Ad Frequency Cap

1. What is Ad Frequency Cap?

Controlling how often users see your ads is crucial for campaign success. Ad Frequency Cap limits how many times an ad is shown to a user within a set period. For example, setting a cap of "3 times per day" ensures no user sees the ad more than three times in 24 hours.

2. Why Does Ad Frequency Cap Matter?

a. Prevent Ad Fatigue
Excessive exposure can annoy users and reduce engagement. For instance, a car ad shown over 20 times in a week saw a 62% drop in CTR.

b. Improve Cost Efficiency
A beauty brand reduced its frequency cap from "unlimited" to "3 times per week," cutting cost per conversion by 27% while maintaining 92% of total conversions.

c. Expand Audience Reach
A news app increased its reach by 130% by reducing its frequency cap from 10 to 5 times per day.

3. How to Set an Effective Frequency Cap

a. Align with Campaign Goals

• Brand awareness: 7-10 times per week with creative variations.
• Conversions: 3-5 times per week.
• Promotions: Up to 5-7 times per week for short-term offers.

b. Manage User Lifecycle

• New users: Show ads 2-3 times within 72 hours after first exposure.
• Dormant users: Use a low-frequency strategy like 3 times per month.
• High-value users: Set custom rules with a DMP.

c. Adapt to Platform Characteristics

• In-feed ads: 3-5 times per day.
• Video pre-roll ads: Once per day.
• Splash ads: Strictly once per day.

4. Key Considerations

a. Segment Your Audience
An e-commerce platform raised frequency to 7 times per week for price-sensitive users while limiting it to 2 times per week for loyal customers, boosting CTR by 40%.

b. Use Dynamic Adjustment Models
Reduce ad exposure by 50% for users who haven’t clicked after three consecutive days.

c. Cross-Platform Control
Manage exposure across DSPs with monitoring tools to avoid overexposure.

d. Monitor Creative Fatigue
If CTR drops by 30%, reduce frequency or update the creative.

5. Advanced Strategies

Combining programmatic creative with dynamic frequency adjustment improves results. A travel platform reduced conversion costs by 22% by dynamically adjusting ad frequency based on real-time search terms like "island" or "visa." With dynamic creative assembly, they maintained the same frequency cap but achieved a 1.8x increase in CTR.

6. Summary

Ad Frequency Cap helps balance ad performance and user experience. Start with industry benchmarks, like 5-7 times per week for brand ads and 3-5 times per week for performance ads, then refine your strategy based on campaign data.

For simplified frequency management, XMP is a reliable tool to set caps, track performance, and refresh creative content.