Why are impressions not people?
An ad set reports 50,000 impressions. That is not 50,000 people. If reach is 12,500, the ad reached 12,500 people and each of them saw it 4 times. Whether 4 is good depends on who they are. For people who have never heard of you, 4 times in a week is wearing out its welcome. For people who visited your website last week and left a cart behind, 4 is fine.
Frequency is also the early warning for ad fatigue. When frequency climbs week on week while the click-through rate falls and the cost per 1,000 impressions rises, the audience has seen the ad enough. The fix is a new creative or a wider audience, and it is a cheaper fix than the one most owners reach for, which is more budget into the same ad.
What happened in a cafe's four weeks at 1 km? (example figures)
A cafe runs one Meta ad to everyone within 1 km, $175 a week, for four weeks.
| Week | Spend | Impressions | Reach | Frequency | Click-through rate | Cost per click |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $175 | 12,500 | 8,300 | 1.5 | 1.8 percent | $0.78 |
| 2 | $175 | 12,500 | 10,400 | 2.4 (cumulative) | 1.4 percent | $1.00 |
| 3 | $175 | 12,500 | 11,900 | 3.2 | 1.0 percent | $1.40 |
| 4 | $175 | 12,500 | 12,500 | 4.0 | 0.7 percent | $2.00 |
By week four, reach has stopped growing because everyone within 1 km who uses Facebook or Instagram has seen the ad, and the click costs two and a half times what it did in week one. The $700 bought the same impressions each week and fewer clicks every week. The decision at the end of week two, when reach flattened, was a second creative or a 2 km radius. Either one would have kept the cost per click near $1.
Where do you find them in Ads Manager?
In Meta Ads Manager, Reach and Frequency are columns in the Performance view, and the Breakdown menu shows them by day or by week. Looking at frequency by week, rather than for the whole campaign, is what makes the climb visible while there is still time to act on it.
What happens in a session with Mira?
During a session, Cora sees Ads Manager on your screen, with reach and frequency in the columns, and Mira, the Meta Ads specialist, talks you through the change in pill mode. Once Meta is connected, CoraVision reads each campaign's spend, impressions, clicks and results every night, so a click-through rate that falls week on week is visible without anyone opening a report. Cora never pauses or changes an ad; you do, with the next step pointed at on your screen.
Questions
What is a good frequency?
Meta publishes no target. For people who have never heard of you, about 2 a week is plenty. For people who have visited your website, more is fine, because you are reminding them of something they already wanted.
Why has my reach stopped growing?
The ad has been shown to everyone in the audience it can reach, and the budget is now buying repeat views. Widen the audience, change the creative, or accept the frequency if the audience is a retargeting one.
What is the difference between reach and impressions?
Reach is people. Impressions are views. One person who sees the ad five times is one reach and five impressions.