Understanding and Updating Your Email Sending Frequency

Overview

In this article, you’ll learn about 'Sending Frequency' settings which allow you to limit the number of emails a contact can receive within a set time window. This is a great way to prevent your subscribers from receiving too many emails at once if you have several active automations or newsletter campaigns running.

Here are a few benefits of setting up a Frequency Cap:

1. Reduce unsubscribe rates: When recipients receive emails too frequently, they often become overwhelmed and annoyed. This can lead to higher unsubscribe rates. Frequency capping helps reduce the likelihood of recipients unsubscribing from your email list, allowing you to retain more subscribers.
   
   
2. Improve engagement: By limiting the number of emails sent to each recipient, you can focus on sending relevant and valuable content. This can lead to improved open rates, click-through rates, and overall engagement with your emails.
   
   
3. Maintain your sender reputation: Inbox providers monitor the sending behavior of email marketers to determine their sender reputation. Sending excessive emails to recipients who do not engage can negatively impact your reputation. Frequency capping helps maintain a positive sender reputation, which is crucial for email deliverability.

About Sending Frequency

When an email message has your frequency cap enabled, AdRoll will automatically check to see if contacts on the list to receive the message have received another message from you recently. If a contact has received another message from you recently, they will be skipped from receiving the current message.

Here are some things to keep in mind when enabling or adjusting your sending frequency:

1. Your sending frequency defaults to 8 hours but this can be changed at any time in your Settings.
   
   
2. Your sending frequency time window applies to all email campaign types including Newsletters, Automated Emails, and Recipes but can be disabled at any time on a per-campaign basis.
   
   
3. Messages skipped due to sending frequency are automatically postponed. AdRoll will check the skipped contacts based on your sending frequency set and attempt to send the email message again. If a contact has still received an email too recently, they will not receive the message. 
   
   
   • Example: If an email is postponed and your sending frequency is set to 8 hours, AdRoll will attempt to send the message to contacts who were skipped 8 hours after the original message was sent.
     
     
4. Currently, it’s not possible to resend a message to a contact who was skipped due to sending frequency.

Change Your Sending Frequency Time Window

As mentioned, your sending frequency will default to 8 hours. To change this time window, simply take the following steps:

1. Navigate to your Settings by clicking the gear icon in the bottom left of your screen.
   
   
2. Under the Email Marketing section, click on the tab called Sending Frequency.
   
   
3. Update the number of hours and click Save. You’ll have the option to restore your default settings at any time if desired.
   
   

Disable Sending Frequency Cap for a Message

Newsletters

Your sending frequency cap is enabled by default for all Newsletter campaigns as a best practice. 

1. In Step 1 of the campaign builder, you have the option to select your inclusion and exclusion audiences.
2. You can also choose to toggle your sender frequency cap to off, which means AdRoll will no longer skip recently emailed contacts.
3. Click Save to update this step with any changes.

Automated Emails

Your sending frequency cap is enabled by default for all your Automated Email workflows, with the exception of the first email in the sequence. This is because automated emails are highly relevant and timely emails often triggered by contact activity on your website.

1. In Step 3 of creating an Automated Email flow, you’ll see all the emails in the sequence.
   
   
2. To edit your sending frequency cap for an individual message, click the three dots on the card. Then select the Sending Frequency option from the dropdown of actions.
   
   
   
   
3. This will open a flyout where you can choose to toggle to enable or disable your sending frequency cap.
   
   
   
4. Click to Save your changes.

Recipes

Your sending frequency cap is enabled by default for all your Recipes, with the exception of the first email in the sequence. This is because automations are highly relevant and timely emails often triggered by contact activity on your website.

1. Once you navigate to the Recipes tab and open a Recipe, you’ll see the emails within the sequence.
2. To edit an individual message, click the three dots on the card and click Edit in the dropdown of actions.
   
   
   
3. A flyout will open to edit your email. In the Sending Frequency section, toggle your frequency cap to disable or enable.