Ad Frequency Calculator
Reach Tells You Who; Frequency Tells You How Often
Impressions and reach sound similar but measure different things: impressions count every time an ad was shown, while reach counts unique people who saw it at least once. Dividing one by the other gives frequency — the average number of times each person in the audience saw the ad — which is the number that separates a campaign building familiarity from one wearing out its welcome.
The Formula
Frequency = Total Impressions / Reach
Where This Calculation Matters
- Managing ad fatigue — when the same audience sees an ad too many times, engagement typically declines and cost efficiency drops, making frequency a leading indicator worth monitoring.
- Setting frequency caps — ad platforms let you cap how many times a single user sees an ad within a window; this calculator confirms whether an active campaign is respecting the intended cap.
- Judging campaign breadth vs. depth — a low frequency with high reach favors broad awareness; a high frequency with narrow reach favors retargeting and reinforcement.
- Diagnosing a stalled campaign — rising frequency with flat or falling reach usually means a campaign has saturated its available audience and needs new targeting.
Worked Examples
| Impressions | Reach | Frequency |
|---|---|---|
| 100,000 | 40,000 | 2.50 |
| 250,000 | 50,000 | 5.00 |
| 500,000 | 100,000 | 5.00 |
How to Use This Calculator
- Enter the total number of impressions the campaign generated.
- Enter the reach — the number of unique people who saw the ad.
- Select Calculate to get the average frequency per person.
Related Calculations
See how much that reach cost with the CPM Calculator, or check what share of available inventory it represents with the Impression Share Calculator.