Most digital advertising ad campaign managers do not give importance to “Frequency Capping” when they setup their campaigns. It’s not Correct and Good Practice. Because users are more likely to engage with an ad when they see the ad at the right frequency. In this blog, I will explain all about Frequency Capping and its importance.
Topic :
How Does Frequency Capping Work?
Why Frequency Capping Is Important?
What is the recommended frequency capping?
What Is Frequency Capping?
Frequency Capping is an option available on ad platforms like demand side platforms that helps to limit the number of times users sees ads from the same campaign in a particular period of time.
Example,
7 Impressions Per 1 Day
It means ads from this campaign will not be shown more than 7 times to users in one day. Users may see ads from this campaign 1 time, 2 times, 3 times,……maximum 7 times but not more than 7 times in a day.
Also, we can set frequency capping using various time periods.
- Days
- Hours
- Minutes
- Week
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How Does Frequency Capping Work?
Many demand side platforms are available in this industry. Some platforms follow 2 level campaign hierarchy and some platforms follow 3 level campaign hierarchy.
Example For Two Level Hierarchy :
Campaign Groups
Campaign
Campaign
Adsets
Example For Three Level Hierarchy:
Insertion Order
Package
LineItem
At each level of the campaign hierarchy, we can set frequency capping. Most restrictive frequency capping takes control without considering the level.
Frequency Capping Example 1 :
Insertion Order – 3 Per 1 Day
Package 1 : 3 Per 1 Day
LineItem 1 : 1 Per 1 Hour
Package 2 : 3 Per 1 Day
LineItem 2 : 1 Per 1 Hour
As per the frequency capping kept at the LineItem level, both LineItems can deliver ads 1 time to one user for every hour. So, both can deliver ads 24 times per day to one user.
As per the frequency capping kept at the package level, package 1 and package 2 can deliver ads 3 times per day to one user.
As per the frequency capping kept at the insertion order level, this entire campaign can deliver ads maximum 3 times per day to one user.
Here, the restrictive frequency capping is kept at the insertion order level. So, each user will not see ads from this campaign more than 3 times in a day even though the LineItems can show ads 24 times per its frequency capping.
Frequency Capping Example 2 :
Insertion Order – 10 Per 1 Day
Package 1 : 5 Per 1 Day
LineItem 1 : 3 Per 1 Day
Package 2 : 5 Per 1 Day
LineItem 2 : 3 Per 1 Day
As per the frequency capping kept at the insertion order level, this campaign can deliver ads 10 times to one user per day.
As per the frequency capping kept at the package level, package 1 and package 2 can deliver ads 5 times to one user per day.
As per the frequency capping kept at the LineItem level, LineItem 1 and LineItem 2 can deliver ads 3 times to one user per day.
Here the restrictive frequency capping is kept at the LineItem level. So, from this campaign, each user will not see ads more than 3 times in a day even though package/insertion order frequency capping is more.
Frequency Capping Types
We can divide the frequency capping into three types based on the user identity method.
- Device/Cookie Based
- Person Based
- Household based
Device/Cookie Based :
In this method, the frequency is calculated by considering devices instead of users. Even if the device belongs to one user it will be considered as different (computer, mobile, tablet, connected tv….)
Person Based :
In this method, the frequency is calculated by considering users instead of devices. Determine the users across multiple devices like pc, mobile, tablet, etc.
Household Based :
In this method, frequency cap is determined by considering devices like TV belonging to one household. So, advertisers can control the frequency cap to confirm that their ads are not shown to users in the same household more times.
Unique House Hold Id is used to identify the users in the same household and used to apply a frequency cap.
Why Frequency Capping Is Important?
- Overexposure
Correct ad exposure is very much important for increasing leads. If you do not apply frequency capping at the campaign level there is a possibility for overexposure. By limiting the ads showing to each user using frequency capping, it keeps the ad fresh and more engaging.
- More Reach
By limiting the number of times ads show to each user using frequency capping, you can reach the maximum number of people. So, you can increase the campaign efficiency.
- Improve User Experience
If you show the same ads repeatedly, users may get irritated. By using frequency capping we can avoid this problem and get success without affecting the user experience.
- Over Pacing
The first step to control over pacing is tightening the “frequency capping”. Ads from your campaign may show ads repeatedly to the same group of users to spend its allocated budget. In this situation, your campaign may end soon. In that time, you can use frequency capping to slow down the pacing.
- Advertiser Control
Using the frequency capping function, advertisers can control how frequently ads are shown to each user. So advertisers can optimize the campaign delivery and reach the goal effectively.
What is the recommended frequency capping?
You need to set suitable frequency capping for your business. To identify the suitable frequency capping for your business, you need to consider several factors.
- Performance Analysis
If you run ad campaigns previously then analyze your campaigns performance data to identify how many times ads were shown to the user before they made certain engagements. So, you can set the frequency cap based on this detail.
If you are new, then you can start with 3/1 Day or 5/1 Day.
- Consider Your Goal
The frequency cap will differ based on the campaign goal. For example, if your campaign goal is “Brand Awareness”, you need to set a higher frequency capping to show your ads more times. So that only they can remember your brand and message. For traffic, and conversion goal campaigns, you can keep low frequency capping.
- Test, Monitor and Adjust
In digital advertising, testing, and optimization are the common steps to improve your campaign performance. To identify the suitable frequency cap for your campaign, you can start with the optimal frequency cap range. Then you can adjust the frequency cap and monitor the performance to identify the suitable frequency cap for your ad campaign.
Conclusion
Frequency capping is also an important targeting that can be used to optimize ad campaigns. By using this targeting more effectively, the advertisers can achieve their goal without affecting the user experience. So, understand the importance of frequency capping and implement it in your campaigns.
Hey Sri,
The article helps me to understand more about the frequency capping however, I just wanted to know for the below:
Let’s consider the IO frequency is 5 per day and the line items (1 & 2) frequency are 3 per day. Here, the frequency restriction is 3 so here, the maximum unique user availability is 5 as per the below. Correct?
The Insertion Order allows 5 users..
The line item 1 restrict 3 users, and line item 2 allows 3 users (1 user is overlapped)
So the maximum unique user availability is 5 for that day.
Thanks,
its not necessary, maybe your LI-1 is serving for another type of audience and LI-2 is serving another type of audience, it will not overlap anything and you unique user availability would be 6