What’s the Deal With Ad Frequency?

5 to 9 Touches

In traditional advertising a person needs to see your ad about five times for it to influence his or her purchasing decisions (either positive or negative). Online advertising, on the other hand, needs much more.

A study by the global marketing research firm Nielsen, found that increased exposure to ads led to more brand awareness and greater purchase intent, with the sweet spot between five and nine times. But, impact can vary significantly by vertical, for example, if you increase frequency for fast moving consumer goods, the impact can be significant, conversely, for financial services, there was a less notable impact.

Video vs. Display Touches

Another study by Comscore compared video campaigns against display campaigns. They found that video needed less exposure, under five times, while display campaigns needed at least five impressions to have any impact.

So, we can include that display ads blend into their surroundings more. Therefore, for online advertising budgets, you should expose your ads at least five to nine times and if you accidentally hit your target audience a few more times, it will more-likely help than hurt.

Ad Fatigue (yawn)

Be aware though that ad fatigue is a well-known phenomenon in online advertising. If people see your ads too often, they will get bored, ignore them or even develop negative feelings. To combat ad fatigue, we recommend frequency capping, which lets you decide how many impressions a person should see of your ad in a day, week, or month.

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