How to Improve Ad Viewability

July 12, 2022

Have you ever published an ad with a solid creative and engaging call-to-action that just wasn’t gaining any traction? If the ads on your website aren’t generating high levels of click-throughs or conversions, despite your best efforts, then you might have an ad viewability problem.

Ad viewability measures whether an online ad has been seen by a website visitor. If an ad isn’t seen, it can’t generate engagement or conversions for your advertiser.

How to Track Viewability

Publishers track ad viewability by using a simple formula:

Viewable Impressions ÷ Measurable Impressions

A viewable impression is the number of times an ad has been put in front of users. A measurable impression is an ad in active view. According to the Interactive Advertising Bureau, latency, web design, content, and ad technology have the greatest impact on ad viewability.

How to Improve Ad Viewability in 5 Steps

Step 1: Speed Up Page Load Times

Lengthy page load speeds are a killer for digital publishers. Although we know that websites full of display advertising can have higher load times, you want to do everything possible to bring those page load times down to a reasonable level. The faster ads render on your website, the greater your viewability metric will be. 

If you’re not sure where your website falls in the spectrum of page load times, use a tool like Google’s Pagespeed Insights to find out.

Step 2: Decrease Page Length

Shorter content is easier for people to consume and it generally has lower bounce rates. Google’s algorithm favors short form content, too. For more people to see the ads on your website, start by tightening up your existing website content and making sure ads are placed “above the fold”. If you need to post longer content, consider adding an infinite scroll feature.

Step 3: Make Your Website Responsive

Responsive ads actually provide better user experiences and they lead to greater ad viewability. Ask your web developer for assistance if you need help making your website responsive. 

Step 4: Pay Attention to Sidebar Content

Likewise, it’s possible that certain sidebar ads and content aren’t showing up on mobile. Do your due diligence to make sure all sidebar ads are visible as users move through your website on their mobile devices.

Step 5: Keep Track of the Metrics

You can’t improve ad viewability if you’re not paying attention to what’s going on. Tracking ad viewability on an ongoing basis is the only way to catch downward trends before they become a real issue, so you can work on the other areas of improvement. 

In addition, ad viewability goes hand-in-hand with ad serving, with some platforms making it easier or harder to manage campaigns and repeatedly test for performance. To learn more about how to find the best ad serving software, click here.