Place your ad units above-the-fold

One of the most popular questions from websites and blog owners focuses on where to position ad units. In most cases site owners will be governed by the existing page layout, but if you have the ability to move things around, you’ll greatly benefit from the changes. Don’t forget this isn’t guess work, it’s a science; learn what works and what doesn’t.

Advertisers and advertising agencies consistently ask for websites and blogs which have ad units above-the-fold (or sometimes referred to as above-the-scroll). This denotes the amount of content in view without scrolling down.  Ideally, we would like to see at least two ads above the fold. If you can’t do this, sometimes it is easy to position a leaderboard above the entire website.

Move to the left

Study after study has shown that the left hand side of any webpage is the position that gains the most attention, even more so if it’s an island ad unit. We’ll typically see this ad position outperform other positions in terms of click through rate and engagement. If you have the ability to move around content on the page, we highly recommend positioning an island in this position. A good example of effectively-placed ad units can be seen on www.tastydays.com

Original content

Apart from above-the-fold requirements and the top left hand side, advertisers and advertising agencies also seek out quality and original content. They know that great content brings quality audiences. So, where possible, try and position an advertisement within the body of the content, and place it as high as possible to ensure that it engages with viewers.

Don’t overdo it

We often have websites and blogs apply to Gourmet Ads for consideration in the network and we reject them because of the amount of ads on the page. The key is to keep the pages as neat and clean as possible. Having half a dozen or more ads on a page diminishes ad effectiveness, annoys audiences and thus advertisers aren’t interested. Media planners and buyers not only need to ensure their advertising isn’t running across inappropriate content, but they also need to prevent their advertising from running across websites cluttered with lots of ad units. Try and stick to a maximum of 3 IAB ad units on a page. That’s it.

Let’s recap

When positioning your ad tags, remember:

  • No more than three ads units per page
  • Try to position them top / Left
  • At least two units above-the-fold/scroll
  • Have at least one ad unit within content

If you’d like our advice on where to position your ads, please contact us and we will take a look at your pages in detail and provide a basic report on how you should position your ad units.