The methods serves for activating an electric motor of a metering pump with which the fluid quantity (V.sub.nom) to be delivered is set by an external impulse trigger, wherein a predetermined delivery quantity (V.sub.nom) is allocated to each impulse (t). The control detects the temporal interval (.DELTA.t) of the two last-received impulses and activates the electric motor such that the fluid quantity to be delivered, taking the previously evaluated interval as a basis, is distributed over the subsequent impulse interval.