Frequency cap
A delivery limit that stops one person from being served the same campaign too many times within a day, week, or month.
See it
What it is
A frequency cap limits how many times one person can be served an ad during a chosen period, such as three impressions per week. It is a delivery rule, not a performance metric. Frequency reports the average number of impressions per reached person; the cap sets a ceiling where the platform and campaign type support one.
Reach for it when the audience is small, the campaign runs for a long time, or repeated exposure is raising costs and complaints without adding results. Google Ads exposes it on Display and Video campaigns as a limit per user per day, week, or month, which is why a YouTube preroll can be told to stop after the third viewing. It is especially useful for retargeting and awareness buys where the same pool can see the creative again and again.
Gotcha: there is no universal perfect cap. One impression can be too little for an unfamiliar offer, while ten can feel relentless for a tiny retargeting list. Identity is also imperfect across browsers and devices, so a cap is a control, not a promise that every human sees the ad exactly that many times.
Ask AI for it
Configure a Google Ads Display campaign frequency cap for [campaign], using [maximum impressions] per user per [day, week, or month]. State the audience size, campaign length, creative count, current frequency, CTR, CPA, and complaint or hide rate used to choose the limit. Add a weekly review rule: rotate creative when frequency rises while CTR falls, loosen the cap only when reach is healthy and conversions remain efficient, and tighten it when repeated delivery adds cost without results. Return the exact setting, rationale, dashboard fields, and rollback condition.