Audience (Cookie) Duration

What is a cookie duration?

Your cookie duration describes the set amount of time that a visitor will exist within the defined segment. Each time a new unique visitor comes to your site, your AdRoll Pixel will cookie the user and add them to one of your segments. For example, if you have built a shopping cart segment and a customer lands on this page, that customer will be cookied and placed in the shopping cart segment.

As you begin setting up your campaign's segments, you will want to decide how long you would like that segment of your audience to see your ads. You can set the cookie durations from 1 to 180 days when creating a segment.

What should I set as my cookie duration?

AdRoll recommends a cookie duration of 90 days for most segments; however; there are a couple factors you will want to take into account. Longer cookie durations expose the same ads to the same audience for an extended period of time and can quickly lead to creative fatigue. If you have longer cookie windows, you will want to cycle in fresh creative more often (ideally every four to six weeks). Conversely, shorter cookie durations need less frequent creative refreshes, as the audience changes more quickly. You may also want to take your sales cycle into consideration when deciding on a cookie duration.

Can I edit my segment’s cookie duration?

You have two options when it comes to adjusting duration on your segments. You can edit the segment directly, or you can make a duplicate of the segment with a different duration. We recommend going with the latter option as it ultimately gives you more flexibility in working with your audience.