In my previous post, advertising frequency: how many times is it effective? I've discussed the number of times a user needs to see an ad before he/she will take action. In this case, the best action would be a purchase. 3 times, 7, 10 or 20 times? you debate. At marketing studies, they would argue/prove that consumers were, on the average, exposed to the ad creative 16.9 times (17) before making the purchase.

The study was for a 1 month period, which included advertising on 85+ web media and 50 different ad creatives. The campaign reach was 100,000+ internet users and standard IAB ad creative sizes were used (728x90px and 160x600px; static .jpg files).

In banner ad campaigns, it would take 17 times. What about search marketing campaigns?