Benefits of frequency capping in ad serving
                     Benefits of frequency capping in ad serving
John Z
Writes on Ad servers for publishers, involved with 
Adspeed advertising platform & Adspeed Ad serving 
software.
Advertising frequency refers to the number of times an ad shows to the same user 
in a given time period. Seeing the same ad more than one time can positively 
reinforce the advertising message in the audience’s mind. However, over-exposing 
or seeing the same ad again and again can then become annoying and result in low 
ad performance. The question is how many times or how often is the best option. 
Unfortunately, there is no single or exact answer as it depends on many factors 
including individual preferences, nature of advertised products, product lifecycle, 
and typical sales processes. However, it is safe to identify the extreme numbers, the 
outliers and avoid them. Additionally, ad performance reports can help determine a 
suitable frequency cap.
Frequency capping is an ad restriction to limit the number of times an ad can be 
viewed or clicked by the same person within an hour, day or month. Depending on 
the ad server, it might be just adding or applying a new restriction to the ad 
campaign.
Prevent ad blindness
Without frequency cap and no ad rotation, the same ad will be served 
again and again. That increases the probability of ad blindness, or ad 
fatigue, which basically means the viewers will learn to ignore the ad. 
This behavior results in a lower click-through rate and wastes ad space 
that could be used to display other ads. If you have a frequency cap or 
multiple ads rotating at the same ad location, it will help deliver fresh 
content and reduce ad blindness. Ultimately, frequency capping helps 
improve click-through rates.
Reduce negative effect of irrelevant or low-quality ads
If the viewers dislike an ad because it just keeps showing up even 
though it is not relevant to their interests, it will be difficult to make 
them become interested in your other ads at the same ad placement. 
Having a reasonable frequency cap will ensure that there is no single ad 
that can have an outsized negative impact. If a user likes an ad, it is likely 
they will click or interact with it within the first couple showings.
Reach new viewers
The number of ad impressions do not always tell the whole story. You 
can have the same viewer for many impressions with a low response 
rate or you can have more viewers and more chances to click with the 
audience. With a suitable frequency cap, the same viewer gets to see 
different ads and you get to display more ads to more viewers. With 
more ad pairings, the ad server has more data to optimize the ads even 
further so that better performing ads can continue to get higher click-
thru rates. It is a win-win situation for all parties involved.
Save money and increase ROI
You know you should not put all your eggs in one basket. If an ad 
campaign is priced on impressions, showing again and again to an 
uninterested audience is the wrong move. Many impressions but few 
click-throughs and few conversions means a low return-on-investment. 
Those impressions are just wasted impressions and will run up your ad 
spending without delivering a decent ROI. It is better to have a 
frequency cap so that impressions can be displayed to more people and 
get a better ROI. Additionally, having happy advertisers and rewarding 
high performance ads with more chances to show mean more future ad 
campaigns and better ad pricing.
About Adspeed
AdSpeed ad server is a reliable & powerful ad serving and ad 
management solution that serves your ads, tracks impressions & clicks 
and reports ad statistics in real-time. Driven by the latest ad serving 
technologies, the goal of Adspeed adserver is to provide a reliable 
platform that can help in executing online advertising strategy more 
efficiently. 
Thank you for spending your precious time in reading this article.