Ad Suppression

Product Nomenclature

Ad suppression is a digital advertising strategy that prevents specific users from seeing certain ads, ensuring that campaigns reach the most relevant audiences without wasting impressions. It is commonly used to exclude irrelevant audiences or avoid showing repetitive ads to users who have already converted. What You Should Know Ad suppression is typically managed through suppression lists—databases of users who should not see a particular ad. Common suppression practices include:

Excluding Recent Buyers: Prevents ads from being shown to customers who have just purchased.
Audience List Exclusions: Removes users who are already subscribed or engaged.
Campaign-Level Suppression: Avoids overlapping promotions within the same ad account.
Frequency-Based Suppression: Stops ads from being shown too many times to the same user.

Platforms like Meta Ads Manager and Google Ads allow advertisers to upload suppression lists from their customer relationship management (CRM) systems to refine targeting. How It Works Ad suppression works by comparing user profiles to suppression lists in real time. When a user from the list visits a platform, the ad server excludes them from seeing specific ads. For example, an online fashion retailer might suppress ads for a "New Customer Discount" campaign to users who recently made a purchase. Ad suppression is crucial in email retargeting campaigns, ensuring that customers who have already redeemed offers are not targeted with irrelevant promotions. Advantages

Reduces Wasted Ad Spend: Prevents impressions on users unlikely to convert.
Improves Audience Relevance: Focuses ad delivery on new or high-intent users.
Prevents Ad Fatigue: Reduces overexposure to repetitive ads.
Increases Conversion Rates: Ensures that ads reach users at the right stage of the buying journey.

Applications and Use Cases A car dealership suppresses ads for a lease offer to customers who recently signed a contract, redirecting them to service and maintenance promotions. A subscription box service uses ad suppression to exclude current subscribers from acquisition campaigns, focusing on churned users instead.

Ad Suppression

Share

More glossary entries

Attribution Modeling

Affiliate Advertising

Advantage+

Enter the new era of marketing