AdSense is a popular PPC ad program among all the bloggers. It allows the publishers to place the ad code on their blog and converts traffic into a decent amount of money. To become a publisher you need to first Create an AdSense account and then qualify the AdSense approval process to access AdSense ad code. But it is not easy to earn money with AdSense because there are plenty of reasons that affect AdSense earnings. Ad viewability is also one of them.
Most of the newbie publishers don’t know about ad viewability of AdSense. So, in this guide, I will be sharing how viewability of ads affects your AdSense earnings.
What is Ad Viewability?
Ad viewability means availability of ads within a visible area of a device.
Viewability rate is the main factor that advertisers use to establish campaign price.
IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) & MRC (Media Ratings Council) Definition: – An ad impression is only considered when a user sees at least half part of the ad in the viewable area of the device for a continuous 1 second.
Conditions for a valid ad impression
- At least 50% PX of ads are visible in a browser window for a continuous one second.
- In video ads at least 50% PX of ads are visible in a browser window of the device for a continuous 2 sec.
- In larger ads (more than 2,42,000 PX) 30% PX of ads are visible in a browser window for a continuous 1 sec.
Now, if a user opens a page containing ads. Then, it is not essential that ad is always seen by a user. – Demo to understand the viewability
AdSense pays you in two conditions
- A valid ad impression
- When you get a valid ad click on your ad unit.
So, one can calculate the AdSense revenue by applying this formula. It helps you to figure out the approximate AdSense earnings.
[{Total ad’s impression – invalid ad’s impression} * CPM] + {CTR*100} * Avg CPC
Approximate ad impression revenue = CPM (cost per mile)
CTR means of click through rate = Number of valid clicks on ads / 100
Ad impression: When you switch to your AdSense Dashboard then you also find a term “ad impression”. It means that your ad has made a Successful depiction on your page.
Invalid ad impressions are the impressions that are not considered the valid impressions because they do not follow the above condition. (*50% PX of ad should be in the visible area of the device for at least 1 second)
To understand the application of this formula please check out this guide: –
5 Best practices increasing AdSense Ad Viewability for Mobile
#1. Select the ad size which has more viewability
Many times you may notice that number of page views are higher in comparison to earning. The reason behind this problem is something called “ad viewability“. One way to increase ad revenue is to choose an appropriate size which can directly increase the ad’s viewability.
A research had been conducted by Google & DoubleClick. According to research, the vertical ads are (like 120 x 240, 240 x 400, 160 x 600 & 120 x 600) more appropriate.
After analysing I come to the solution that if you increase the width of your ad unit then you find a steep drop in AdSense viewability.
It indicates that if you want to improve the visibility of ads then you need to increase the height of ads respectively.
The above curve can be understood by the following example given below
Let’s take a Dummy ad size of 480 x 60 PX. place it on your page at the top fold. Now if someone visits your web page and scroll the page to read the entire content then the ad starts unseen by him/her during this process. The ad viewability continuously gets moves from 100% viewability to 0% viewability.
[Dummy ad]
Viewability changes because upper edge of the device continuously goes to cover the ad. so as the edge of the device covers the partition line (50% of the ad) then ad impression becomes Zero.
As you can see here the height of the ad is very less so it can be easily covered by the upper edge of the device. That’s why there is a steep drop in viewability.
I suggest you place these ads on the top of the fold. Where the user reads thoroughly and scrolls very slowly which produces a successful ad impression.
The same thing can also be understood by this curve shown below
Here the variation in the viewability is less steep than earlier. Which directly increase the viewability, time and also the chances of a successful impression.
A list of appropriate ad size
Here the viewability is diminishing from top to bottom (55.6% to 41.0%)
(width x height)
- 120 x 240
- 240 x 400
- 160 x 600
- 120 x 600
- 234 x 60
- 320 x 50
- 468 x 60
- 200 x 200
- 250 x 250
- 300 x 600
- 320 x 100
- 970 x 90
- 728 x 90
- 336 x 280
- 300 x 250
2. Place your ad units 150 PX away from content
However, it is a good idea to place the ads inside the post to increase the AdSense revenue. But placing the ads very close to the content may cause accidental ad clicks Which may result in AdSense Suspension. So, it’s a good habit of keeping adequate distance between ads & Content.
3. Use 300 * 250 type of rectangular ad
Use 300 x 250 ad size to increase impressions. Because this ad size has higher fill rate and Ad Impression. According to the Google AdSense research, it has been found that if you use this rectangular ad above the page fold then viewability may increase and reaches to 50%.
- Improve Adsense performance by using Big Size Ad Formats
4. Use page – level ads for the mobile device to increase viewability
Page level ads are launched by Google AdSense to pace with the trend to mobile. These ads are the family of ads and more suitable for the mobile device.
You only need to put ad code once on each page and AdSense will automatically show Ads on your page at the optimal times.
Also read: AdSense Page Level Ads Is Here To Monetize Your Mobile Site
Learn about Page – level Ads from here (AdSense official Video)
5. Lazy or smart loading of AdSense ads
I am pretty sure you know about lazy loading. This is also the best practices increasing ad viewability.
Lazy loading means to serve the ads only when they are within the viewport. You can tag your page for this feature with the help of Google publisher tags.
Final Thoughts
Finally, I want to say you that ad viewability is the major factor that can help you to understand the performance of ad formats and placement.
It is also helpful to increase your AdSense revenue. Because Viewability is responsible for a valid impression.
These are the major factors that are responsible for your recurring ad revenue.
- Ad placement
- Ad size
- Ad viewing time.
- Active view
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3 thoughts on “5 Best Practices To Increase AdSense Ad Viewability for Mobile”
The different ways and techniques that you have listed are great, and I think, most of us here would be already following that. There must be more than these ideas to increase Adsense RPM. At this time, I consider one smart way to boost RPM, if you are looking for improving Adsense RPM quickly, just make sure you are allowing best (high paying) advertisers on your website, by barring or adding any low paying advertiser from your AdSense account settings…
Moreover, it might be advantageous for you to attach Google Analytics with your AdSense a/c. This will advise you to check where the improvement in the earnings is coming from. Frequently it occurs when a page on the website rises in search rankings. In case, if your organic search count has increased, they are much more likely to click on AdSense ads if they are arriving from Google than the social sites or a referred or traffic buying site. The visitors for the Google search are very targeted to the topic of yours page. But yeah, on the other side, not sure about the image ads. From my own experience, the visitor tends to stay away from them. I need to practice to know more about this. Let’s see…
Anyways, thank you so much for all these. Definitely, it will encourage me to concentrate on each and small things to improve earnings. And FYI, now I have done some of this but not all. I will be updating my Adsense account today, or in case, I need any, I will post here for you to anwer.. 😀
Hyy Barakha,
Thnaks you for your kind information Keep learning and sharing your knowledge.l appreciate you ….
Thank you
Domain Authority isn’t related to CPM rates. There may be a small correlation between the two within the same vertical, but only because a higher DA site is likely to be better known and potentially attract more targeted buys.
In the case of your site you should test that top menu across more devices. It is pushing all ads and content below the fold for us, which will severely impact usability and ad CPMs