Assuming your database is configured using the "Full" or "Bulk Logged" recovery modes, space in the transaction log can only be reused once a transaction log backup has been performed. If the log hasn't been backed up and there's no free space to log changes, then the transaction log is either expanded automatically (if configured to do so), or the transaction fails. It's therefore not uncommon to back up the transaction log frequently (say, every 15 mins) to avoid excessive transaction log growth.
If you're using the "Full" recovery mode, you may be able to switch to using the "Bulk Logged" mode, which reduces the amount of space taken by bulk copy operations.
Alternatively, for non-production scenarios where you may be less concerned by recoverability between full backups, then you can switch the recovery mode to "Simple". This does not require any transaction log backups, and as a result, the transaction log should rarely grow.
More details about each recovery mode can be found here.