But, What's The Reach (or How Much Is Enough)?

In my personal opinion, Frequency is still the most important initial consideration when examining a budget plan, as Frequency guides what we can consider to be the most effective exposure level. Once you have determined what is effective, than the budget is what drives Reach. As more and more advertisers begin to stray away from a purely DR planning model and begin to use the web for Brand Development and/or Continuity Planning, Reach may become more than an afterthought and the desired levels for R/F will drive budgetary planning rather than budgets driving R/F considerations.

Until we get to that stage of maturation, we must recognize that the web is mostly underutilized by advertisers. Very few, if any, advertisers are effectively achieving a 100% reach and an “effective” frequency level for their campaigns. In the current state of affairs, the short term goals of testing the space and testing messages drives initial reach considerations while longer term campaigns are still falling short of their potential by only focusing on a small segment or portion of the total audience online.

The other factor is competition. Advertisers always examine the spending levels of their competitors, mostly utilizing AdRelevance or some other tool, to determine what they should be spending online. The problem with these numbers is that they are rarely correct. Dollars are typically overstated and segmentation of the online audience, which is much more easily accomplished here than in any other form of media, makes it difficult to accurately determine who is the audience. If you cannot clearly define the audience, it becomes difficult to estimate the reach that a campaign is achieving.

Reach will become a more important element of the planning process as budgets increase and media planners determine how to effectively integrate the web into the media mix. As planners begin to utilize the web as a continuity medium and increase the budgets, than Reach will be more of a consideration… don’t you agree?