Frequency capping: an important metric in online advertising that is often overlooked

Frequency capping: an important metric in online advertising that is often overlooked or ad serving frequency, is one of the important factors when planning, managing, and analyzing ad campaigns. This metric is among the key in online advertising, but not only. It is also used in radio, television, outdoor advertising and many other media.

Broadcast frequency determines how often your ad is aired / displayed to a unique user. This is one of the important metrics against which ad performance is measured.

Frequency depends on the media, ad placement, credit, the context in which it is aired, the budget you have, and many other factors. Different media channels have different values ​​to determine ad performance. We will pay attention to internet advertising. The standard that is often given is 3 user views per campaign period.

Many years of research have shown that the optimum frequency with which your user is good at seeing an ad while completing its user experience is between 5 and 15. Unfortunately, with most advertising campaigns we, the frequency is either too low, or too high. What does this mean:

LOW FREQUENCY

For low frequency, we accept the display of up to 2-3 times the ad per unique user. In this case it can be said that it is not effective. In a busy day, users are super overloaded with ad content. They can’t easily and quickly comprehend one-time-seen creatives.

Avoid such frequency, especially if your advertising campaign is not accompanied by other media channels. Of course, if you have a television, radio, or other form of advertising in parallel that is more aggressive than an online campaign, in this case you can afford a lower frequency, but again carefully.

Exceptions to the rule:

Like any other thing, there are exceptions. If you have enough budget and can allow for non-standard formats, then just one broadcast per user is sufficient. Such formats are, for example, a large part of the so-called rich media formats. They appear in an extremely aggressive form, often before the site is loaded and users are required to look, if not all, at least part of the advertisement. Think back to the classic Super Bowl ads, which are often only broadcast once, but what a job they do.

Low frequency causes:

There are various reasons for the low frequency in the online space and here we will list some of the most common:

• Lack of targeting – a classic form of omission that we still see in many campaigns. Running a general campaign rotation without clearly targeting audiences practically targets the entire market and all consumers. There are few brands that need such a wide reach of their advertising. If you need to reach 4-5 million users in Bulgaria with one campaign, it is normal for most of them to have a super low or no ad serving rate.
• Low budget for the campaign – If you have a low budget and need to irradiate a large region with many users, then your ad partially reaches them. Always consider the funds you will invest in advertising with the performance you expect in terms of audience coverage. If necessary, limit the reach of your targeting groups to only those who are the most prominent users of the brand or are most likely to buy. You can also limit it based on territorial scope and a number of other metrics. This will work with fewer users, but you will be more efficient.
• High Ad Cost – Consider how much you would pay on platforms like Google Ads and Facebook Ads for a single broadcast of your ad, and how much you would pay in a direct deal with a premium publisher. It’s normal to want to position your ad in a better environment, it costs more – often, much more. If with a CPC campaign for the same Google Ads audience, you can show your ad 20 times to potential customers, but on less-than-good sites and in positions that aren’t nearly as visible, place your banner in the visible part of a site like investor.bg, for example, is normally worth several times more.
• Neglect – oh yes. Admittedly, especially in an online environment where betting on a campaign requires knowledge, time, resources, and constant monitoring, this is also a common reason why your ad does not show enough times.
• Misunderstanding – if it is not included in the media plan, should the campaigner set a frequency for it?
• Poor database in the ad platform – it may sound weird to you considering the super-tech platforms that digital marketers work with, but insufficient cookies can also cause your ad frequency to be low. For example, if you run a campaign programmer and you don’t have enough data in individual micro campaigns, you might get low coverage for your audience, even if you have enough budget.
• The way the platform works – Most platforms love to broadcast ads to those who would convert the most. This is even more true if you have set up CPC or conversion campaigns. In this case, other non-cookie users remain isolated.
• Viewability – a metric that is still very little talked about in Bulgaria. Generally speaking – your ad aired, but was it viewed? If you look at the data from the programmatic platforms, you find that at least 50% of the ad is invisible or slightly invisible. Often the viewability metrics are only 20-30%, and if it doesn’t work on the theme, they will remain so, and with that you will have a low real frequency.

HIGH FREQUENCY

This annoying ad – this is the effect of the frequent repetition of the ad. This is also the most common reason why many users dislike ads and strive to avoid them. High frequency is not good for consumers and the market as a whole. If several brands seize the online space and every second advertisement is theirs, it means that this market is not solvent.

Exceptions:

The exceptions are the desire of some brands to aggressively and quickly enter a market and have an advantage over competition. Often, such a strategy is not profitable in the short term in terms of returns, but it works in the long term – consumers remember your name and you are the undisputed leader in the field. Subsequently, you may limit your ads because you have already achieved what is desired by every marketer – your brand is specific to the category.
However,

if you are planning such a strategy, consider at least several hundred thousand a month for online advertising in Bulgaria alone.

High Frequency Reasons:

• You didn’t bet frequency capping – a super elementary explanation, but these are the facts. Thus, the platform broadcasts advertising to those who can buy the cheapest.
• Budget – oh yes. Each advertiser is asked to work with a budget that allows him to have an unlimited frequency of his messages. Sounds nice, but it’s a problem. There are brands (mostly international) that have to invest a certain budget in the country concerned. Ask the Foodpanda people
• Low price thresholds – The cost of internet advertising in Bulgaria is still significantly lower than in many other countries, even among the lowest in Europe according to IAB data. This allows some brands to campaign more aggressively. There are also a number of sites that are not attractive to most advertisers and are also targeted by a large number of impressions for the same ad campaign, which can be a problem for certain audiences.
• Low cost pressure– If you have too much optimization for your campaign and have set low CPM thresholds in parallel, it may be possible for your ad to appear at a high frequency to a specific audience. This is often the case with sites with a more controversial reputation. In this case, however, you should be aware that you are very likely to target a super limited group of users.
• Highly Restricted Audience –There are brands that target more limited audiences. These are often brands operating in the B2B segment. In this case, the ad frequency needs to be slightly higher than the standard frequency.
• Unequal distribution of advertising across the platform – most platforms work in a way that causes some users to receive a huge number of impressions and others quite limited. You, as an advertiser, see the average sample, but you can’t make a conclusion about how many ads are broadcast and how little. If you want more accurate data and a more accurate distribution of your advertising campaigns, we recommend using some of the programmatic platforms where you can manage similar metrics.
• Direct Deals with Publishers – If you have direct deals with publishers, not through programmatic platforms, you cannot control how often ads are broadcast. You may think that the audience on site X is different from that on site Y, but these are just assumptions that you often find to be incorrect. If you combine them with advertising on platforms like Google Ads, things can get out of hand (at least in frequency).
• You use multiple DSP platforms – the ad-savvy industry knows that different data providers in the online space use different metrics to group and analyze audiences. Thus, if you have concurrent campaigns that go through 2 or more DSPs, you may find yourself working with the same audiences and significantly increasing the frequency of your ad in front of them.

How do you measure the frequency of your ad?

Total Impressions / Reach = Frequency

Our recommendation as marketers:

• Alwaysbudget frequency capping in your online campaigns;
• Track data from Multichannel Paths in Google Analytics. There you will get a clear idea of ​​how often people visit your site before making a purchase and what paths they go through.
• Monitor the development of your online campaigns on a daily basis and make changes as needed.

Well, whenever you need, you can also look for someone like us to help you.