A travel blog only loaded ads near the screen — viewability hit 71%

A travel blog only loaded ads near the screen — viewability hit 71%

Viewability is the share of your ads a human actually sees (at least half the ad, for one second). Advertisers pay more for ads people really view.

What happened: a travel blog loaded every ad the instant the page opened, including ones far down the page most readers never reached. Viewability sat at 48%.

The change:
1. They set ads to start their auction only when a reader scrolled within 200 pixels of the slot.
2. Top ads still loaded instantly.

Result: viewability rose to 71%, and revenue per thousand views climbed 12% because buyers pay up for seen ads.

In plain English: don't auction ads nobody will see. Wait until they're almost on screen.