Despite what you may hear, ads do not need to be seen a certain number of times before they start working (with the possible exception of ads for new brands people haven't heard of before).

In fact, as you spend more on an ad and frequency levels build, you start to see diminishing returns. The first time someone sees your advertising, the impact on them is large. The next few exposures also have a strong incremental effect but the difference between seeing the advertising 10 versus 11 times, for example, is small.

For this reason, you can get a bigger return from your media budget if you:
- Use multiple executions.
- Use multiple media, especially if they reach different people.
- Spread your spend over time (unless there’s a seasonal reason to concentrate the spend).

But of course, it’s not that simple. You need to trade off the benefits of these versus the extra admin and production costs. Also, it depends on whether your secondary media and executions are as strong as your first choices.

Check out this LinkedIn post for a discussion of this topic,

​What to learn more? Try asking Virtual Dan White.