Reservation Buying Type Replaces Reach and Frequency

Meta is rolling out a change to buying typesThere are two buying type options when determining how you will pay for a Facebook ads campaign: Auction and Reach and Frequency. More, replacing ReachReach measures the number of Accounts Center Accounts (formerly users) that saw your ads at least once. You can have one account reached with multiple impressions. More and FrequencyCalculated as (Impressions/Reach), Frequency is a Facebook ads metric that measures the average number of times users have seen your ad. More with Reservation.

In this post, we’ll cover the basic impact of this change and an overview of how the Reservation buying typeAn alternative to Auction as a method to pay for your ads, Reservation replaced Reach and Frequency. It allows advertisers to lock in a fixed cost for greater predictability. More works.

What Are Buying Types?

When you create a new campaign, one of the first things you’ll do is select a buying type to determine how you will pay for your ads. The default selection is AuctionFacebook uses an ad auction to determine the best ad to show to a person at a given point in time. The winner of the auction is the ad with the highest total value, based on bid, estimated action rates, and ad quality. More, which is what advertisers will use 99% of the time.

Up until now, the other option was Reach and Frequency.

If you have the update, you now have Reservation.

What is Reservation?

In most cases, your ads will enter into an auction, which makes your costs variable and unpredictable.

If you selected Reach and Frequency (previously) or Reservation (now), you can plan your campaignsThe campaign is the foundation of your Facebook ad. This is where you'll set an advertising objective, which defines what you want your ad to achieve. More in advance with predictable performance. This is due to a fixed CPMCPM measures the cost per 1,000 impressions. It's a good metric to evaluate competition level and costs to reach your audience. More, so that you know what you will pay.

Here are a few ways that Reservation is unique…

1. Reach a minimum of 200,000 people.

2. Fixed CPM means that you know what the cost will be.

3. Only Engagement and Awareness objectivesWhen you create a campaign, one of the first things you'll do is select an objective. The campaign objective is your ultimate goal. Your selection will impact options, including optimization and delivery. Options include Awareness, Traffic, Engagement, Leads, App Promotion, and Sales. More (Traffic was available for Reach and Frequency, but not for Reservation).

4. Optimize for Reach, Ad Recall Lift, or ThruPlay.

5. Options of Frequency CapFrequency capping allows you to limit the number of times your audience sees your ad during a given window of time. More or Target Frequency to control how often people see your ads.

6. Ad Sequencing allows you to deliver ads in a series to tell a story over a period of time.

What Changed?

The change from Reach and Frequency to Reservation started rolling out in October of 2023. Beyond the name change, there are three primary changes:

1. Target Frequency is the new default frequency option, though Frequency Cap remains available.

Target Frequency means that you will set an average number of times people will see your ads, instead of setting a hard cap.

2. Traffic objective removed, leaving only Awareness and Engagement.

3. Link ClicksThe link click metric measures all clicks on links that drive users to properties on and off of Facebook. More, ImpressionsImpressions are the number of times your ads were displayed to your target audience. Impressions aren't counted if it is detected they came from bots. More, and Post EngagementPost engagements include all of the actions that people took on your Facebook ad post. Examples include:
• Post Shares
• Post Reactions
• Post Saves
• Post Comment
• Page Likes
• Post Interactions
• 3-Seconds Video Plays
• Photo Views
• Link Clicks
More performance goalThe Performance Goal is chosen within the ad set and determines optimization and delivery. How you optimize impacts who sees your ad. Meta will show your ad to people most likely to perform your desired action. More options removed, leaving only Reach, Ad Recall Lift, and ThruPlay.

Reservation Estimates

One of the biggest differences you’ll notice with Reservation compared to Auction is the Reservation Estimates section when creating the ad setAn ad set is a Facebook ads grouping where settings like targeting, scheduling, optimization, and placement are determined. More. You’ll set a BudgetA budget is an amount you're willing to spend on your Facebook campaigns or ad sets on a daily or lifetime basis. More or Reach (a budget will lead to a corresponding reach and vice versa).

The minimum reach for the Reservation buying type is 200,000.

We’ll assume a reach of 200,000. Meta provides estimates for Budget, Estimated Audience SizeEstimated Audience Size estimates how many Accounts Center Accounts (previously defined as users) are eligible for targeting given the settings in your ad set. More, CPM, and Frequency.

You can influence this by altering the Target Frequency or Frequency Cap.

You will also get predictions for Reach Per Frequency…

Frequency Per Person…

Spend Per Day…

And PlacementA placement is a location where your ad is shown. Examples include Facebook's mobile Feed, Messenger, Instagram feed, Audience Network, right-hand column, and more. More Distribution…

When Would You Use Reservation?

Reservation is an option to consider when your goal is focused on awareness and not a conversion or specific action. This is also best for bigger budgets when you want to reserve predictable spend and reach.

This isn’t going to be the go-to option for the typical small business, and it’s not the option you’ll want to use to show direct conversion impact from your advertising. This approach is instead about building brand awareness in a predictable way.

There is certainly plenty more that can be discussed on this topic, but we’ll save that for a separate post.