Frequency
Frequency
The average number of times a single person has seen your ad.
Formula
Frequency = impressions ÷ people reached
A worked example (hypothetical numbers)
Say your ad is shown 60,000 times and reaches 20,000 people. Frequency = 60,000 ÷ 20,000 = 3, so the average person saw it three times.
The numbers are illustrative, only to show the arithmetic. They are not real results or market averages.
How to read it
- In a limited market — one city or a narrow audience — it climbs fast, and that is normal rather than a setup fault.
- Frequency rising while CTR falls means the ad is fatigued; the answer is refreshing creative and offer, not raising the budget.
- Some businesses need a higher frequency by nature, such as services people put off deciding on.
The common mistake
Raising the budget when results dip in a small market. A bigger budget on the same audience means higher frequency and faster fatigue, so you pay more to see less.