Digital Advertising: What Is Frequency Capping and Why Is It Important?
Today it has become quite normal for people to get bombarded with heaps of digital ads whenever they are surfing the web, watching videos, using Facebook or other online platforms, whether they want it or not. In fact, most people have been struck with some ads so often again and again that they actually become numb to the brands presenting those advertisements. And in this internet world, this is increasingly emerging as a serious problem. Presently users see this mostly happening on video streaming apps and platforms where they are being displayed the same ads repeatedly no matter which show or movie they choose to watch. Now this problem gives rise to a lot of questions, especially for digital advertisers. How many ads should you serve before they become annoying? Are you misspending your digital ads budget on too many impressions? All these questions are crucial to address for the advertisers. In this blog, not all the questions will be answered, but we will help you understand what frequency capping is and how you can utilize it for your benefit.
What Is Frequency Capping?
Ad frequency can be defined as how many times your ad is being displayed to a user within a given time period – days, weeks, or even months. Based on what you are advertising and where this product/service stands in your sales funnel or business lifecycle, the number of times your ad appears will be determined. Now how does this matter? Well, to begin with, no advertiser would want their ad to show up so often that it leads to ad fatigue. On the other hand, if your ad isn’t showing up frequently enough, then this can result in wasted ad placements and poor ad awareness. Frequency capping helps advertisers control the number of times their ad is displayed in front of a user. Most of the online platforms equip the advertisers with a great deal of control to manage their ad frequency at different levels in very simple ways.
Google Ads
Let’s start with the kingpin in online ads, Google Ads, the most used digital advertising platform. With Google Ads, the first main thing you need to note is that you can apply frequency capping to video and display campaigns only. Because the search campaigns are intent-based, we can’t control the number of times our ad shows up in front of an individual with just a simple frequency cap setting.
However, for video and display campaigns, the frequency capping is present in your campaign’s settings. Go to the settings tab and click on the additional settings. On clicking it, a dropdown menu will appear, scroll down, find and click the frequency capping option. Inside the frequency capping selector, you can select whether you want to set the limit yourself or let the Google algorithm take the reins on your behalf. While most people choose to allow Google to control it on their behalf, if you have rigid goals or would love to have the control in your own hands, then setting the frequency manually will be the ideal option for you.
Google Display & Video 360
Another popular in-demand Google marketing platform, Display & Video 360 or DV360, offers programmatic frequency capping for advertisers. When it comes to display and video ad placements, Google DV360 follows the same standards as Google Ads. However, there’s a little extension in regard to the list of things you can cap. Unlike Google Ads, you can control any inventory that you buy programmatically on the platform. Meaning DV360 enables advertisers to use frequency capping for different ad placements and offers various levels of frequency control. The DV360 contains an insertion order and line item level, and the insertion order encompasses the line item. Hence on a bigger scale, advertisers can restrict their ads to a particular amount of touchpoints per time unit, and then at the line item level, they can divide these touchpoints across their ads and types of audiences.
Frequency controls in Google Ads and DV360 are quite alike. There is just one difference between these two that there isn’t any automated feature in DV360 that can take control on your behalf. And another difference, which is perhaps the most prominent one, is the multiple levels of frequency control that Google’s DV360 offers (as we saw in the above section). Advertisers can generate numerous options that can fulfill their frequency requirements.
Amazon DSP
By this time, you must have understood it pretty well what frequency capping is and how you can control it on Google platforms. The Amazon DSP is very similar to Google Display & Video 360. You can control your frequency capping on two levels, and also there isn’t any automated aspect to take the reins for you, unlike Google Ads.
Last but not least is Facebook, the unique platform that either provides the digital advertisers with complete ad frequency control or leaves them entirely puzzled about controlling it.
Let’s begin with a simpler instance. If you select a frequency or reach the campaign, then Facebook will give you a list of options as “Reach and Frequency Balance,” including – Balanced Recommended (show ads only two times a week), Higher Reach (show ads only once a week), and Higher Frequency (show ads seven times a week). The platform offers a great combination of automated and manual selections. You will also have a hybrid selector at the last that will make your frequency cap a bit more dynamic.
However, if you decide to go with any other campaigns except reach and frequency ones, then the frequency capping will become a little complicated. Starting it in a simpler way, the size of your audience and ad budget will be the most significant elements impacting the overall frequency of your campaign. Having a small audience and a high ad budget will result in high ad frequency and vice versa. Meaning, in order to fine-tune your frequency, you can either decrease your ad budget or increase the size of your audience.
Conclusion
Today’s customers have a very short attention span, and when presented with the same ads repeatedly chances are they will get tired of them to the extent they start feeling disconnected with the company serving those ads. Of course, as a business owner, you wouldn’t want that to happen.
Frequency capping is that tool in a digital advertiser’s arsenal that can do wonders when utilized effectively. Depending on which platform you are running your ad on, setting the frequency capping can feel as easy as just assigning a time frame and then waiting for a while before you start seeing the results finally. It will help you get the best out of your digital advertising efforts without being too pushy in the eyes of your potential customers.