Definition

How often something occurs within a given time period, whether that's radio waves oscillating, ad impressions served, or your project manager asking for status updates. In physics, it's measured in Hertz; in marketing, it's how many times your target audience sees your ad before they start actively hating you. The sweet spot between "who are you?" and "please make it stop."

Example Usage

The campaign manager increased the ad frequency to 12 impressions per user per day, somehow believing that annoyance converts to sales.

Source: Common technical and marketing terminology

Related Terms

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scent trail

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editorial

An opinion piece where a publication's editors climb onto their soapbox to tell readers what to think about current events, traditionally unsigned to represent the institution's collective wisdom (or bias). In media, it's also the content side of the business—the journalism and creative work, as opposed to the advertising that actually pays for everything. Editorial calendars plan this content, while editorial independence is the increasingly quaint notion that advertisers don't influence it.

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white label

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incrementality testing

An experimental method to measure whether your marketing actually caused an outcome or if it would have happened anyway. It's the uncomfortable question every CMO avoids: did we waste our money?

📣 Marketing / Advertising
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demand-side platform

Software that allows advertisers to automatically purchase ad inventory across multiple exchanges and networks through a single interface, because manually buying ads on ten thousand websites would require immortality. Abbreviated as DSP by people who enjoy acronyms.

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viral coefficient

The number of new users each existing user generates through referrals, where anything above 1.0 means exponential growth. It's the mathematical expression of every marketer's fantasy: growth that doesn't require advertising.

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