Tips to improve ad viewability
                     Tips to improve ad viewability
John Z
Writes on ad server platform, involved with Adspeed 
adserver software & Ad server software.
An ad impression does not tell the whole story. The traditional definition of an 
impression is very broad. An ad placement at the bottom of the page might still 
count as an impression even if the user only looked at the top of the page and did 
not scroll down. Therefore, impressions are further classified into different types. In 
this article, we will talk about ad viewability, which is measured by viewable 
impressions. Ad viewability only counts when the viewer actually sees the ad on 
their screen. Typically, a viewable impression is counted when 50% of the ad’s area 
is visible on the screen for at least 1 second. For example, if an ad is placed at the 
bottom of the page, no viewable impression is counted when the user just loads the 
page and only sees the above-the-fold portion of the page. When the user scrolls 
down far enough and the bottom ad placement becomes visible on screen for 1 
second, a viewable impression will then count for that ad. This ad metric is useful to 
determine the actual number of views and effectiveness of your ad and its 
placements. Many ad servers support viewability measurement. Below are some 
tips to improve ad viewability:
Place premium ads above the fold
With the above description of a viewable ad impression, it makes 
perfect sense to have a higher viewability rate when the ad is above the 
fold. When the page finishes loading, an above-the-fold ad will 
automatically be visible and if the user stays on the page for 1 second or 
more, a viewable impression will be counted without the user having to 
scroll down. Above-the-fold ads do not have 100% viewability rate 
because users can very quickly click on a headline or some other links to 
move to another page before the viewable time threshold is reached. 
There is only a limited area before the fold line. Thus, top ad placements 
are more desirable and they demand a premium ad rate compared to 
lower placements.
Speed up page load
As connection speed goes up, tolerance for slow websites goes down. 
People are expecting websites to load instantly. If the website or any of 
its components, including ads, do not load quickly enough, it is very 
likely that users will click or switch to another page or website. When 
this happens, you will lose your viewable impressions and that can lead 
to a decline of several ad metrics like viewability ratio and click-thru 
ratio. It is important to optimize your website and choose a fast ad 
server. Website optimization includes tuning and speeding up all 
components, from the main page to social widgets and ads. If your ads 
are fast but the other widgets are slow, it can affect viewability as well.
Test and optimize ad placements
There are different ad dimensions: square, vertical rectangle and 
horizontal rectangle. For viewability, a vertical ad, like a sidebar ad, is 
more likely to stay on the screen long enough to register a viewable 
impression even if a viewer scrolls up or down a little bit. For the same 
reason, a horizontal ad just above the fold is better than a leaderboard 
ad at the very top of the page. If a viewer begins scrolling down right 
after the page finishes loading, the top placement does not have enough 
time to stay in the viewport while the ad that is just above the fold has 
more time to stay visible. It is important to experiment and measure 
different scenarios for ad serving to see what performs better and fits 
into your site or app naturally. Ultimately, we want ad placements with 
higher viewability rates and low page’s bounce rates.
About Adspeed
AdSpeed ad server is a reliable & powerful ad serving and ad 
management solution that serves your ads, tracks impressions & clicks 
and reports ad statistics in real-time. Driven by the latest ad serving 
technologies, the goal of Adspeed adserver is to provide a reliable 
platform that can help in executing online advertising strategy more 
efficiently. 
Thank you for spending your precious time in reading this article.