"Interstitials pay more than sticky anchors, run interstitials"

"Interstitials pay more than sticky anchors, run interstitials"

Steelman: full-screen interstitials carry high CPMs, and per-impression they often do beat the little sticky anchor at the bottom.

The asterisk is what each does to the session. The interstitial monetizes a transition the visitor wanted to skip; the anchor monetizes attention they were already giving.

🚩 Hidden variable: bounce and Core Web Vitals penalty. Interstitials trip Google's intrusive-interstitial signal and add a layout shift, quietly costing you the organic traffic that fed the impression. The anchor costs you nothing.

Compare them on revenue per session including the downstream traffic effect — not on CPM per unit, where the interstitial always looks like the winner.

Not saying interstitials are bad everywhere — saying per-unit CPM ignores the traffic the unit costs you.