Coverage, the percentage of the audience that end up seeing your advert, and frequency, how often your advert is seen by your target audience, are key to unlocking the maximum potential of advertising campaigns. This goes hand in hand whether advertising in print, social, TV or radio. To get the most from your investment, you need to consider what proportion of your target audience you need to see your advert as well as the optimum number of times the advert needs to be seen before it triggers a positive reaction in the attitude towards your brand. Coverage and frequency help determine the numbers required to sustain a successful advertising campaign for your company.
It is also wise to study consumer purchase behaviour. This helps set realistic daily, weekly and monthly objectives for coverage and frequency. There are many methods to help you work out the percentage of the target audience you want to see the advertisements and the frequency will help you fulfil your goals. Sometimes the advertiser will identify this for you or it may be about determined by establishing a point of diminishing returns. This is the point where the price of increased advertising output surpasses the value of your audience’s response. These targets obviously vary depending on the scope and targets of your company. Beyond that, these targets depend on the ambition of your marketing intention as well as any other projects that your company is currently undertaking.
This is where your marketing message may be need to be modified from one of gaining interest, to one of gaining sales to one of confirming retention and resupply.
Overall your company needs to set targets regarding coverage and frequency, so not to waste money in the wrong places, at the wrong time or with the wrong message, working from a basis of coverage and frequency may also prevent over-saturating the market with your advertising, saving you money in the process.
