# Frequency

> Frequency in Meta Ads is the average number of times each person in the reached audience saw an ad during a chosen period, calculated by dividing impressions by reach.

Source: https://adops.id/glossary/frequency/
Last updated: 2026-08-20
Publisher: AdOps (https://adops.id) — an independent product, not affiliated with Meta Platforms, Inc.

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**Also known as:** Average frequency

**Formula:** Frequency = impressions ÷ reach

**In AdOps:** Frequency is not available in AdOps. Neither reach nor frequency appears among the 19 Meta Graph API fields the AdOps metric catalogue maps, so no rule condition can test it; Impressions and CPM are the closest signals the 45-metric catalogue carries.

Frequency is how many times the average reached person saw an ad: impressions divided by reach. AdOps cannot read it. Reach and frequency are not among the 19 Meta Graph API fields its metric catalogue maps, so a frequency threshold cannot be written into an AdOps condition, and no rule can act on one.

## How is frequency calculated?

Divide impressions by reach over the same period. An ad set that delivered 1,200,000 impressions to 400,000 people over 7 days has a frequency of 3.0. If the next week delivers the same 1,200,000 impressions to 240,000 people, frequency rises to 5.0 while the spend of Rp 6,000,000 has not changed at all.

## Why is rising frequency a warning?

Rising frequency on flat spend means the audience is being re-shown the same creative rather than expanded. It usually arrives alongside a rising CPM and a falling CTR, and it is one of the mechanisms behind ad fatigue, because the cost of the next result climbs while nothing about the campaign setup has changed.

## What can an AdOps rule use instead?

Impressions and CPM. Because both are in the 45-metric catalogue and both support all 11 reporting periods, a compare-to-metric condition can test CPM over Last 7 days against CPM over Last 30 days, and a CTR (link clicks) floor can catch the engagement drop that usually accompanies over-exposure.