Have you ever happened to scroll through a website only to encounter the same advertisement repeatedly — each appearance more persistent than the last? Studies show that 86% of people agree that too many ads make them feel overwhelmed and more likely to tune out completely.
Moreover, other statistics reveal the impact of ad overload and intrusive experiences on consumer behavior: 66% of users report reduced trust in brands due to annoying or intrusive ads. In comparison, 71% are less likely to purchase from those brands in the future under similar circumstances.
But there’s a solution for these problems generated by repetitive ads that people into adtech can use—frequency capping. This article delves into frequency capping—what it is, why it matters, and how it can be leveraged effectively across any programmatic advertising platform.
Let’s get the ball rolling!
Table of contents
What is Frequency Capping?
Frequency capping, or frequency cap, is a feature commonly found on top programmatic platforms, whose primary purpose is to restrict how many times a particular ad is shown to a single user within a set timeframe.
It controls the number of times a user encounters a specific ad, preventing overexposure and reducing the likelihood of user annoyance or irritation from repeatedly seeing the same ad.
How Does It Work?
Frequency capping is a tool that prevents your ads from irritating viewers. It works by tracking how many times someone sees your ad. When they’ve seen it enough (the number you set), the platform stops showing it to them for a while. This way, programmatic advertising enables your ad to reach new people instead of bothering the same ones.
Typically, a frequency cap consists of three main components:
- The number of times the ad is displayed before being capped (e.g., once, ten times, etc.).
- The hierarchy of what is being capped (e.g., a specific creative, an entire campaign, or the advertiser).
- The timeframe for resetting the cap (e.g., hourly, daily, weekly, monthly).
Why is Frequency Capping Important?
Frequency caps are essential for optimizing ad campaigns and enhancing the user experience. It helps brands show their ads at a frequency that keeps the content interesting (and not annoying) for the audience. By controlling how often ads are displayed, advertisers can avoid overwhelming users with repetitive content, maintaining their interest and positive brand perception.
Additionally, it customizes ad viewability, ensuring that the right ads reach the right customers. This increases the chances of ads being noticed and acted upon, improving the campaign’s overall effectiveness.
It also ensures that campaign budgets are spent wisely, preventing ads from being shown too frequently to the same users. Finally, it helps save resources on ads likely to be ignored, maximizing return on investment.
With frequency capping, optimizing ad campaigns for video or display ads becomes more manageable. It allows advertisers to fine-tune their strategies based on the target audience, leading to more precise and effective advertising.
And importantly, there’s no downside to implementing frequency capping. It aids in fine-tuning campaigns, ensuring that ads reach the intended audience without causing annoyance or fatigue. This leads to a more pleasant user experience and better campaign outcomes.
Types of Frequency Capping
Regarding frequency capping, programmatic advertising platforms offer several types to manage how often ads are shown. Here are the three most common types, which are also available with Sevio Ad Manager:
- Global Capping limits the number of times an ad is shown across all users. For example, you can set global capping with an hourly frequency and a cap of 10,000 impressions, ensuring the ad is not displayed more than 10,000 times per hour.
- User Capping restricts how often a specific user sees an ad. For instance, you might set a daily frequency with a cap of 3 impressions, which prevents the ad from being shown to the same user more than 3 times in one day.
- After-Click Capping stops an ad from being shown to a user for a certain period after they click on it. For example, setting an after-click cap with a daily frequency will ensure the ad is not displayed to the same user within 24 hours after they click on it.
In addition to these frequency cappings, there are also different variations implemented in some programmatic platforms, variations such as:
- Session Capping limits the number of ad impressions within a single browsing session. For example, you can set a session cap to ensure an ad is shown no more than five times during one user session.
- Creative Capping limits the exposure of specific ad creatives to a user. For instance, you might restrict a particular creative to be shown only 3 times to a user over a week, regardless of how many other creatives from the same campaign are shown.
- Time Capping limits the time frame in which an ad is shown rather than the number of times it’s shown. For example, you could set a time cap to ensure an ad is only displayed between 8 AM and 8 PM, allowing it to appear multiple times within this period but not outside.
- Dayparting adjusts ad exposure based on different times of the day to target when ads will be most relevant to customers. Also, thsi is more closely linked to pay-per-click (PPC) advertising but can still be relevant to frequency capping settings.
Should You Request Frequency Capping?
Now you probably wonder: Is frequency capping one of those must-have features? The answer is nuanced but leans towards yes. That’s why you must check for this feature when you choose a platform to work with.
Frequency capping lets advertisers control how often their ads are shown to the same user. Thus, it is essential to maintain a positive user experience and prevent ad fatigue, which can occur when users are repeatedly targeted with the same ad.
Major ad platforms like Google Ads, Facebook, Snapchat, and LinkedIn offer frequency capping, highlighting its importance in the industry. Even Sevio Ad Manager offers this feature to publishers that use the platform to help them set the best campaigns (if needed) for their in-house advertisers.
Frequent capping is often seen as essential for advertisers who are very conscious about their brand and have larger budgets. These advertisers want to ensure their ads don’t annoy users by showing up too frequently.
Top Frequency Capping Best Practices
First things first, remember that there’s no magic number for the perfect frequency. It depends on what you’re advertising and who you’re trying to reach. But by using frequency capping, you can ensure your ads are seen but not annoying, which can lead to better results (as you saw above) for your campaign. Think of it like showing your friend new cat videos instead of the same one repeatedly. They’re more likely to stay entertained and interested, which is what you want with your ads as well.
But here’s a practical starting point: Consider setting a conservative cap, like 1-2 impressions per user daily.
For publishers, limiting ad frequency is recommended to avoid overwhelming visitors with repetitive ads, which can lead to user fatigue. But, finding the right ad frequency depends on factors such as campaign type, objectives, and available ad inventory.
If you think you need more than 1-3 ads per day, you can also follow Facebook’s recommendation to set a frequency cap of two ads per week, which, according to them, captures 95% of the total brand lift. From there, you can gradually adjust the frequency, monitoring its impact on your key performance indicators (KPIs).
For targeted campaigns aiming for clicks or sales, a lower cap (1-3 impressions) is often better than a higher cap. However, if you want broad reach, a slightly higher cap (3-5 impressions per day) might be suitable.
When setting a frequency capping, it’s usually wise to put a frequency cap in any online advertising campaign, except for scenarios like remarketing or brand awareness campaigns where CTR isn’t the main focus.
Also, remember to pay attention to the viewability rate. The viewability rate measures an ad’s viewable impressions relative to its served impressions, indicating how often users see the ad compared to how frequently it’s displayed.
For instance, an ad positioned lower on a webpage may require scrolling to be seen. Without scrolling, the ad technically appears but isn’t viewed. Implementing lazy loading ensures ads load only when users scroll to their location on the page, improving actual visibility.
Alongside these, creative rotation is vital for optimizing ad and video campaigns. This practice involves varying the sequence and timing of ads shown to customers to maintain their interest. By showcasing different creative images at various times and frequencies, campaigns can sustain engagement over a more extended period before viewer interest declines
Final Thoughts
Armed with these insights, you have everything you need to tackle and overcome the challenges highlighted by the studies we presented at the beginning. By implementing effective frequency capping strategies, you can ensure your ads strike the right balance—capturing attention without overwhelming your audience—and ultimately build stronger customer connections.
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