COMMONLY USED ADVERTISING TERMS

Ad Words Glossary

Don't let industry jargon obscure your results. Clear communication is the first step toward better performance. Here are the fundamental marketing terms you should know to better understand and share your success.

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Reach measures the breadth of an advertisement’s spread across a population. Net reach and frequency are important concepts in describing an advertising campaign; they separate tota impressions into the number of people reached and the average frequency with which those individuals are exposed to advertising. A campaign with high net reach and low frequency runs the danger of being lost in a noisy environment. A campaign with low net reach but high frequency can overexpose some audiences and miss others entirely. Reach and frequency metrics help managers adjust their advertising media plans to fit their marketing strategies.

A campaign’s effective frequency will depend on many factors, including market circumstances, media used, type of ad, and campaign. As a rule of thumb, however, an estimate of three exposures per purchase cycle is used surprisingly often.

Theoretically, an impression is generated each time an advertisement is viewed and the number of impressions achieved is a function of an ad’s reach (the number of people seeing it) multiplied by its frequency (number of times they see it).

Note that impressions do not account for the quality of the viewings, or even whether the consumer actually “sees” the ad: an opportunity to view the ad, a glimpse or a detailed viewing all count as one impression.

For example, if your reach is 100 (unique individuals), and your set frequency is 20, you can assume everyone will see your ad 20 times (for a total of 2,000 ad impressions)