Frequency Capping is a setting that allows you to limit the number of impressions per user per day for each individual Campaign. Manually adjusting this setting will limit the number of times your ads will appear to the same person in one day.
By default, Frequency Caps are automatically optimized by BidIQ®, AdRoll's powerhouse core engine. BidIQ® uses machine learning models and natural language processing to drive precise targeting, predictive bidding and budget optimizations; processing hundreds of variables for each and every user to determine whether or not to bid, and how much, at the time of each potential impression.
We strongly recommend using Automatic Frequency Capping to ensure optimal ad placement and pricing in real time.
Adjust your Campaign Frequency Capping
If you wish to proceed and set up a manual Frequency Capping for an individual Campaign:
- Log in to AdRoll and navigate to Campaigns on the left side menu.
- On the Web & Social page find the campaign that you want to adjust.
- Click ellipsis next to the campaign name and select Edit.
- On the campaign edit page, scroll down to Web Channel settings and click Edit.
- Click Advanced Options to expose Frequency Capping settings.
- Enter your number under 'Impressions per user per day'. Low-frequency caps below 10 can not be guaranteed.
- Click Save.
Best Practices
BidIQ is designed to optimize your campaign performance within the specific parameters you set based on your audience size: this includes balancing your budget and your performance goals.
If you're observing high ad frequency in your campaign, it's often a key indicator that one of two situations is occurring:
- Your budget might be too high relative to your target audience size. BidIQ will spend the allocated budget, and if there aren't enough unique users to reach, it will show ads to the same users more frequently.
- Your audience size might be too small relative to your budget. With a limited audience, BidIQ may repeatedly show ads to available users to meet your budget requirements.
When this happens, it's a good time to review your audience size. You might need to expand your audience targeting settings to reach more people or lower your budget so it aligns with the size of your existing audience.
FAQ
Why do my ads appear multiple times on the same page?
Occasionally, you may see multiple ads from your campaign appearing on a single webpage simultaneously. This is known as a "Page Takeover."
While this often occurs at random due to the structure of real-time bidding exchanges, our system utilizes BidIQ to evaluate every ad opportunity independently. If a page takeover occurs, it is generally because BidIQ has identified that specific user as having a very high probability of converting, or the context of the page is highly relevant to your business.
When a page takeover occurs, you effectively secure a monopoly on that high-value user's attention, preventing competitors from showing up on the same page. Even in these instances, you are typically only spending a fraction of a cent per impression, ensuring resources are not wasted.
Because ad exchanges operate in milliseconds and bids come from different sources, there is no technical way to guarantee this will never happen. However, we have strict frequency caps in place to ensure this is a rare occurrence. For the vast majority of your audience, ads will be shown at a normal frequency.