool is expected to run higher frequency than prospecting.

High frequency is often an audience-size problem rather than a creative problem. If the audience is too small for the budget, the platform has no choice but to show the same people the ad repeatedly.

Related terms

Ad fatigueAd fatigue is the decline in performance that happens when an audience has seen the same creative too many tim...CPMCPM (cost per mille) is the cost of one thousand impressions, calculated as ad spend divided by impressions, m...CTRCTR (click-through rate) is clicks divided by impressions, expressed as a percentage. An ad shown 10,000 times...RetargetingRetargeting is advertising to people who have already interacted with your business, such as site visitors, vi...

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