Frequency in PPC is how many times the average person in your target audience sees your ad during a set time period (for example, per day, per week, or over the whole campaign).
You’ll see frequency most often in display, video, and paid social campaigns (Google Display, YouTube, Meta, LinkedIn), and it matters because repetition can help recall, but too much repetition leads to ad fatigue, rising costs, and fewer leads. In Orlando and Central Florida, frequency can climb faster than you expect when you target small radiuses, tight demographics, or niche services (think Invisalign, personal injury, or termite treatment) because the same people get “recycled” into the auction.
Frequency is “too high” when performance trends start moving the wrong way while spend stays the same: click-through rate drops, cost per lead rises, conversion rate falls, and you start seeing more negative signals (hides, blocks, or low engagement). It’s not about one magic number. A remarketing campaign can tolerate higher frequency than cold prospecting, and a fast-moving offer (emergency plumbing, same-day appointments) can tolerate more repetition than a slow decision service (estate planning, elective dentistry).
| Campaign type | Common starting frequency cap range | What “too high” usually looks like | First fix to try |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prospecting (cold audiences) | 1 to 2 per day per person, or 3 to 7 per week | CTR declines week over week, CPM/CPC climbs, lead quality drops | Broaden targeting, add placements, refresh creative |
| Remarketing (site visitors, engaged users) | 2 to 4 per day per person, or 7 to 14 per week | Frequency climbs while conversions flatten, cost per result rises fast | Shorten membership windows, split by recency (1 to 7 days vs 8 to 30) |
| High-intent local (tight geo, “near me” style audiences) | Start lower: 1 per day, then increase only if results hold | Small reach with heavy repetition, same households seeing ads nonstop | Expand radius to nearby neighborhoods, add lookalikes or similar segments |
| Video awareness | 1 to 2 per day per person | View rate drops, skip rate climbs, brand lift stalls | Rotate new hooks in the first 3 seconds |
Here’s the practical way we handle it: we set a sensible frequency cap, then watch the relationship between frequency and cost per lead. If frequency rises but leads do not, we treat it like a signal that the audience is saturated or the creative is worn out. If you want help setting caps and building a rotation plan that fits your budget, our PPC management service is built around keeping spend efficient while you scale.
Two quick tips most local businesses miss: first, check frequency by placement and by audience segment, not only at the campaign level. Second, match frequency expectations to intent, which is why we map ads and landing pages to search intent even when the traffic is coming from paid social or display.
If you’re not sure what to monitor as frequency changes, use a simple scorecard: reach, frequency, CTR, conversion rate, and cost per lead. That same scoreboard mindset is outlined in our metrics to track FAQ, and it applies just as well to PPC.
