Frequency bid adjustments

Frequency bid adjustments update bid amounts for a user based on the number of impressions seen within the frequency cycle. A frequency range in a bid line specifies the minimum and maximum number of impressions to be shown to a user. Multiple bid adjustments for individual frequency ranges may be grouped to increase or decrease bidding for users who have seen an ad a certain number of times over a specified time period.

Here's what you need to know about frequency bid adjustments:

• Frequency bid adjustments can be used in conjunction with frequency caps to fine tune the ad group strategy.
• The bid list adjustment should be of type Optimized.
• Bid lists with multiple bid adjustments may have gaps between ranges.
• Any impressions that do not match the specified frequency ranges are treated as though their BidAdjustment is set to 1.
• To create a frequency range that extends to the lifetime maximum for a user, set the TimesShown.Max value to 2147483647.

IMPORTANT: To avoid unintentionally inflating bid prices, use frequency ranges that are sequential and do not overlap.

For example, if a bid list includes the following two overlapping frequency ranges within the same bid list, the final bid adjustment will be calculated as 3.5 for an impression that matches both ranges.

• 0-3 times per 1 week with a bid adjustment of 2
• 2-4 times per 1 month with a bid adjustment of 1.5

Creating bid lists with multiple frequency bid adjustments

To create a bid list with multiple frequency bid adjustments, use the POST /v3/frequency/config endpoint and do the following:

1. Create a counter in the frequency configuration with at least the AdvertiserId of the advertiser who owns the counter and the ResetIntervalInMinutes to specify the frequency cycle.
2. Create a bid list with the bid list adjustment of type Optimized, bid lines with the sequential max and min ranges, AdGroup as the BidListOwner, and other properties as shown in the following example.
3. To add the ad group in AssociatedAdGroups as an increment for this counter, set IncrementByAllEntitiesAssociatedWithBidLists to true.

For example, the following POST /v3/frequency/config request sample illustrates how to create a bid list with the following three frequency ranges and bid adjustments for a 4-week interval:

Here's a request example:

{
   "Counter":{
      "AdvertiserId":"advt1234",
      "ResetIntervalInMinutes":40320,
      "CounterName":"advt1234 Four Weeks"
   },
   "BidLists":[
      {
         "Name":"adgr1234 Four Week Frequency",
         "BidListOwner":"AdGroup",
         "BidListOwnerId":"adgr1234",
         "BidListAdjustmentType":"Optimized",
         "ResolutionType":"ApplyMultiplyAdjustment",
         "AssociatedAdGroups":[
            "adgr1234"
         ],
         "BidLines":[
            {
               "Range":{
                  "Min":0,
                  "Max":1
               },
               "BidAdjustment":1.75
            },
            {
               "Range":{
                  "Min":1,
                  "Max":5
               },
               "BidAdjustment":1.5
            },
            {
               "Range":{
                  "Min":5,
                  "Max":10
               },
               "BidAdjustment":1.25
            }
         ]
      }
   ],
   "IncrementByAllEntitiesAssociatedWithBidLists":true
}

The following tables explain the property values in the above request.

Counter properties

Bid list properties