This is the first part in a series on The Basics of Online Advertising. I’ll be posting a new entry each week for the next four or five weeks.
What is Frequency Capping?
Frequency capping is the act of placing a restriction on an advertising campaign that mandates that are particular user only see an ad a fixed number of times over a given period. This usually takes the form of impressions/day/user (or impressions/hour/user). In an ad serving system this will show up in two ways:
- Frequency Cap: X Impressions / Y Hours
- Frequency Cap: X Impressions / Y Days
The X and Y in these settings are usually variables. The Y tends to have predefined drop downs in the interface like 12 hours, 24 hours, 36 hours or 1 day, 2 days, 3 days.
It is common to refer to frequency caps at one per day as the “tightest” cap. Increasing the frequency is referred to as “loosening” the frequency cap. These phrases are common in the industry.
In a typical RTB transaction there’s a user ID, pulled from the user’s cookie or some form of server side system, which is passed to the DSP from the SSP. That ID is, in most cases, the DSPs record locator for the user’s information. Most DSPs have a server side data store where this information is housed, updated and augmented from a variety of sources including data companies like Blue Kai and Excelate and their ilk. DSPs may also be collecting and distilling information based on bid request activity from that user (although most SSPs put language into the contracts governing the use of this “bid stream” data) or retargeting data gathered for their customers. This type of data system is generally referred to as a Data Management Platform (DMP) in the industry. While there are some stand-alone DMPs out there, more and more DSPs are integrating or building their own.
Bernhard Glock of Medialink, who was not on the panel, but chimed in with a profound thought. Buying on television is buying something that’s familiar, with seemingly known or at least comfortable impact and expectations on results. By contrast, buying online display is a complete mystery. His solution, just buy on television because that’s what he understands.
