This article will cover the following:
What Are Offer Caps?
Offer caps limit the number of conversions — or total payout — an offer will accept before automatically stopping traffic. They are the primary budget-protection tool for advertisers and help networks prevent runaway spend when a campaign performs unexpectedly well.
Once an offer hits its cap, CAKE stops accepting conversions or clicks for that offer. Affiliates sending traffic to a capped offer will see their links redirect to a fallback URL or return no conversion credit.
Cap Types
| Cap Type | What It Limits | Resets |
|---|---|---|
| Daily Cap | Maximum conversions accepted in a single day. | Midnight each day. |
| Monthly Cap | Maximum conversions for the calendar month. | 1st of each month. |
| Overall Cap | Lifetime maximum conversions for the offer. | Never — offer pauses permanently when reached. |
| Revenue Cap | Total payout amount rather than conversion count. | Depends on configuration — daily, monthly, or overall. |
How to Configure Caps
- Navigate to Offers and open the offer you want to cap.
- Go to the Caps tab within the offer settings.
- Enter the cap value for each cap type you want to enable.
- Set the Cap Action — what happens when the cap is reached: pause the offer, redirect to a fallback, or stop accepting traffic entirely.
- Click Save. Caps take effect immediately for new traffic.
Set your cap slightly above your expected volume to allow for traffic spikes, then use cap alerts (see below) to get notified before the cap is actually hit.
Cap Alerts
Cap alerts notify you by email when an offer reaches a percentage of its cap — for example, 80%. Set them up in Admin → Notifications using the "Offer Cap Percentage Reached" trigger. See the Notifications & Alerts article for setup details.
| Alert Threshold | When to Use It |
|---|---|
| 80% | Standard early warning — gives you time to top up the cap or find replacement offers. |
| 90% | Urgent warning — traffic will cap out very soon. |
| 100% | Confirmation alert — the offer has capped and traffic has stopped. |
API: Managing Caps
Use the Offers API to retrieve current cap status or update cap values programmatically.
| Parameter | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| offer_id | integer | Yes | ID of the offer to update. |
| daily_conversion_cap | integer | No | Max conversions per day. Set to 0 to disable. |
| monthly_conversion_cap | integer | No | Max conversions per month. Set to 0 to disable. |
| global_conversion_cap | integer | No | Lifetime max conversions. Set to 0 to disable. |
| daily_payout_cap | decimal | No | Max payout per day. Set to 0 to disable. |
| monthly_payout_cap | decimal | No | Max payout per month. Set to 0 to disable. |
Sample request
POST https://yourdomain.cake.com/api/2/update_offer.json
{
"api_key": "YOUR_API_KEY",
"offer_id": 12345,
"daily_conversion_cap": 500,
"monthly_conversion_cap": 10000
}Sample response
{
"request_status": "Success",
"offer": {
"offer_id": 12345,
"daily_conversion_cap": 500,
"monthly_conversion_cap": 10000
}
}If you have any questions, please reach out to your dedicated CAKE Client Success Manager/Account Manager or contact the CAKE Support Team at support@getCAKE.com.