Delivery Settings

Delivery settings shape how, when, and how often a campaign's ads are shown. Dayparting picks the days and hours when ads run, and frequency capping limits how many times the same person sees an ad in a given window. Device, inventory, and optimization controls are platform-managed today.

API operations

Relationships

Delivery settings are configured on each campaign. Dayparting and frequency caps are set via the campaign settings object in create and update requests and via the dedicated settings sub-resource.
Geo and delivery are complementary. Geo selects the geographic audience; delivery controls how ads reach that audience.
Audience configuration (segments, retargeting) works alongside delivery settings. Audience defines who sees ads; delivery defines how they see them.
Delivery settings directly affect performance metrics. Frequency capping reduces impressions but improves engagement; dayparting concentrates spend during peak hours.

Key concepts

Dayparting
Time-of-day scheduling for ad delivery. Each day of the week has an array of hours (0-23) when ads should serve. Omitted or empty days have no delivery; null dayparting means ads deliver all hours.
Frequency Cap Unit
The time window for frequency capping: hourly (per hour), daily (per day), or weekly (per week). Most campaigns use daily capping.
CPM
Cost Per Mille (thousand impressions). The price paid for every 1,000 times an ad is shown.
Optimization Type
The algorithmic goal for ad delivery. Quality Impressions prioritizes viewability and brand safety; Traffic and Clicks prioritize user engagement.

Constraints

Rules to follow
  • Dayparting and frequency capping are available for internet, native, TV, and audio campaigns. Billboard campaigns do not support either.
  • Device, inventory, optimization, and CPM bidding are currently platform-managed. Direct API configuration will be available in a future version.

Platform-managed controls

Device targeting (PC, phone, tablet), inventory selection (web vs app), optimization type (quality impressions, traffic, clicks), and CPM bidding currently use platform defaults. Direct API configuration will be added in a future version.

URL patterns

Settings sub-resource endpoints follow the advertiser-scoped form /v1/advertisers/{advertiserId}/campaigns/{campaignId}/settings. Use this form for all GET and PUT calls against the settings sub-resource.

When building apps

Dayparting And Cap Starters
Dayparting works well starting with 8-12 hour windows and narrowing once performance data comes in. Restaurants typically weight lunch and dinner hours; B2B campaigns focus on weekday business hours; entertainment campaigns lean into evenings and weekends. Too-narrow dayparting reduces delivery volume and can cause under-spend. For frequency caps, brand awareness campaigns often run 3-5 daily impressions, retargeting campaigns use 1-2 per day to avoid fatigue, and direct response campaigns may use 5-7 per day. Omit frequencyCap entirely to allow unlimited impressions.