An Insider Look at Reach and Frequency Ad Buying on Facebook

Remember the glory days when your organic Facebook content would reach your audience with no paid dollars behind it? Me, too. But then Facebook changed up its algorithm again and again and your content started getting fewer and fewer eyeballs on it day after day. “Now what?” you say. It’s time to pay to play.

Facebook’s ad revenue is increasing at a staggering rate from $5.29 billion in 2014 to nearly $15 billion in 2018. With this rise in spending comes an even higher level of competition to get your content in front of your audience. Of the two methods of buying ads on the platform, Auction and Reach and Frequency, here’s a deeper look into the benefits of Reach and Frequency ad buying.

Facebook Reach

What is Reach and Frequency Ad Buying

Facebook defines Reach and Frequency as “an ad buying type on Facebook and Instagram that can provide powerful and predictable results.” This tool is based on the tried and true method of buying traditional media which allows the advertiser to control the reach and frequency of their messaging to their audience. Rather than letting the Facebook auction determine when and where your content will appear, this method allows buyers to more accurately plan and predict the reach of brand campaigns, reach unique people across a target audience and manage the frequency of brand campaigns.

Facebook Reach 2

An Ideal Use Case for Brands

The Reach and Frequency tool is ideal for optimizing toward the brand awareness objective. If your goal is to showcase a new product or get your name out there in the social space, this buying method gives you the advantage of predictable delivery to a predetermined audience. If you place an ad in the Facebook auction, you run the risk of paying more money to get your ad in front of fewer people. With the Reach and Frequency tool, you can determine exactly how much your ad will cost to be served to a certain number of people.

This tool also allows a buyer to plan and book campaigns in advance in a sequenced way. While the tool was developed for large brand advertisers, it can be used by any advertiser with access to Power Editor or the API looking to drive efficient reach within their target audience.

One of the biggest advantages of advertising on Facebook is the ability to target specific groups of highly engaged people. While the targeting is not quite as advanced in the Reach and Frequency tool as in the Auction, advertisers still have the ability to hone in on a very precise audience. As you create ad sets within Reach and Frequency campaigns, the projected reach updates based on a number of factors including target audience, desired reach, demographics and CPM.

Facebook Reach 3

At this time, you can set up a Reach and Frequency buy for the following objectives: Brand Awareness, Clicks to Website, Mobile App Installs, Page Post Engagement, Video Views and Website Conversions. The tool allows advertisers to serve ads in the News Feeds on desktop, mobile and Instagram. These options may change over time as Facebook continues to improve the tool.

Before you get started…

Here are some guidelines to remember when setting up a Reach and Frequency campaign:

  • You will pay a set price for the advertising inventory placement you reserve
  • The cost is always CPM (cost per 1,000 impressions)
  • Campaigns must be 1-30 days in length
  • You must reach a minimum of 200,000 people per campaign
  • Audience holdouts can be up to 5%
  • You cannot pause or make any changes to a campaign once it has started. The only way to edit a campaign is to delete it and start over.

We recommend buying through both the Auction and Reach and Frequency tools when promoting content on Facebook and Instagram. If males 35-44 are the best responding demographic within your Page Post Engagement campaign, you can use the Reach and Frequency tool to saturate that specific market with your message. The two buying types work can work hand in hand.

For more information on the Reach and Frequency tool, check out this BluePrint training from Facebook.



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