Frequency is essential to the success of any advertising campaign, which is why marketers pay close attention to finding the right frequency for their objectives. We know that excess frequency can be wasteful for marketers and irritating for consumers and that too little frequency puts the impact of your campaign at risk, but how do you know where you stand?
To help you better understand the frequency performance of your video campaigns and video ads, we’re introducing three new metrics: frequency distribution, weekly average frequency and monthly average frequency.
About these new metrics, Lauren Stafford Webb, Chief Marketing Officer at SoFi, says “SoFi closely measures all data that matters to our business. We know achieving frequency thresholds drives powerful brand lift and engagement. We’re excited that YouTube’s enhanced insights will empower us to further fine tune frequency and enable true multi-channel comparisons, as one of the many tools that YouTube offers to benefit our business.”
Learn more about these new metrics below and add them to your statistics table—found under "Reach metrics”—from the Campaigns or Videos page in Google Ads.
About frequency distribution
With frequency distribution, you can see how many people saw your campaign ad a certain number of times over a selected date range. The breakdown consists of 6 possible buckets, signifying how many people saw your ads at least that number of times: 1+ frequency (equivalent to unique reach), 2+, 3+, 4+, 5+ and 10+. For example, people that have seen your ad 3 times are included in the 1+, 2+ and 3+ bucket.
Frequency distribution offers a more nuanced picture of your campaign’s frequency that may get lost with just average impression frequency. Use it to see what fraction of your audience achieved your campaign's desired frequency.
About weekly and monthly average frequency
If you want to see how frequently your ads are shown to people over a specific period of time, choose average impression frequency per user (7 days or 30 days). This metric helps you understand how your weekly or monthly average frequency performance changes over time by creating a lookback window of 7 or 30 days for each date in a given time range.
During a campaign flight, use this metric to track how the weekly or monthly frequency of your campaign is doing. Or, after a campaign ends, review trends in weekly or monthly frequency.
Posted by Tanja Kornberger, Product Manager, Video Ads
