How to Manage Your Ad Frequency and Ad Schedule?
This post is also available in:
PT
How can you spot a fake marketing expert? We’ll share a simple trick with you.
Ask for advice on how to schedule an ad campaign correctly. Also, make sure to inquire about the recommended frequency. Okay, it’s not a tricky question, but wait for it!
If your counterpart confidently tells you the exact number of days and explains how to set the perfect frequency, that’s a huge red flag! Now you know you’re dealing with an amateur.
But what would a real expert say?
To help us out, we’ve invited our Head of the Affiliate Department, Konstantin Volkov, who has generously agreed to join us today.
What is an Ad Frequency?
Ad frequency is the number of times your ad is shown to each user. You can find this setting in the “Campaigns” tab when creating a new campaign.
Why should you manage frequency?
“Apart from the obvious reasons, such as ‘banner blindness,’ which has become a buzzword, and the importance of user experience, frequency allows you to gauge traffic quality, monitor the effectiveness of creatives, and A/B test your campaigns,” says Konstantin.
Let’s explore what you can do with this seemingly ordinary tool.
- Gauge the traffic quality
Once you have a new offer or product, it’s a good idea to run a test campaign with a frequency of 1/24 for about a week. After this time, you’ll have a better sense of which zones are converting, whether your targeting settings are effective, and you’ll be able to create white and blacklists. Testing traffic with frequency limitations also saves money for future campaigns because you won’t have to spend money on traffic from zones that don’t deliver results.
Note! Sometimes advertisers user specific strategies, setting even lower frequency. Read more: Advanced Retargeting Strategy for Onclick Popunder
What if you run these test campaigns for less than a week? You’ll end up with unreliable statistics that will undermine your research efforts.
- A/B test your campaigns
Konstantin recommends testing campaigns with different frequency settings. “The goal is to determine whether frequency affects the conversion rate of this specific product campaign with these exact targeting settings. It’s a logical second step after assessing the traffic quality and creating white- and blacklists,” he adds.
There is no universal formula; ad frequency is something you have to experiment with. There are many targeting options that, when combined with frequency, could affect the click-through rate (CTR) and conversion rate. One of the most effective campaign settings is the newly launched user activity targeting, which can help you achieve your goals.
For example, if you target the high user activity group, which consists of users who are more active and engaged, you might not need to set the frequency too high because they are active and click anyway. Even 1/24 might be enough. Alternatively, consider the Low group, who are selective about ads. Campaigns with a frequency of 1/24 might fail to leave a lasting impression on this jaded audience. They need to be reminded about the offer a few more times.
Note: User activity targeting also helps extend the life of your creatives.
That was just one example. There are so many targeting options that experimentation and thorough analysis are practically obligatory to find the right combinations.
- Monitor the effectiveness of your creatives
Creatives are closely related to the previous point, A/B testing. However, this topic is important enough to discuss separately.
“Ads have a shelf life; Popunder ads can remain effective for a longer time, while Push Notification ads are more like “disposable tableware” and have to be constantly changed.”
The lifespan of your ads depends on the format you choose, aside from the frequency. We’ve analyzed prior years’ data to show the frequency that usually delivers the highest click-through rates (CTRs) and how often you need to recycle your creatives. Creatives are closely related to the previous point — A/B testing — but this aspect is definitely worth discussing separately.
| Format | Popunder | Push Notifications | Native Interstitials |
|---|---|---|---|
| Frequency | 3/24 | 1/24 | 2/24 |
| When to change creatives | Once in 3-4 months | Twice a week | Once in 1-2 months |
*User activity groups are not taken into consideration
Konstantin addresses one of the most common cases. “Sometimes I come across questions about frequency from people running campaigns on push notifications. They complain about the effectiveness and tell me that they’ve tested every combination of frequency and other targeting settings, but nothing works. I start digging and checking every detail.
What I usually find out is actually on the surface — advertisers just keep the same creatives for several months. Whoa! Imagine customers receiving the same push notification two or three times a day, every week. It’s like a Groundhog Day reboot.”
The higher the frequency of push notifications, the faster your ads burn out. If you want your campaigns to perform well, have several variations of your creatives in stock.
How do you set the frequency for retargeting campaigns?
While setting up the retargeting campaign, bear in mind that you are dealing with a more “valuable” audience. These people are prospects, so you don’t want to deter them from making a purchase. They are already interested, so there’s no need to “bombard” them with ads. Your goal here is to provide a reminder.
- If you are returning them to the same landing page, opt for a lower frequency.
- Do you have something new to offer, such as a special promotion or an attractive discount? Increase the frequency, but don’t exceed three times in 24 hours.
Frequency and Verticals. Are there any specifics?
Contrary to popular belief, frequency is not vertical-specific.
Increasing the frequency won’t help you reach more people interested in dating, nor will it convince someone to install the app.
“I can’t say that the vertical really affects the frequency. Rather than speculating on what might work, you should focus on finding the right combination for your campaigns,” adds Konstantin.
How to manage your ad schedule?
Ad scheduling, also called dayparting, is a feature that allows you to pause ad campaigns on specific days or during specific hours.
The Schedule menu can be found in the Campaigns tab when creating a new campaign.
Analyzing your stats
As with frequency, you first have to test and observe. Run a campaign 24/7 without excluding days or hours, and collect statistics to identify trends and patterns. Once you have the minimum necessary data, you may notice some peculiarities. A two-week test would provide more information, but not everyone has that much time.
Begin with the basics. For example, consider the time of day. For example, if your reach is lower at night but maximum in the afternoon, exclude night hours. In this chart, for example, you can see the number of conversions per hour.
Over time, as you accumulate more data, you can exclude certain days of the week. For example, you may notice a consistent drop on Mondays over several weeks. Maybe it’s time to exclude Mondays.
For example, here’s the chart featuring the number of conversions per day:
You ran a campaign for two weeks, achieving a total of 100,000 impressions. Here are the results you got:
- Monday – 5k clicks – 100 conversions
- Wednesday – 5k clicks – 300 conversions
- Friday – 10k clicks – 150 conversions.
Even though that’s a very general and vague example, you get the idea.”
In other words, any change you implement must be based on solid statistics and research. Otherwise, you risk jumping into solutions and making hasty decisions. Ad scheduling is a way to cut expenses and earn more by increasing ROI — you save money by limiting spending.
Schedule & Verticals
Are there any interconnections between the ad schedule and verticals? “Certainly,” says Konstantin, “but you have to be really careful here. I can’t emphasize this enough: experiment and test. There are no ready solutions.”
Depending on the product’s specifics, we can see certain patterns. For instance, dating offers usually receive more attention at night, financial products perform well during working hours, and software promos are more of a 24/7 product. While this is a general trend seen across most GEOs, there’s no guarantee that your product will perform the same way.
The impact of seasonality
No secret here – right timing can make your campaigns more effective. Scheduling your ads according to seasonal demand, popular holidays and events is essential to amplify the effect of your creatives.
For example, eCommerce advertisers should keep in mind the last posting date during the Christmas holidays, which is usually the 20th or 21st of December, depending on the mail service provider. All kinds of night promos would get the most traction during Ramadan in Middle Eastern countries.
Online activity usually drops in summer as people prefer to spend time outdoors. It slowly grows again in autumn, reaching its peak in November and December.
After you’ve read all this
After reading this long post, we hope you won’t take the frequency or ad schedule lightly and set a random one. As you’ve just read, these tools are powerful enough to make or break your campaign.
Do you still have questions? Great! We would be more than happy to answer. Please leave your feedback or questions in the comment section below.
Trends
View more posts