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What are frequency caps? And on what traffic sources is it available? (13)

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Hi all,

I am reading the Attila guides, he is talking about frequency caps?

What does it exactly do and on which traffic sources is such an option available?

Thanks :-)

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Frequency Cap is a limit for the number of times your banner is shown to one surfer. So when you set it to 1, each surfer will only see your banner once. Set it to unlimited and the same surfer will still see your banner no matter how many times he refreshes the page or how deep he surfs on the same site - depending on the bids of course, if there is another advertiser with the same bid, the impressions would be divided for example.

Higher frequency cap almost always means lower CTR, but you will usually get more impressions. Good way of increasing the CTR with larger cap is to use more banners as a good network should rotate them.

You will be using higher CAP on sources that work for you, because you simply want more of that traffic. On not so good sources and sources where you are just starting out, you should use low CAP.

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@ Matuloo, thanks

Which traffic sources have such an option?

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Anyone?

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Almost all.

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Yup, any good source will have this option.

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To add to Matuloo's explanation it's essentially the # of times you decide your ad can be shown to a user per a given set of time. That given time is default 24 hours but I've seen different platforms offer different options. When testing a new campaign it is typically wise to set it to 2-4/24 hours, that way you're not blowing all your impressions on the same visitors but instead spreading them across more unique users...

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So, when launching a new campaign is it best practice to limit the CAP on impressions i.e. start with 1, 2, 5 per Mr. Yaz comment?

Would there be any situations where you would just leave this off with a new campaign (unlimited)? Can a "no" cap kill a new campaign from the get go?

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A 'no-cap' campaign is generally not a good idea from a performance marketing standpoint.

Usually at higher frequencies you get large decreases in CTR, which is highly detrimental for a CPM-based campaign, and there is a point where showing a user the same ad more won't increase likelihood of conversion.

As opposed to branding where you want to force a brand/image into the back of a user's mind so don't care much about frequency.

When gauging ad/offer performance it's better to lean toward the restrictive side, e.g. 1 impression per 24, but it will vary with traffic source. Depending on your targeting and the traffic's volume, the freq cap may actually choke your volume too much.

It's definitely a variable to test and something you will get a feel for with experience.

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@MrYaz We (Decisive) added it under "Audience" in ad creation. You can pick how many visits per day per person for each ad that you create. And vary it as needed.

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@ Andrea Decisive - Thx! Updated my post to reflect accurate information.

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Andrea you have standard and custom - If we leave it on standard what are the frequency limits?

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@wsotoolz

It is realtime frequency capping, since it is so fast, we have the frequency cap at 20 for now on standard.

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