On Affise, you can limit the number of impressions, clicks, conversions, or budget (payouts) an offer can get. The reasons for limitation may be different: CPC model of payment, prevention of fraudulent activities and click spamming, CR control, etc. You can also manage traffic when the cap is reached by using the Overcap feature.
You can use the following cap types:
Impressions
Clicks
Conversions
Payouts
🔎 Impressions cap can be useful if you work with Appsflyer campaigns. You may encounter situations where Appsflyer considers a large increase in impressions suspicious, and it blocks them, although this behavior is normal for your campaign. Setting the limit on impressions can help you deal with it.
The reasons to use the Click cap may be different: CPC model of payment, prevention of fraudulent activities and click spamming, CR control, etc. Within multi-geo offers, marketers prefer to distribute and limit traffic to varying degrees according to the user's geo. All these measures help reach the target audience with higher precision.
Cap settings
To see the Cap feature, go to Offers > a certain offer > Caps:
where:
Timeframe: shows a period of time when the system enables the cap option.
hour: it correlates with the impression/click/conversion creation time. It's calculated for an hour according to the timezone you set up for caps. The system resets it at 00:00, 01:00, 02:00, etc.
If you set up a cap rule at 15:45, the system turns it back to zero at 16:00. But the cap counts all clicks/conversions come from 15:00 to 16:00 (for the whole hour). If you don't have the timezone for caps, the system uses the general timezone set up in Settings.
The Hour cap feature is available only for certain plans. Contact your Affise account manager to get the feature.
day: it correlates with the impression/click/conversion creation date. It’s calculated for 24 hours according to the timezone you set up for caps, and its reset occurs at midnight. If you don't have the timezone for caps, the system uses the general timezone set up in Settings.
month: the system calculates it for a calendar month. Even if you set up the cap on 15.11, the system calculates it from 01.11 to 30.11, and resets it again on 01.12.
all: total cap. The system calculates it for the entire time when the offer receives the traffic.
⚠️ Click and Impression Cap for Timeframe=All cannot be set up.
Type: value by which you limit the cap.
conversions: number of conversions limits the cap.
payouts: sum of conversions’ payouts limits the cap. If there’s a currency of EUR in the payout offer settings, the system makes the cap calculation in EUR.
If I have a cap rule for payouts for several selected affiliates, the payouts will be spread the following way.
Each of the selected affiliates should have conversions for 100 USD. Cap will be reached when affiliate №2 will have conversions for 100 USD and when affiliate №5253 will have conversions for 100 USD as well.
clicks: number of clicks limits the cap.
impressions: number of impressions limits the cap.
💰 The clicks and impressions cap's types are available only for certain plans. Contact your Affise account manager to get them.
Value: actual limit’s measure.
Sub account: use it to limit the number of clicks or conversions according to a certain sub2 value.
Disabled: you don't use the parameter.
Sub2: a certain sub2 values, which the cap rule works with.
⚠️ Keep in mind the following peculiarities:
You can use the following symbols: (a-z A-Z), numbers (0-9), and these symbols: -,._{}+=/:~.
You should delimit values by a comma without spaces.
If you enter several values, the cap is reached once there are enough clicks/conversions for each value.
You can't save the offer if you select the "sub2" option, but don't select any values.
💰 The Sub account cap feature is available only for certain plans. Contact your Affise account manager to get the feature.
Goal: use it to determine when the cap’s limit is reached. It may be:
all: totally for all goals.
each: for each offer’s goal.
select: for a specific goal value.
If there is the Goal value only, the system shows it in the dropdown list. If there are both Goal value and Goal title, the system shows the Goal title only. If there is a personal payout with a specific goal, the system shows it for a certain affiliate.
Country: is a country for which you specify the cap. It works for each type of cap.
all: totally for all countries in the world.
each: for each country.
select: certain country (might be several ones).
Affiliate: is an affiliate for which you specify the cap.
all: for all affiliates who have access to the offer.
each: for each affiliate enabled to the offer:
if an offer’s privacy level is Public, for each affiliate with the Active status.
if an affiliate isn’t disabled from the offer or the advertiser.
select: only for selected in a rule affiliate(-s).
🔎 Once you choose several countries or affiliates (Country=Each/Select; Affiliate=Each/Select), the system applies the limit to each country/affiliate separately. It means if you set a cap rule for 1000 conversions and choose two countries, USA and Canada, your affiliate can send 1000 conversions from the USA and 1000 conversions from Canada. If you choose two different affiliates, each of them can send 1000 conversions.
There are additional fields:
Overcap: allows managing traffic flow when the cap is reached. Read more here.
Default goal overcap: allows managing traffic flow when the desired goal is reached. Read more here.
Hide caps in partner interface: allows you to hide cap rules in the Affiliate panel.
Timezone: is a timezone for which you select the cap. Select the timezone of conversions/clicks calculating.
Conversion status for caps count: allows you to set up conversions' statuses for caps. It works for all cap periods and types. You can also find this option in Settings > Tracking and Trafficback. Settings set up in the offer have priority over the settings in the section Settings > Tracking and Trafficback.
🔎 You can manage caps via API. Read more about it here.
Overcap
Overcap is a feature that allows you to manage traffic flow when the cap is reached.
How it works:
If the Overcap checkbox is ON, the system redirects clicks to the Trafficback URL once the cap is reached.
If the Overcap checkbox is OFF, the system declines conversions with the comment [Cap is reached] once the cap is reached.
⚠️ Overcap option (enabled or not) does not affect traffic distribution once it comes to Click/Impressions Cap.
Overcap works only if the Goal=All. If you choose the Goal=Each/Select, the system doesn't redirect clicks to the Trafficback URL once the cap is reached. The offer still accepts the incoming traffic, but the system declines the conversions on the clicks, accepted over the limit, automatically with the comment [Cap is reached]. It happens because the system cannot determine the goal value on the incoming click level.
⚠️ You cannot save the offer with the selecter Overcap checkbox, but with no cap rule.
Overcap for impressions
Overcap for impressions is a feature that allows you to manage impressions when the cap is reached.
⚠️ The feature is available only for certain plans. Contact your Affise account manager to get the feature.
How it works:
If the Overcap for impressions checkbox is ON and the cap for impressions is reached, the system doesn't record impressions and:
If there is no Trafficback URL, it sends clicks to the Disabled page.
If there is a Trafficback URL, it sends clicks to the Trafficback URL.
In case the limit for clicks is not reached (once the related caps rule is added at the caps level), the reached cap for impressions has more priority. The system doesn't record clicks according to the above mentioned flow.
If the Overcap for impressions checkbox is ON and the cap for clicks is reached, the system doesn't record impressions and:
If there is no Trafficback URL, it sends clicks to the Disabled page.
If there is a Trafficback URL, it sends clicks to the Trafficback URL.
In case the limit for impressions is not reached (once the related caps rule is added at the caps level), the reached cap for clicks has more priority. The system doesn't record impressions according to the above mentioned flow.
If the Overcap for impressions checkbox is OFF, the system sends clicks to the offer page. Conversions over the cap will be declined.
Overcap for impressions works only if the Goal=All.
⚠️ You cannot save the offer with the selected Overcap for impression checkbox, but with no cap rule.
Default overcap
Default goal overcap feature allows you to manage traffic flow when the desired goal is reached.
You can use it if you want to receive traffic only for one goal, and send the rest of traffic to Trafficback by rules set up for Trafficback and its priority (read more about Trafficback).
⚠️ You must select the Overcap checkbox to choose the default goal.
In the Default goal overcap field, you see the goals according to goal values and goal titles you set up in the general payouts:
If you set both goal value and goal title, you see goal title in the dropdown menu.
If you set only the goal value, you see this goal value here.
Default Goal Cap work depends on the rules already set in the offer. When the cap is reached, the system redirects the traffic to the Trafficback regardless of the goal users want to perform.
⚠️ Keep in mind the following peculiarities:
The only case when you can see conversions registered as Declined with the comment [Cap is reached], when the system creates a conversion for the old click. It means the affiliate sends a click to the offer, the system creates a conversion, but the postback for it comes after the Default Goal Cap is reached.
Mind the cache, which takes about one minute. Each rule has its cache: after reaching the first cap, the first cache works, after reaching the second cap, the second cache works. There can be a time gap between two caps, depending on the order of the cap reaching.
Discern the difference between Affiliate=Each/All and Affiliate=Select.
In the case of Affiliate=Select, after reaching Default Goal Cap rule, the traffic of the selected affiliate goes to Trafficback. Traffic from other affiliates goes to the offer. If there is the bigger cap rule for other affiliates for Goal=All/Each after reaching it, the traffic goes to the Trafficback.
In the case of Affiliate=All/Each, after reaching the Default Goal Cap, the traffic of all affiliates goes to Trafficback regardless of the goal users want to perform. The Overcap works for all affiliates and any goals.
🔎 You can set up Default Goal Cap via API. Read more about it here.
Priorities
If you have several caps, you need to understand the cap's priority. The cap of the highest priority is the total cap (cap with Affiliate=All and Goal=All). So, when the cap set up as Goal=All and Affiliate=All is reached, it automatically stops the other caps’ work. The system allocates further priorities according to the table (1 - the highest priority, 9 - the lowest):
🔎 Cap saturation takes into account all periods of caps (hour, daily, month, all). Once the priority is reached, Affise no longer considers the caps below the priority and determines it reached.
In case you set a Default Goal Cap, there's a difference in priorities when there is the following set of rules in the offer:
First rule | Second rule |
Goal=All | Goal=Select |
Affiliate=Each/All | Affiliate=Select |
Value=5 | Value=10 |
When there is no Default Goal Cap rule in the offer, the system allows the selected affiliate in the second rule to reach 5 more conversions than it is allowed for other affiliates. But when there is a Default Goal for the Goal=Select, the affiliate selected in the second rule sends the traffic to the Trafficback URL.
Peculiarities
Overflow.
You might have an overflow on the cap. In this case, mind the click’s time. If the system receives conversions recorded for clicks before the cap is reached, the system accepts the server postback but rejects the conversion itself. To see if the system accepted a conversion within the needed timeframe, go to Statistics > Conversions to check the click's and conversion's dates in the correspondent columns.
Default Goal Cap and the Goal=Select, Affiliate=All/Each rule.
Look at the following cases:
You set the only rule in the offer:
In this case, once the affiliate №1 generates 10 conversions for the goal 1, other affiliates cannot send traffic to this offer at all, even the offer has more than one goal, and they want to send traffic for other goals as well. Once the affiliates №1 and №2 generate 10 conversions together, the same happens regardless of which goal they send traffic for.
If the offer initially has two goals, the cap is reached when there are 10 conversions only for goal 1 (chosen as a default one). Then the system sends all traffic from all affiliates to Trafficback.
You set two rules in the offer:
The logic is the same: once the affiliate №1 generates 2 conversions with goal 1, the system sends the traffic to Trafficback. This happens with all other affiliates who generate 2 conversions with goal 1 each. Once the first rule is reached, no other affiliates can send traffic to the offer at all, it goes to Trafficback.
What to do next
Please contact the Affise Customer Support team regarding all raised questions via the e-mail: [email protected].