Advertising frequency is a critically vital component of any advertising campaign, but it can be difficult to measure and to optimize. Advertisers often find it difficult to find the sweet spot where they show the ad frequently enough to resonate with the audience without showing it so many times that the audience gets annoyed.
In this blog post, we’ll take a deep dive into frequency in advertising and how you can harness its power to optimize campaign effectiveness.
What is frequency in advertising?
Ad frequency is the average number of times that someone experiences an ad variation like an audio ad, video ad, banner ad, etc. You can measure frequency by time period like hours, days, weeks, or months.
The role of the frequency in which your ad reaches a consumer is to drive curiosity, recognition, and decision.
It’s important not to confuse ad frequency with ad reach. Ad reach measures the total number of people who have the potential to see your ad based on how many users are present in a given session. Ad frequency is how many times a specific person is likely to be shown your ad during a given period. Advertisers will want to reach audiences with particular ad frequencies and use the two metrics together.
How can frequency be used in advertising for different ad campaign strategies?
Advertising frequency can help ad campaigns build strong relationships and deep connections with your audience. Ads should encourage consumers to take action and, in turn, produce a strong ROI. In order to compel an ad viewer enough to take action, you need to create a real emotional connection. This is where frequency in advertising comes into play by establishing the minimum number of times a consumer must engage with an ad before it grabs their attention enough to take action without causing ad fatigue.
Mastering ad frequency is essential.
Too little frequency means your target audience won’t remember the emotional connection your ad intended to serve because they didn’t get the chance to establish an emotional connection with it.
Too much frequency removes the emotional connection because your audience will start to be annoyed by your ad or they’ll feel as if you are trying too hard. Both of these factors prevent a trustworthy relationship from growing.
When does an advertiser want a high-frequency ad?
High-frequency ads work well for brands that are new and trying to establish market presence. These ad campaigns also work well if you are running a limited promotion or sales event, like during the holiday season. Consumers are less likely to be annoyed by repeated ads during busy holiday shopping seasons because ads are part of the season. Any other short-term campaigns will also perform well with high-frequency ads.
The benefits of high-frequency ads include the following:
- Frequent messages help you build a relationship with the audience.
- Repetition lets your brand establish a market presence while creating associations between your messaging and company.
- More chances for your audience to engage with your ad and brand.
- Different touchpoints can reach consumers at all stages of the buying journey.
The cons of high-frequency ads include:
- It’s a more expensive advertising strategy.
- The audience is more likely to get annoyed by seeing the same ads repeatedly.
When does an advertiser want a low-frequency ad?
If you are planning to run a long-term campaign, you should adopt low-frequency tactics because consumers will be exposed to your ad for a long period of time. There’s no need to make them watch it over and over in the short term.
What is frequency capping?
Frequency capping measures the number of times a particular ad is shown to customers and limits the number per day, week, or month. This prevents the ad from being repeated to consumers who have already seen it a certain number of times.
Most online platforms have ways to allow you to manage ad frequency to control the ads shown to users and reduce media waste.
What are good ranges for ad frequency?
It is recommended that brands with high brand awareness and high market shares limit their marketing frequency to 1-2 per week. But there’s no one-size-fits-all formula for frequency capping. It depends on your brand’s audience and your unique ad campaigns. To determine your brand’s optimal frequency cap, start testing and pay close attention to when your consumer interactions start to dip. Use that to inform your frequency caps per campaign.
If you’re working with Facebook ads, the optimal frequency is between 1.8-4 impressions per week.The goal is to ensure your target audience views your ads while preventing you from spending your entire advertising budget on repeat ads.
To find your ideal ad frequency cap, consider the following:
- How well-established is your brand? The more people already know who you are, the more likely you will need less exposure. You’ll need fewer ads to elicit a response.
- What are your campaign goals? Each goal will require a different frequency.
- What’s your market? Depending on your market, you may need to run more ads to outperform your competitors.
- Are your products and services particularly expensive? If so, customers will need more time to make a purchasing decision. In these cases, a high-frequency ad strategy will work best.
- How well do you know your customers? Different people require different approaches, so you may want to consider customizing your ad frequency to specific audience groups.
The benefits of ad frequency capping include:
- Avoid ad fatigue and overexposure to your ads.
- More effectively manage marketing spend. You’ll see a higher ROI per ad view and campaign-wide when you ensure ads don’t funnel too many times to the same consumer.
Ad frequency is an important metric for every marketer to nail down. But it’s a lot easier said than done. That’s why it’s a good idea to get some help from the pros who can help you fine-tune your advertising campaigns with ad frequency at the top of mind.
Backtracks Can Help
Backtracks can measure the frequency of dynamic and real-time audio and video ads to help marketers track and adjust their campaigns for maximum effectiveness. Using our measurement and intelligence tools, advertisers can now harness the power of ad frequency strategies to help reach campaign objectives and optimize campaign effectiveness.
Explore Backtracks Today
