Frequency
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The average number of times each person in your audience sees your ad or content. Too low and they miss it. Too high and they tune it out.
Frequency is the average number of times each person sees your ad. Impressions divided by reach. If your campaign had 300,000 impressions and reached 100,000 people, the average frequency is 3.0.
Frequency matters because people rarely act on the first exposure. Research suggests B2B buyers need 7-12 touchpoints before engaging with a brand. A frequency of 1 means most people saw your ad once, registered nothing, and moved on. A frequency of 3-5 starts to build recognition.
But there is a ceiling. Above frequency 8-10, you hit ad fatigue. People start ignoring or actively disliking your ads. The marginal value of the ninth impression is close to zero or negative. The optimal frequency for B2B advertising is typically 3-7 per month across all channels combined.
Examples
A campaign with optimal frequency.
A LinkedIn campaign targets 10,000 engineering leaders. Monthly impressions: 40,000. Monthly reach: 8,000. Average frequency: 5.0. CTR is healthy at 1.2%. The team is hitting each person about once per week, enough for recognition without fatigue.
Frequency too low to make an impact.
A brand campaign reaches 200,000 people with an average frequency of 1.3. Most people saw the ad once. Brand recall survey shows no improvement. The team narrows targeting to 50,000 people and increases frequency to 4-5. Brand recall improves from 3% to 11%.
Ad fatigue from excessive frequency.
A retargeting campaign shows the same ad to website visitors 15+ times per month. CTR drops from 1.5% to 0.2% over four weeks. Some prospects tweet complaints about being followed around the internet. The team implements a frequency cap of 6 impressions per person per month.
In practice
Read more on the blog
Frequently asked questions
What is the optimal ad frequency?
For B2B advertising, 3-7 impressions per person per month across all channels. Below 3 and most people will not notice. Above 8-10 and ad fatigue sets in. The exact number depends on the creative quality, channel, and whether you are running a brand awareness or direct response campaign.
What is ad fatigue?
Ad fatigue occurs when the same audience sees the same ad too many times. Symptoms: declining CTR, increasing cost per click, negative brand sentiment. Fix it by rotating creative frequently (every 2-4 weeks), setting frequency caps, and expanding your audience targeting.
Related terms
The number of times your ad or content is displayed. Counts views, not people. One person seeing your ad three times is three impressions.
The number of unique people who saw your content or ad. Unlike impressions, reach counts people, not views.
When an audience sees the same ad so often that engagement drops and performance declines.
The cost per 1,000 ad impressions. The standard pricing unit for display advertising and brand awareness campaigns.
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