What is a gross rating point (GRP)?

Gross rating points (GRPs) quantify impressions as a percentage of a target audience, multiplied by the frequency of the audience seeing the ad. GRPs help marketers to understand the size of an audience that an ad impacts. They consider reach (the percentage of a population that has been reached) and average frequency (the average number of ad impressions experienced by a user within this population).

GRPs are mainly used in large-scale media planning and buying, where extensive campaigns covering TV and digital have been rolled out. A term in use since the 1950s, GRPs started out as the primary metric for TV advertising buys, with advertisers typically paying publishers based on the ratings points corresponding to a particular ad. More recently, GRPs have become an important metric for digital and mobile marketers. They can be particularly useful as a method of assessing and coordinating campaigns that run across both linear TV and digital, including connected TV (CTV).

A term related to GRP is TRP (target rating points). TRP and GRP measure the same thing, but with different levels of specificity. While GRPs show how much of the total population your campaign can reach, TRPs look at the campaign’s performance for a specified target audience within the total population. While GRPs equal one percent of the total audience exposed to an ad, TRPs equal one percent of a given target demographic’s exposure.

GRP is calculated by multiplying reach by average frequency. For example, if a campaign has an average of four impressions experienced by 1,000,000 of a population, where the total addressable population is 50,000,000, the calculation will be:

(1,000,000 / 50,000,000 = 2% of population reached) x 4 ad impressions = 8, so the GRP is 8.

When determining the GRPs you want out to achieve in a given media schedule, look at how much of your market you want to reach, and how many times you need to reach your audience to get them to act. GRPs are calculated slightly differently based on the medium, and GRP goals vary across verticals. In general, you should attempt to reach between 50% and 90% of your target market, and assume it will take at least three exposures for a viewer to act on an offer. New products require more ad frequency than established products. Complex products or products with a lot of competition also require more ad frequency.

GRP serves as a bridge between traditional and digital media for ad buyers, most often in the context of large brands with ongoing multi-channel exposure. When comparing performance across different media formats, such as TV and digital, marketers use multi-channel advertising measurement partners to assess cross-channel campaign performance.

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