Within Reach and Frequency ad buying, there can be two seemingly similar ad buying models: Reach vs Brand Awareness. In order to test the differences, will try out the below example.

First, let’s talk about the details behind the models.

How does Facebook ads count Reach/Impressions?

We measure an ad impression the moment an ad enters the screen of a desktop browser or mobile app. If an ad doesn’t enter the screen, we don’t count it as an ad impression. In the next few months, we will apply similar standards to organic content from businesses.

Therefore, if a single pixel of the ad enters the viewport, it would get counted towards Reach/Impression.

https://www.facebook.com/business/news/viewed-impressions

What happens in the Brand Awareness model?

The brand awareness objective's main reporting metric is estimated ad recall lift (people), which is the estimated number of people likely to remember your ads within two days.

The brand awareness objective is designed for advertisers who want to find people who are more likely to recall their ads.

In trying to calculate expected ad recall, this could possibly come from a number of variables:

• Time spent looking at the post [the ad remains in the viewport of user]

• Active engagements [clicks]

• Views [or completions]

The above pointers are what I think would be variables. Brand Awareness model is cheaper than Engagement and Views models [based on CPM’s] so you would expect different Ad recall rates from Engagement/Views model. Although, AFAIK, Ad Recall isn’t available in the Engagement model.

Let’s compare an example target audience between Reach and Brand Awareness model:

Budget: $10 K

Locations/Age/Gender: SA, AE, BH, KW, OM, QA, 18+, M/F

Frequency: 2 impressions per week

Placement: Automatic placements

When you plug in both models, Brand Awareness model appears to be 21% more expensive than the Reach model. [$0.69 CPM vs $0.57]

When you compare between the two models, Brand Awareness model works out to be 21% more expensive than the Reach model.

Some other posts on Facebook Reach and Frequency Ad Buying:

More generic post on Facebook Reach and Frequency models explained while another post covers Video views buying options in Reach and Frequency models explained.

Update: Added an infographic from https://simpleintelligentsystems.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/effective-brand-awareness-scaled.jpg