What is frequency? Explanation of its meaning, calculation method, and how to determine the optimal setting.

Frequency refers to the number of times an ad is exposed within a certain period of time.

It is a word that appears frequently not only in TV commercials but also in web ads, so I think many people understand its meaning. However, there are probably many people who don't really understand how to calculate frequency. In fact, there are several methods for calculating frequency.

For web ads, it is possible to track the number of times each person was exposed to the ad with a high degree of accuracy, so there are not many ways to calculate it, but for ads like TV commercials, where it is not possible to track the number of times each person was exposed to the ad, the only option is to make an "estimation." In this article, we will explain the meaning of frequency again, its importance, and introduce some of the methods for calculating it.

What is Frequency?

Frequency of TV commercials refers to the average number of exposures to a TV commercial within a certain period of time. One indicator of how often a TV commercial was viewed is GRP, but GRP is the total household viewing rate (in a specific area), so it does not indicate what percentage of households in the survey area viewed the commercial.

The total household viewer rating means "the percentage of households that have seen the commercial at least once x the average number of views in each household." The "average number of views in each viewing household" in this multiplication is the frequency. Unlike web advertising, the viewer rating of a TV commercial is an "estimate" of the percentage of viewing households.

Since not all TV sets in all households are surveyed, some (or all) TV sets in some households are surveyed, and the viewer ratings for all households are estimated from that. Naturally, the frequency of TV commercials is also "estimated."

What is Reach?

By the way, the "percentage of households that have seen the commercial at least once" in the above multiplication is called reach.

More precisely, reach is called "ad reach" or simply "reach," and refers to the percentage of households (or people) that see a particular TV ad.

The Importance of Frequency

Knowing frequency is very important for two reasons: First, knowing frequency reveals how much of your intended target audience has seen your ad.

If it is viewed 10 times by 10% of households or 20 times by 5% of households, the GRP is 100%.

However, the former reached 10% of the surveyed households, and the latter 20% of the surveyed households. There is no point in broadcasting a commercial if it is not viewed, so if you don't know how many households saw it or how many people saw it, you can't verify the effectiveness or use it to improve your performance next time.

Next, if we can know the frequency, we may be able to get hints as to the "optimal frequency." The optimal frequency refers to the number of exposures (views) that maximize the effectiveness of the commercial. There are various theories on how many exposures are necessary, with some saying it should be three times, others saying it should be three to five times. The optimal number of exposures depends on factors such as the creative of the TV commercial, the nature and target of the product or service, etc.

The only way to determine the optimal frequency is to actually run a TV commercial, estimate the frequency, and then verify it. As an aside, it is rare for a consumer to become aware of a product or service and purchase it just by seeing a TV commercial once.

People become aware of a product or service for the first time after seeing and hearing a TV commercial many times. In other words, it is said that for a TV commercial to be effective, the target audience needs to see it several times. The number of times at which the effect begins to decrease is called the "minimum effective frequency," the number of times at which the effect begins to decrease (the viewer begins to dislike it) is called the "maximum effective frequency," and the number of times in between is called the "effective frequency."

How to calculate frequency

As mentioned above, we can only estimate the frequency, but there are several ways to calculate it. Here are some of them.

BBD (Beta Binomial Distribution) Model

This is an industry standard estimation method. There is a detailed explanation in the book Advertising Management (2004), but since it is a bit of a technical book, I won't go into the details here. If you are interested, please buy it and read it. In short,

1. Although the probability that each individual will see a particular TV commercial varies, we can say that the probability that all individuals together (i.e. everyone) will see that TV commercial is XX%.
2. If everyone has a XX% chance of watching a certain TV commercial, then we can think of "everyone" as individuals.
3. If an individual has a XX% chance of seeing a TV commercial, then we can also calculate how many times they will see it when it is broadcast XXX times.

That's the story. To understand it correctly, you need high school level math and basic knowledge of statistics, but I think the above is the simplest way to write it. Is it hard to understand?

Calculate frequency indirectly from reach

This is even simpler. I explained that GRP is "reach x frequency," but if you want to know frequency, you just need to know GRP and reach, so this is an attempt to calculate reach first. The People Meter (PM) system is a survey method that tells you whether each person in a surveyed household watched a specific TV commercial. The detailed data is not available to the advertiser, but the survey company calculates the reach of the surveyed household and uses that to estimate the reach in the surveyed area. Once you have the GRP and estimated reach data, it's easy to calculate because GRP ÷ reach = frequency.

Summary

In this article, we have touched on the meaning and importance of frequency in TV commercials, as well as how to calculate it. The concept of frequency itself is simple, but the method of estimating it is quite niche, and figuring out the optimal frequency requires a great deal of deep knowledge. I don't think that deep knowledge of the estimation part is necessary to achieve results with TV commercials, and there are probably many parts that can be replaced with tools. It's best to get a firm grasp of the basic concepts and leave the rest to the experts.

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