Frequency

Frequency is the average number of times each person reached by your ad has seen it. It is reported by Meta and most other ad platforms, and it is one of the main indicators of how saturated an audience is becoming.

How to calculate it

Frequency = impressions ÷ reach

Worked example (made-up numbers): an ad set delivers 90,000 impressions to 30,000 unique people over a week. Frequency = 90,000 ÷ 30,000 = 3.0. On average, each person saw the ad three times.

Remember that this is an average. Some people may have seen the ad once and others many times.

Why it matters

Some repetition is useful. People rarely buy the first time they see a brand, and seeing an ad a few times can build familiarity. Too much repetition, though, leads to ad fatigue, with falling engagement and rising costs.

There is no universal "right" frequency. A retargeting campaign aimed at a small group of recent site visitors will naturally run at a higher frequency than a prospecting campaign aimed at millions of people. What matters is how frequency moves alongside your results.

In practice

• Watch frequency over time rather than as a single snapshot.
• If frequency rises while CTR falls and CPA rises, consider new creative or a broader audience.
• Look at frequency at both ad set and campaign level, since the same people may be seeing several of your ads.
• For awareness goals, Meta has offered reach and frequency buying with frequency caps, subject to eligibility at the time of writing.