If reach is cheap, why are brands still paying so much for attention?
The price of being seen collapsed. The price of being remembered did not.
Quick brief
- Cheap impressions created expensive memory.
- Cost per impression fell while cost per remembered impression rose.
- Media efficiency metrics now flatter genuinely worsening performance.
- Move the efficiency metric from cost per reach to cost per recalled exposure.
What is really going on
Abundance moved the bottleneck. When everyone can be seen, the scarce resource is the memory slot, and no auction sells that directly.
The uncomfortable version: some of the efficiency gains of the last decade were an accounting choice.
The bottom line
Media cost per outcome is rising even where cost per impression falls. Reporting the cheaper number does not make the bill smaller.
Re-baseline one channel on cost per recalled exposure before the next budget round.
Sources
- WARC — Media cost and effectiveness trends (1 Jan 2026)