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Saturation made videos more profitable
Why repetition pays
At the start, few people had heard of Cal AI, so deals aimed for a low cost per thousand views to put the app in front of as many people as possible. A first look rarely turns into a purchase, and the old marketing rule holds that people see something around seven times before they buy.
As more creators posted it, viewers started to recognize the app. A video from a new creator now landed as another sighting of something they had already seen, and people went and got it. That let the team spend a little more on each deal while each video got a little more profitable.
Where it stops working
The same logic had limits. One creator brought in $120,000 of signups in a month after being paid $20,000. The next creator signed in the same niche did poorly. Fitness was big enough to split into different spaces, while some other niches needed only one creator.
Signing at pace
The team signed as many creators as it could, with goals of 50 or more a month and, for a long time, 100. On a few months it hit 100, about three a day. Competitors did far less influencer marketing, and Cal AI ended up taking over calorie tracking in the fitness space.
Where does the rule of seven come from?
Marketers often repeat that a buyer needs about seven exposures, a rule of thumb with roots in early advertising lore. In 1972 Herbert Krugman, a researcher at General Electric, argued that three exposures do the key work: curiosity, recognition, and reminder. Later advertisers stretched the count upward as media got more crowded. Both numbers still appear in media planning.
Why does repeated exposure build familiarity?
Psychologist Robert Zajonc showed in 1968 that people rate things more favorably after repeated exposure, even when they cannot say why. The finding is known as the mere-exposure effect. Familiar things take less mental effort to process, and that ease can read as liking. The effect has been shown with words, shapes, and faces.
Why does audience overlap limit ad campaigns?
Media planners separate reach, the number of different people who see an ad, from frequency, the average number of times each person sees it. When a second creator's audience overlaps the first, extra spending raises frequency more than reach. Broad categories hold more distinct audiences, so more creators keep adding new people. Reach and frequency are standard measures in media planning.
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