Frequency and Ad Pressure: How Often Your Spot Should Be Seen

A good spot that runs only once is usually forgotten quickly. The same spot that runs too often annoys and burns budget. Between these two extremes lies the right ad pressure, the question of how often a person should see your advertising. On the big screen you can steer this precisely, and with onescreen you set it yourself.

Once is rarely enough

That advertising needs repetition is nothing new. As early as 1972, advertising researcher Herbert Krugman described his three-exposure model: on the first contact the viewer asks "What is it?", on the second "What of it?", and only on the third does the message take hold. This principle still shapes media planning today. In practice, planners set the effective frequency mostly between three and seven contacts, depending on category, format and competition.

The effect of repetition is well documented. An analysis by Nexxen found that people who had seen an ad six times reached an ad recall of around 92 percent. And an analysis by Kantar Millward Brown of more than 1,600 campaigns showed that a higher average frequency consistently led to better brand recall and purchase intent. So pure reach without repetition is not enough. Why relevant contacts matter more than sheer reach is explored in the article Attention Over Reach.

Too much hurts

But more is not always better. Beyond a certain point, the effect tips over. If the same ad is shown too often, fatigue sets in, so-called wear-out. Viewers mentally switch off, in the worst case even a negative attitude toward the brand develops. For you that means wasted budget, because every contact above the effectiveness threshold no longer achieves anything but still costs. Overexposure also pushes down the completion rate and can drive prices up.

So the goal is not a maximum but an optimum: often enough that the message lands, and rarely enough that it doesn't annoy.

The right ad pressure

Where this optimum lies depends on the goal, but it moves within a clear corridor. For campaigns on connected TV, a frequency of about four to six contacts per person per week is a good benchmark. Below that, the message stays too weak to stick, above it you give budget away to people who are long since convinced or annoyed. Below two contacts barely anything works, above eight it becomes inefficient.

What's decisive is the distribution. It's better to reach the right audience several times than to scatter the budget broadly and hit everyone just once or bombard a few.

On the big screen you steer this precisely

This is a real advantage of connected TV. In classic linear television you book ad slots and reach whoever happens to tune in, without being able to limit the frequency per person. The result is often coarse and unevenly distributed contact figures. On the big screen in streaming, by contrast, the frequency can be steered per household, via so-called frequency capping. That way a small part of the viewers doesn't get your ad ten times while others never see it.

Good to know: because people switch between different streaming services, the same ad can appear too often across several platforms without clean control. That's exactly why it matters to steer the frequency in one place, bundled. How connected TV as a channel works in general is explained in the overview What is CTV advertising.

How onescreen solves this

With onescreen you determine the ad pressure yourself. You can set a frequency limit per week, from no limit through two, three and five up to ten times per week. That way you define how often a person sees your spot and keep the frequency in the effective range.

Which limit when? For most campaigns, a frequency of about four to six contacts per week is a good value, for which you choose the limit of up to five times per week. If you mainly want broad awareness and large audiences, two to three contacts per week are enough, that is a limit of up to two or three times, so you reach as many people as possible without overloading individuals. For a narrow audience, a competitive environment or a short, intensive push, you can go higher, the limit of up to ten times per week but only for short, concentrated bursts.

How your campaign is doing you follow in the daily dashboard. What advertising on TV and streaming costs is set out in the article What does TV advertising cost.

Conclusion

Ad pressure is a question of measure. Too few contacts and your message doesn't stick, too many and you burn budget. The effective range for streaming advertising is about four to six contacts per person per week, and on the big screen it can be steered precisely. With onescreen you set the right value yourself via a frequency limit, so your campaign runs at the right cadence.

Want to run your advertising at the right ad pressure? Book a demo and we'll show you how in 30 minutes. Or get started in the Ad Manager.