Frequency

In the context of social media, frequency defines how many times an audience has seen a piece of content, an advertisement, or a message. This is important to know, because marketers are using social media more and more to reach potential customers, and measuring how often users encounter a post or advertisement is one way to gauge the basic effectiveness of a marketing campaign. For paid promotions specifically, frequency is a core metric that a marketer needs to manage.

Underexposing users to an ad may result in a significant portion of the target audience still being unaware of the brand, but overexposing users can lead to ad fatigue. The optimal frequency lies somewhere in between, wherein the audience is reminded of the marketing message enough to trigger the desired action without becoming overwhelmed. The most basic version of the frequency formula is as follows: Frequency = Impressions / Reach.

Impressions equal the total number of times the content, ad, or post has been shown to users, while Reach equals the number of unique users who have seen the content. The numerator measures the amount of exposure. The denominator measures to whom the marketers are exposing the message.