The Social Metric We’re All Ignoring

By: Liz Chrostowski

If you’ve ever run a social campaign, you know the drill: Once your campaign is completed you look at all the stats. How many people did I reach? What were the impressions? How many clicks did I get? While all of these are important, there’s one stat we’re all ignoring: frequency.

The frequency of your ad is how many times one person has seen it. So, how do you determine this? It’s simple. Divide the impressions by reach. This is approximately how many times a single person has seen your ad during its runtime. This is important because you don’t want to oversaturate your audience by delivering the exact same ad many times. If your reach is low but impressions have skyrocketed, odds are your audience saw your ad too many times.
 
It’s been said that the ideal frequency is about 1-2, but of course it can vary by budget, audience size and many other factors. The main point is to not give your audience ad fatigue. If you start to notice your frequency rising while other metrics drop, maybe consider changing your ad creative, targeting or messaging. You won’t get social media advertising right on the first try – the key is to test and measure your campaigns. Another great tip is to include multiple ad creatives per campaign to avoid ad fatigue in general.
 
It’s important to keep frequency in mind when running your social ads or when looking at the final metrics of your campaign. Keep in mind that a higher frequency can affect many aspects of your ad’s performance. If you’re looking to get started with social media advertising but you’re not sure how, ASI® Creative Labs can help with Sponsored Social Posts. Contact your account representative to learn more!