Ad frequency is the average number of times each person reached has seen your ad. You calculate it by dividing impressions by reach: 30,000 impressions across 10,000 people give a frequency of 3. The metric tells you plainly whether a campaign is reaching new people or circling round the same ones.
Why is rising frequency a warning sign?
Because someone who has seen an ad several times without clicking is even less likely to click the next time. The creative wears out: CTR falls, CPM rises and the system shows the ad to people who are less and less interested. In Meta Ads campaigns aimed at cold audiences, we start to worry when frequency goes above 3-4 a week. In retargeting it’s naturally higher, because reminding people is the whole point, but we set limits there too so the brand doesn’t start to grate on people.
What should you do when frequency rises?
Three moves, in this order: replace the creative (new material resets the fatigue), widen the audience, and if neither helps, cut the budget, because the audience is simply exhausted. Raising the budget alone when frequency is high just pours money into a campaign that has burnt out.
Related terms: impressions, CPM.
