Know-How Exchange : Strategy

What you're asking for is really a primer on media planning. It got its cred back when mass media ruled -- so a lot of the reach-and-frequency thinking is rooted in television advertising. Of course there are print and radio versions, and even outdoor ... but it doesn't translate particularly well across media or into the digital age. The concepts certainly apply, but the way we measure them don't -- and you probably can't combine the reach and/or frequency across media types with any confidence that they mean much.

In a real nutshell, REACH is the percentage of your audience that sees a particular showing or commercial message. So if you have a 25% reach among women 25-34, then the REACH is 25.

FREQUENCY is the average number of times someone in your target audience sees that message/commercial. So if you run that same commercial 5 times and someone sees them all, your frequency is 5.

And if you multiply the REACH times the FREQUENCY, you get something called GROSS RATING POINTS, or GRPs (pronounced "grips"). In the two examples above, the REACH of 25 times the FREQUENCY of 5 yields 125 GRPs.

There's obviously a lot more to the lesson, but that goes way beyond the scope of what we do on this forum. And, of course, the length, persuasiveness and other creative elements of the commercial are usually more important than any of the reach/frequency measures, as Gary suggests.

Good morning Yasser.

I have a question for you: you say that you "the usual planning techniques to plan the campaigns for our clients". Advertising media such as TV and Radio are notoriously difficult to get sensible metrics from. That is to say, valid data. Just how much do you assume in your planning?

Because when you say "where i can study the mechanics of the formula" - the mechanics of the formula will only make any sense if the data you are using is valid. That is to say, the fewer assumptions the more valid the result. The more valid your data, the more valid your result.

Just how do you measure "Reach" and "Frequency" in your situation? Or are these guessed at from previous experience in the market?

The reason for my saying this is that using Google's display network is much like a TV advert. The Google display network is where you have small advertisements placed on online newspapers, blogs, magazines - anywhere that has a syndication. This site displays them. Because people don't usually watch TV adverts any more than they look at the ads in an online magazine. Which is as close a match as you'll get to TV advertising. The important point is that the Google display network is easy to derive sensible clear data from.

No assumptions, no guesswork, no scratching of heads. Ask a clear question and you'll get a clear answer within hours. Knowing how many people clicked on your ad and using split-testing techniques will allow you to refine your argument AND gain sensible metrics - all at relatively modest cost. The important thing is that you will have hard, sensible data to put before your clients. No more fluff, no more this or that - hard, concrete figures generated by people in a situation that is as close to TV advertising as you can get. The point is that this data will approximate to the TV audience - and knowing what works and what doesn't, what messages work allows you to form a campaign in terms of a return on investment.

Which is a very different thing from wondering how much you want to spend on TV advertising. It tells you how much you're likely to MAKE from each dollar you spend. That is when you say - we will have this reach and this frequency because you have meaningful data to base your decisions on.

I hope this helps.

Reach and frequency won't much matter if you ignore the salience of your message.