Premium inventory is literally everything these days. Buyers are facing a real challenge trying to find unique inventory that is worth their top dollar. To meet that end, publishers have employed various methods: they have adopted ads.txt to validate their buyers; they have sought direct deals to optimize each impression; and, through the magic of UX, there is now a third way to create premium inventory.

The Magic Stick(Y)

Viewability is one of the key metrics that define premium traffic in the eyes of the buyers. The more times an advertisement appears in front of users, the more likely they are to notice – and click on – it. Enter anchored ads.

These ad units remain anchored (usually) at the bottom of your screen. The placement is fixed in a specific area while the user scrolls through the page. This is true for Web/desktop (often a 728X90 unit) and mobile (a 320X50 unit provides an excellent solution for monetization on mobile).

On the one hand, the anchored unit is an extra ad space that doesn’t take away from your current ad spaces. Instead, it shares its space with the content column. On the other hand, it’s above the fold all of the time.

Inside Google’s Ad Manager, it stands out for exceptional viewability. As such, it also generates higher than average CTR – rendering your online real estate more attractive.

Sticky-ad unit viewability is almost twice as good as that of a classic banner. 

Taking advantage of Brightcom’s bird’s-eye view of the industry, we have compiled the following data, measuring a 300X250 banner against a 729X90 footer sticky ad across our publishers. The results speak volumes:

The same holds true for mobile

This effectiveness translates into a stronger bottom line: The CPM offered for anchored ad units is 2 to 3 times higher than the that of a regular banner.

In 2016, Brightcom already developed its own anchored unit and has been improving it ever since (see demo). We designed it to be a plug-and-play solution, saving our publishers the hassle of developing such a unit themselves or implementing yet another third-party external code on their site.

When you win. We win.

Ben Frank, Display Team Leader @Brightcom

We, at Brightcom, believe that sharing the knowledge c to a better industry for all its players. So if you have any question following this blog, please don’t hesitate to write us [email protected] and stay tuned for more In The Know posts to come.