Frequency capping
Encyclopedia
Frequency capping is a term in advertising
that means restricting (capping) the number of times (frequency) a specific visitor to a website
is shown a particular advertisement
. This restriction is applied to all websites that serve ads from the same advertising network
.
Frequency capping is a feature within ad serving
that allows to limit the maximum number of impressions/views a visitor can see a specific ad within a period of time. For e.g.: 3 views/visitor/24-hours means after viewing this ad 3 times, any visitor will not see it again for 24 hours. This feature uses cookies
to remember the impression count.
Frequency capping is often cited as a way to avoid banner burnout, the point where visitors are being overexposed and response drops. This may be true for campaigns of a direct-response nature measured by click-throughs, but it might run counter to campaigns of a brand-building nature measured by non-click activity.
Advertising
Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
that means restricting (capping) the number of times (frequency) a specific visitor to a website
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
is shown a particular advertisement
Advertising
Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
. This restriction is applied to all websites that serve ads from the same advertising network
Advertising network
An online advertising network or ad network is a company that connects advertisers to web sites that want to host advertisements. The key function of an ad network is aggregation of ad space supply from publishers and matching it with advertiser demand...
.
Frequency capping is a feature within ad serving
Ad serving
Ad serving describes the technology and service that places advertisements on web sites. Ad serving technology companies provide software to web sites and advertisers to serve ads, count them, choose the ads that will make the website or advertiser most money, and monitor progress of different...
that allows to limit the maximum number of impressions/views a visitor can see a specific ad within a period of time. For e.g.: 3 views/visitor/24-hours means after viewing this ad 3 times, any visitor will not see it again for 24 hours. This feature uses cookies
HTTP cookie
A cookie, also known as an HTTP cookie, web cookie, or browser cookie, is used for an origin website to send state information to a user's browser and for the browser to return the state information to the origin site...
to remember the impression count.
Frequency capping is often cited as a way to avoid banner burnout, the point where visitors are being overexposed and response drops. This may be true for campaigns of a direct-response nature measured by click-throughs, but it might run counter to campaigns of a brand-building nature measured by non-click activity.