This comprehensive article delves into the intricacies of improving programmatic ads’ viewability while safeguarding a seamless and enjoyable user experience. We’ll cover the following topics: 

• What is viewability?
• How is it measured? 
• Ways to improve ad viewability without harassing UX. 

Let’s dig in. 

What is ad viewability?

Ad viewability measures whether a user sees an ad on websites, mobile apps, or other digital platforms. However, simply loading an ad on a webpage or app does not guarantee that users have viewed it. Ad viewability is concerned with determining the likelihood that an ad is visible to users on the screen.

Measuring ad viewability involves tracking specific criteria based on industry standards set by organizations like the Media Rating Council (MRC) and Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB). The most common standard is:

• For display ads: An ad is considered viewable if at least 50% of its pixels are visible on the screen for a continuous minimum of one second.
• For video ads: An ad is considered viewable if at least 50% of its pixels are visible for a continuous minimum of two seconds.

What’s The Ideal Ad Viewability Score?

The ideal ad viewability score can vary depending on the context and industry. Still, a widely accepted benchmark for viewability is to achieve a viewability rate of at least 70% or higher. In the digital advertising industry, a viewability rate of 70% means that 70% of the served ad impressions meet the viewability criteria, which typically involves having at least 50% of the ad’s pixels in view for a specified duration (e.g., one second for display ads, two seconds for video ads).

Why is 70% considered a benchmark? While 100% viewability might seem like the ultimate goal, it’s practically challenging to achieve due to various factors, including ad placements, user behavior, and technical limitations. Some users may scroll quickly, causing ads to be served but not seen, or ad blockers may prevent ad impressions from being viewable. As a result, a 100% viewability rate is often considered unrealistic.

On the other hand, a viewability rate significantly lower than 70% could indicate issues with ad placements, ad formats, or user experience that need to be addressed. Achieving a viewability rate of 70% or higher means that most of your ad impressions are visible to users. This leads to better ad performance, engagement, and potential return on investment for advertisers.

How to measure ad viewability?

To measure ad viewability, you can calculate the ad viewability rate by finding the total number of viewable ad impressions served and dividing it by the total number of ad impressions served. In other words, the ad viewability rate is the percentage of viewable ads out of the total number of ads served.

The formula for calculating the ad viewability rate is as follows:

Ad Viewability Rate = (Total Viewable Ad Impressions / Total Ad Impressions) * 100

But how do advertisers and publishers know the ad viewability? Several methods and technologies are used to measure ad viewability, including:

• Viewability tags (tracking pixels): are in ad creatives or web pages to track and record viewability data. These tags can detect when an ad comes into the user’s viewable area on a webpage.
• Viewability measurement vendors: advertisers and publishers integrate these vendor solutions into their ad-serving process to obtain accurate viewability metrics.
• Browser-based measurement: some browsers provide built-in viewability measurement capabilities that track when an ad becomes viewable.
• In-app SDKs: for mobile apps, software development kits (SDKs) can be integrated into the app to track viewability.
• Viewability measurement tools: ready-to-use solutions that allow advertisers and publishers to monitor ad viewability in real time.

6 Ways to improve ad viewability

1. Improve the page speed of your website

A slow-loading website can considerably impact viewable inventory and create a negative user experience, resulting in high bounce rates. As a result, the ads won’t be seen.

To tackle this problem, prioritize improving your page speed and implement the following technical adjustments for speed optimization: utilize responsive layouts, minimize redirects, optimize images, and utilize asynchronous ad tags. 

2. Improve ad load speed

Okay, a good page speed is half of the success. Even if your website loads quickly, slow-loading ads can negatively impact ad viewability. 

Consider implementing lazy loading for below-the-fold ads to enhance your ad load speed. The concept is straightforward: trigger an ad request when the user most likely sees it. However, avoid using lazy loading for banners visible above the fold, as you want them to load quickly. Minimizing passback is another effective strategy, reducing the number of ad calls between servers, decreasing page latency, and improving ad viewability, especially for video inventory. 

3. Choose the best-performing ad placements

The page design determines the three common ad positions: a leader at the top, an ad in the sidebar, and another leader at the bottom. The precise placement of these ads can significantly impact their viewability. For instance, if the top leader ad is positioned below the site’s navigation bar rather than at the top, users may scroll past it before it fully loads, resulting in poor viewability. To enhance viewability, publishers can improve this ad unit’s placement by moving it below the navigation bar, allowing the content below to remain visible while the ad loads. Likewise, relocating the bottom ad unit above the comments, author biography, and page navigation bar can significantly boost ad interaction and enhance its viewability.

An increasingly common practice is to place the first ad unit under the ‘lead’ of the text.

Based on Google’s research findings, content above-the-fold (ATF) typically achieves a 73% viewability score, while below-the-fold (BTF) content only reaches 45% viewability. With this data in mind, your goal should be to maintain your site’s viewability score at or slightly above the industry average. Nonetheless, it should be noted that placements below-the-fold can still be viewable. If the content below the fold captures a user’s attention, that page area could achieve the highest viewability.

The most viewable ad placement is right above the fold, not at the top of the page. 

Regarding mobile pages, the top mobile leaderboard tends to underperform. Since mobile page loading is typically slower than on desktop, the issue of users scrolling down before the top ad unit loads becomes even more pronounced.

You can also make the ad banners sticky so they will follow users as they scroll down the page. When used correctly, they can significantly improve the performance and appearance of ads. 

There are also some solutions that “hold” an ad on the top of the viewport when the user scrolls down. Another feature is Scroll Slower, which gently slows the pace of page scroll when the ad slot is in the viewport. First, the algorithm looks for the moment the ad slot is rendered in the user’s viewport. When that event is detected, the user’s scrolling speed is slightly & gradually decreased. Both of these features are available in Viewability Tools.

Regarding pages with sidebars on both sides and content in the middle, the ones on the right gave the best results and were clicked on more often. This is because users are used to such a scheme. 

Before making final decisions on ad placement, examining where the fold of your site’s page is typically located is recommended. Remember that the fold may vary depending on the user’s device and screen width. Understanding the ATF concept is crucial as it can encourage users to scroll down and interact with more content. Heatmap tools or Google Analytics screen resolution reports can be used to identify the ATF and optimize ad placements accordingly. By prioritizing user experience and strategic ad placements, publishers can enhance their website’s performance and increase user engagement.

4. Choose the best-performing ad sizes

When you choose where to place an ad, it’s time to make it the right size. According to the latest data, the best-performing formats are:

Leaderboard

• 780×90

Vertical Ad Sizes

• 160×600 (Vertical ad with good viewability)

Large Banners

• 336×280 (Large rectangle)
• 300×600 (Half page)

Mobile Ad Sizes

• 300×250 (Medium rectangle)
• 320×100 (Large mobile banner)

Sticky Banners

Any ad size can be used as a sticky banner. Then, they stick to the viewport and stay in view for the entire visit. Publishers can further enhance viewability by incorporating sticky banners into their setups, which remain fixed to the viewport throughout the visitor’s session.

It’s important to note that the effectiveness of an ad size may vary depending on the specific website or platform where the ads are being displayed. However, these ad sizes have performed well and are commonly used in digital advertising campaigns. Nevertheless, you can always experiment with different ad sizes to find the ones that work best for their target audience and objectives.

5. Get more familiar with your audience’s behavior

Understanding which pages users spend the most time on and engage with the content is essential for determining the appropriate number of ads to serve. Overloading a page with too many ads can harm the user experience, causing page latency due to numerous ad requests to the server. Sometimes, less is more. Advertisers assess the inventory as a whole, so eliminating low-performing placements can increase the total ad viewability for your inventory.

6. Ad Refresh Strategies

To enhance ad viewability, consider implementing ad refresh strategies that dynamically reload ads based on user behavior and scrolling patterns. By strategically refreshing ads, you can increase the number of viewable impressions without bombarding users with repetitive content. This approach ensures that ads remain relevant and engaging throughout the user’s browsing experience, leading to better ad performance and user satisfaction.

Finding the Right Balance: Ad Viewability vs. User Experience

While improving ad viewability is crucial, striking the right balance with user experience is essential. Intrusive ad placements or excessive ad frequency can negatively impact user satisfaction and engagement, leading to higher bounce rates and lower return visits.

By using Viewability Tools and implementing the best practices mentioned above, publishers can optimize ad viewability without compromising user experience. Regularly monitoring and analyzing viewability data will help publishers make informed decisions to refine their ad strategies continually.

In conclusion, ad viewability optimization is critical to programmatic ad performance. Employing viewability tools and following best practices can enhance ad viewability, maximize ad revenue, and create a more positive user experience, ultimately benefiting publishers and advertisers in the competitive digital advertising landscape.

LET’S GET IN TOUCH!

The post How to Improve Programmatic Ad Viewability Without Affecting User Experience first appeared on Yieldbird - Research Hub.

But don’t worry. We’re here to help you with that choice. Get ready to embark on a journey to discover how to choose the perfect SSP tailored to your specific inventory needs.

9 Ways to choose the right SSPs for your stack

Now that you are acquainted with the essential advantages of SSPs, it is time to decide and select the ones that suit your inventory best. However, determining the perfect fit for your stack requires careful consideration of a few key points.

1. GEO

When selecting SSPs, one of the most critical factors to consider is the users’ location. While many platforms have a universal demand, the most desirable users typically come from the USA or Canada. In Europe, the primary limiting factor is the requirement for user consent to data collection, such as the EU Consent policy applicable to the EEA regions, as well as the need for localized language support. While the United States has fewer restrictions, it is not completely exempt, as demonstrated by regulations like COPPA.

Failure to properly match users’ locations can have significant consequences for an SSP’s ability to monetize transferred auctions. This can lead to unnecessary costs and result in missed potential profits. It is crucial to address this issue at the beginning of the partnership with the platforms. Furthermore, in some cases, SSPs may be able to estimate the eCPM for a specific market and campaign, offering valuable insights into potential earnings.

2. Technology

In the EEA market, the presence of TCF-enabled tools is of utmost importance. Almost all SSPs require user consent for data processing to optimize their campaigns effectively. While there are opportunities to serve limited ads, the trade-off is a lower eCPM rate. 

Nevertheless, CMP is not the sole requirement for platforms. Another crucial aspect is the implementation of ads.txt, which acts as a document authorizing entities participating in programmatic auctions. This serves as a protective measure for both advertisers and publishers against various forms of ad fraud. Ensuring compliance with ads.txt is essential in establishing trust and maintaining the integrity of the advertising ecosystem.

3. Demand partners

When considering a Supply Side Platform, it is crucial to evaluate its relationships with demand partners, including ad networks, agencies, and advertisers. The strength and extent of these relationships can have a significant impact on your monetization efforts. A robust network of demand partners means that the SSP has established connections with a diverse array of buyers who are actively looking to purchase ad inventory.

Furthermore, a strong network of demand partners ensures that you have a variety of advertisers vying for your inventory. This diversity of advertisers allows you to cater to different target audiences and attract brands from various industries. It also creates healthy competition among advertisers, driving up prices and maximizing the revenue potential of your ad inventory.

4. Inventory quality

Factors such as visibility, ad density, and eCPM value can significantly impact your revenue potential. It’s essential to ensure that your inventory meets certain standards for optimal results.

Regarding visibility, it’s crucial that your standard display ads have a visibility rate of at least 40%. If the visibility falls below this threshold, collaborating with any platform may prove to be ineffective. In such cases, it’s worth exploring various custom formats that some platforms offer as alternatives. For instance, anchor units provided by Next Millennium are an excellent option. These layer units are attached to the top or bottom edge of the screen and boast an average visibility rate of over 90%. Custom formats like these can be a game-changer, providing higher visibility and potentially generating more revenue for publishers. Platforms like YOC and Next Millennium offer a wide range of custom formats, including Understitial, Outstream, and Native ads, which can diversify your inventory and attract more advertisers.

Video inventory availability might be slightly less than that for desktops, but it still presents significant opportunities. It’s crucial to keep in mind policies, especially when using Google tools, such as the requirement that the length of the ad should not exceed the length of the video. Leading demand providers in the video inventory space include Adform and Appnexus, which can offer valuable options for monetizing your video content.

5. Support

What kind of support range will you require? How responsive is their customer support team? These are important questions to ask.

Technical support and account management play a vital role in ensuring a smooth and efficient partnership with the SSP. In the dynamic world of programmatic advertising, issues can arise, and having responsive support can make all the difference in resolving them quickly and effectively.

A dedicated account manager can be a valuable asset, providing personalized assistance and guidance tailored to your specific needs. They can help optimize your revenue generation by offering insights, strategic advice, and recommendations based on their expertise and industry knowledge.

6. Usability and management

When selecting SSP, it’s important to consider several factors contributing to a smooth and efficient implementation process.

First, assess the expertise of the developers managing the platform. Look for an SSP that provides a simple implementation process, eliminating the need to hire a dedicated development team. A straightforward setup and a detail-oriented standard operating procedure will ensure a hassle-free integration experience.

Consider the user interface (UI) and ease of use of the SSP. A well-designed and intuitive interface can greatly enhance your workflow and save time. Look for features like APIs and integration capabilities with other platforms in your tech stack, allowing for seamless connectivity and efficient operations.

Another important aspect is reporting and analytics. A good SSP should provide comprehensive reporting tools, including real-time reporting, performance metrics, and audience insights. These features enable you to monitor and optimize inventory management effectively, making data-driven decisions to maximize revenue.

7. Header bidding

For publishers, it is imperative that the chosen Supply Side Platform provides a fast and reliable Header Bidding solution seamlessly integrated with their tags. Header Bidding has emerged as the latest trend in the ever-evolving Ad Tech industry, offering significant potential for publishers to maximize their revenues on a per-impression basis.

However, publishers should be cautious as not all Header Bidding solutions are created equal. Choosing a solution that goes beyond a basic setup and incorporates a range of advanced features is essential. One critical consideration is the impact on page load speed, as a sluggish website can lead to poor user experience and lower ad viewability. Publishers should ensure that the selected Header Bidding solution is optimized for performance while delivering optimal revenue results.

8. Brand safety

Publishers need SSPs that are integrated with brand safety tools, that provide an added layer of protection, ensuring that ads displayed on publishers’ platforms align with their desired standards and values.

Having brand safety measures within the SSP’s technology stack empowers them to provide a safe and trusted environment for advertisers while optimizing their ad placements for better engagement and performance. 

9. Cost

Last but not least – costs. Ensure you understand the pricing structure and revenue share model the platform offers. This will help ensure a fair and profitable partnership in the long run. Evaluate if there are any additional fees like setup fees, ad serving fees, or additional charges that may be applicable. It is important to have a clear understanding of these costs upfront to assess the overall profitability of the partnership accurately. Compare the revenue share percentage offered by the SSPs. This refers to the portion of the ad revenue that the publisher will receive for their inventory. 

Time to choose the right SSP

Choosing the right Supply Side Platform necessitates a thorough assessment of your unique requirements, preferences, and financial considerations. It is crucial to invest time in researching and comparing various platforms, and it may be beneficial to conduct trials or pilot programs to test their suitability before making a long-term commitment. By approaching the decision-making process with diligence and thoroughness, you can ensure that the chosen SSP aligns effectively with your objectives and yields optimal results for your business.

If you need further assistance, contact us, and our team will be happy to allay any doubts.

LET’S GET IN TOUCH!

Bartłomiej Oprządek
Regional Growth Director
publishers@yieldbird.com

[contact-form-7]

The post How to Choose the Right Supply Side Platform (SSP) for Your Stack? first appeared on Yieldbird - Research Hub.

What is ad fraud?

Ad fraud is the practice of deliberately delivering ad impressions that the real person cannot see. Most ad fraud is generated by bots, software designed to perform automated, repetitive tasks online. However, not all bots are bad. Search engines, for example, use bots to explore millions of pages and apps every day in order to understand what content they are offering. They use this information, so as to perform better in searches.

Some examples of how fraud is carried out:

There are many ad scam tactics – here are just a couple of examples:

1. Bots are quietly installed on consumers’ PCs and provoke impressions the user does not see.
2. A compromised computer network (“botnet”) creates fake consumer traffic. Virtual machines that mimic consumer computers generate thousands of views.
3. Videos that automatically play but are either too few or even invisible on the page.
4. Software that emulates many clicks every time a consumer makes a real click.

How common is ad fraud?

Extensive research conducted by ad fraud experts reveals that a considerable chunk of web traffic is compromised by fraudulent activities. Through meticulous studies, AppsFlyer has unveiled the alarming reality that bots contribute to more than 70% of fraud across various regions. The State of Fake Traffic report for 2022 exposes the prevalence of falsified web activity, indicating that 11.2% of total web traffic was deemed fake. Shockingly, 1 in 10 website visitors were identified as inauthentic, leading to a wastage of $35.7 billion in ad spend. Furthermore, eMarketer projects a global digital advertising fraud forecast of $100 billion by 2023. These findings underscore the pressing need for robust measures to combat ad fraud and safeguard advertising investments.

Ad fraud warning signs

Thankfully, there are ways to detect ad fraud and cut it off before it makes too big of an impact on your bottom line. Knowledge is half the battle, so be sure to keep an eye out for the following:

• Low Viewability: Viewability determines whether your ad had the chance to be seen by an actual human. And while 100% viewability isn’t feasible, yours should be around 40-60%. If it is lower, that means there’s a chance your traffic, visits, and clicks are coming from fraudulent sources since the ads couldn’t be seen by actual people. 
• High Click Through Rates: While not always an indication of ad fraud, it could be a piece of the puzzle. Be sure to keep an eye on the time between clicks and conversion; if it’s unusually quick, it could be a cause for suspicion (to be able to see this, you’ll need log-level data). 
• Strange Traffic Sources: Good news: you’re getting a lot of traffic from your latest campaign. Bad news: it’s from outdated browsers and unpopular devices. Traffic from unusual sources such as these can be indicative of fraud; also keep an eye out for repeated visits from the same IP addresses, as well as random countries outside of your targeting parameters.
• Straying Too Far From Your Benchmarks: You know your performance benchmarks (or at least, you should know them), and if your campaign performance starts to stray too far from those there’s a chance you’re dealing with fraud. Be sure you have established benchmarks for clicks, CTR, page views, and conversions to be able to know when things look off.
• A Lot of Visits, But Little Added Revenue:  If you’re seeing a big spike in visits but no movement on revenue-driving conversions, you could be getting fraudulent traffic. 

With these warning signs, you have a good chance of safeguarding your campaigns. But always remember to get proactive with protecting your performance.

10 ways to prevent ad fraud

1. Know Your Traffic Source

Before you really do anything to fight affiliate fraud, you need to know where your ads are running. In that regard, conduct your research and make sure to screen and pick the right ad network that you can trust (and also know the difference between ad network vs ad exchange). The lack of transparency opens up the door for fraud, so it’s paramount to set your sights on a transparent and strict platform that can detect and prevent it.

2. Keep An Eye On Data

Watch out for changes in traffic that don’t match the performance you’re used to. For instance, sudden spikes in traffic for no real reason or an abnormally high CTR (higher than the industry standard) without any relevance to your offer. In addition, keep a watchful eye on different geos. If traffic is targeting US customers and it’s coming from Southeast Asia (one of the usual suspects), that could very well indicate fraud, particularly if conversions or other important metrics are nowhere or barely to be found.

3. Use Ads.txt

This buying method confirms that each webpage uploads a file to its root domain detailing which SSP (Sell Side Platform – a tool that manages the programmatic advertising of a website) offers its inventory, its Placement ID and its relationship with that SSP. In this way, it is ensured that the information passed from SSP and the publisher ID is accurate. The Publishers publicly indicate who is actually authorized to market their advertising space, thereby eliminating inventory fraud.

4. Target High-quality Traffic

Low-quality websites are, more often than not, breeding grounds for click fraud. Affiliates see a chance to score some cheap traffic and risk having bots clicking on their ad to boost the other side’s PPC revenue. It’s not a bad idea to limit your exposure by targeting a few specific high-value websites instead of placing your ads on just about any website relevant to your keywords.

5. Target Specific Countries

We’ve mentioned this earlier – some countries and regions are labelled as click fraud zones. Some areas are more prone to having bots, people, or even click farms whose sole purpose is clicking on advertisements. These are real people, a fact that makes it that harder to spot fraud without a close look into their activity. That doesn’t mean you should blindly stick to a US market as the best of the bunch. Rather, you should be more refined regarding the geos you advertise to and avoid those with a high risk of fraud.

6. Have a Sensible CPC

Another move you can employ for click fraud prevention is to have a reasonable cost per click. We hate to say it but a low CPC usually gets low traffic quality, which, in turn, is far more susceptible to click fraud. Spend your money where it makes the most sense for you, even if it’s not the cheapest option. There’s still good traffic to be found on a low CPC but keep in mind that you can’t expect big results on a small budget.

7. Keep an Eye on Your Competitors

It pays to know who your competitors are for various reasons, and click fraud is one of them. It’s not unheard of that affiliates competing on the same keywords click on each other’s ads to drive their own business. You can use tools such as Adplexity, AdWatcher, and WhatRunsWhere to either filter them out of your affiliate campaigns or report their fraudulent activities.

8. Work with Your Traffic Source

Maintaining a close relationship with your traffic vendor is key to understanding the type of traffic that is coming in. Look at it this way: a company’s in-house fraud detection and prevention system is not only for learning and keeping up with the ongoing click fraud trends, but it can also allow you to analyze and understand the traffic originating from their network. Not every network will be that open or user-friendly, so once again, much of this depends on your initial decision to partner up with a respectable and proven company.

9. Be Informed

It is strongly recommended that you look to be in the loop when it comes to new trends in affiliate fraud. That way, you will ensure you’re up to date with the latest news on fraudsters, fraudulent affiliates, affiliate sites, activities, locations, and so on. Online forums like Warrior Forum, Affilorama, DigitalPoint are great resources for gleaning information while also communicating with your peers and exchanging different tactics and experiences.

10. Use Affiliate Fraud Tools

Affiliate fraud is a serious issue as well as a large business, so you’re not alone in this fight. While built-in anti-fraud tools and features in ad and affiliate networks are often enough, beefing more on third-party presence will never hurt. There are plenty of standalone tools, such as BrandVerity, CPA Detective, Fraudlogix, Improvely, and Scrubkit that can aid you in keeping your affiliate campaigns fraud-free.

Summary

Ad fraud is a major problem that affects Advertisers in all industries, and it doesn’t appear to be going away any time soon. As such, you simply can’t afford to ignore the issue. The question isn’t whether you’ve been affected by ad fraud. It’s a matter of how much you’ve been affected by ad fraud. That is why it is so important to invest in ad fraud prevention.

The post The Prevention of Ad Fraud first appeared on Yieldbird - Research Hub.

While looking for a way to increase your programmatic ads performance to benefit from them more, you might have heard of Lazy Auctions. As it is a relatively new technology in the world of digital advertising and is rapidly gaining popularity as companies look for ways to optimize their advertising campaigns and generate more revenue. We’ve conducted A/B tests to check its real abilities in terms of improving performance. 

Keep reading to find out the results. 

What is Lazy Auction?

A Lazy Auction is a feature in programmatic advertising that delays the auction process until the ad slot is likely to be rendered. It works by holding back ad requests until buyers have enough demand to fill the available inventory. By doing so, Lazy Auctions can increase ad inventory’s value by reducing unnecessary requests, which can lead to a more efficient and profitable advertising ecosystem. 

As we see potential in enhancing the performance of the ads and, therefore, the revenue, we’ve added a Lazy Auction feature to our header bidding tool Quick Wrap. It works based on the “auction per ad unit” feature. Both methods query only the ad slots available on a given pageview, not all of the ad slots listed. What defines Lazy Auction is splitting one auction into several, depending on the location of ad units on the page. 

Influence of Lazy Auctions on Header Bidding – benefits for publishers

Advertising networks often send overwhelming bid requests to SSP platforms, causing overloading and potential revenue loss from header bidding. To combat this issue, publishers are often asked to reduce the number of bids they send. However, using Lazy Auction can provide a more efficient solution by reducing the number of bids with little chance of displaying an ad and easing the burden on SSPs. 

Additionally, Lazy Auction increases the likelihood that bid responses from SSPs will enter the auction and not be wasted on ad units that are rarely displayed, such as those that require extensive scrolling. This makes Lazy Auction particularly effective on long vertical pages with many placements. 

Do Lazy Auctions help publishers increase revenue? – Yieldbird’s Research

The research was conducted in our header bidding tool QuickWrap, where we can run A/B tests. Our experiment involved dividing traffic into four separate samples: 

• Sample 1 – without Lazy Auctions 
• Samples 2,3, and 4 used Lazy Auctions, each with different parameters enabled to determine the optimal auction triggering method. 

We tested these parameters across three domains: a sports site with short pages and two long multi-scroll news pages. Using A/B testing in QuickWrap, we collected data to help users make informed decisions and improve advertising campaigns.

Lazy Auctions can be set in many ways, and as we may see on the chart below, only some settings (and we are testing three on each site here) work positively. The feature requires some optimization and testing to adjust the parameters of the page. Nevertheless, there was one good setting on each, generating more revenue from 1-4%, and these are the best versions we will focus on further. 

Further testing showed Lazy Auction can reduce the number of Ad Requests. Our research has shown that this is particularly evident in domains 2 and 3, where the best-performing v2 samples generated the most revenue (+3% and +4%), despite having fewer requests (-14% and -7%, respectively). This translates to a higher revenue per pageview on these samples. Although domain 1 did not significantly reduce requests, the best sample still had only 0.7% fewer requests than when Lazy Auctions were not utilized. 

Notably, the reduction in the number of requests resulting from Lazy Auction testing also affects the request-CPM metric, which would be overstated. For that reason, we ignore this metric in this particular test.

Our research has shown that Lazy Auction has a significant impact on increasing header bidding’s share of total revenue. The best-performing versions increased between 3% and 35%, as seen in the charts below.

The increase in header bidding participation can be attributed to the influence of Lazy Auctions on buyers’ bid wins and win rates in header bidding. This can be seen in fewer bids on Lazy Auction samples than those without them. Reducing unnecessary bid requests gives buyers a higher chance of the ad actually rendering therefore increasing the number of won impressions. This, in turn, leads to greater participation in header bidding and a boost in revenue.

In this case, fewer bids do not translate into fewer auctions won. On the contrary, the win rate and the wins’ absolute value are higher.

Do Lazy Auctions increase programmatic monetization?

After conducting our research and analyzing the data, we have concluded:

• The implementation and optimization of Lazy Auction can significantly increase revenue.
• Lazy Auction positively affects Header bidding, as it eliminates unnecessary bids, increases the chance of winning, and ultimately boosts HB’s share of the revenue. 
• By carefully launching and optimizing Lazy Auction, companies can improve their advertising campaigns and generate more revenue, making it a valuable tool in digital advertising.

As you see, there are plenty of pros to Lazy Auctions. Would you like to check how lazy auctions impact on header bidding by yourself? The A/B tests and implementation were done by the QuickWrap tool. Schedule a call with our experts and discover the possibilities of our tool and the rest of our programmatic solutions. 

LET’S GET IN TOUCH!

Piotr Niedziela
Optimization Expert
publishers@yieldbird.com

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The post The Impact of Lazy Auctions on Header Bidding: A/B Testing Results first appeared on Yieldbird - Research Hub.

This in-depth analysis will explore the inner workings of Google Optimized Pricing. Moreover, we’ll also introduce Yieldbird’s supplementary solution, PriceGenius, and show the benefits of this tool and how it provides an excellent addition to Google’s optimized pricing.

What is Google Optimized Pricing 

Google Optimized Pricing is a feature within Google Ad Manager that uses machine learning algorithms to dynamically set optimal pricing for programmatic ad inventory. It works by analyzing bidding patterns and behaviors of buyers and adjusting the floor prices of impressions in real-time to maximize revenue while maintaining a competitive market. This prevents advertisers from bidding below the publisher’s value, ensuring a fair pricing system.

How Does Google Optimized Pricing Work?

The process is initiated manually in Google’s pricing through the Unified Pricing Rules. Publishers can create a standard UPR and customize their targeting, then choose “Let Google Optimize Floor Prices” as the pricing option for their ad inventory. Google Optimized Pricing considers factors such as historical data, seasonality, and buyer behavior to determine the best price for each impression. This allows publishers to sell their ad inventory at a fair market value while increasing competition and demand for their ad inventory. 

Google Optimized Floor Price

Instead of manually setting floor prices for each ad impression, Google will use ML algorithms to analyze the bid data and set floor prices to maximize revenue while maintaining a good user experience. This option is comparable to setting a floor price or target eCPM.

However, one potential drawback of this solution is the “black box” problem. Since machine learning algorithms make pricing decisions, publishers can struggle to understand their reasoning. This lack of transparency can make it challenging for publishers to make informed decisions about their ad inventory and pricing strategies. However, Google has implemented specific measures to increase transparency and control for publishers, such as providing detailed reporting and allowing publishers to set pricing floors and ceilings.

Case study: Unified Pricing Rules Management – Discover the Advantages of PriceGenius

For publishers seeking a more personalized and transparent addition to Google’s optimized pricing, Yieldbird offers its innovative product, PriceGenius. This user-friendly solution empowers publishers to maximize their ad revenue while enjoying a customized experience.

The key advantages of PriceGenius include the following:

Personalization 

PriceGenius is a system that adapts to each publisher’s inventory and unique needs every time to provide tailored pricing management.

Transparency 

Unlike the black box nature of Google’s optimized pricing, PriceGenius offers clear insights into its pricing strategies, allowing publishers to see the prices our solution establishes; thus, clients have greater control and understanding of their ad revenue optimization.

Human Oversight 

While PriceGenius leverages machine learning for efficiency, it also involves human analysts who check for any fluctuations in performance and react to them actively to ensure accuracy and reliability.

Ongoing Adjustments 

PriceGenius adapts to clickability, visibility, and website traffic changes, ensuring optimal performance and continuous improvement.

Constant Methodology R&D

Experts continually test new ideas and data sources to enhance PriceGenius’s results. This means publishers can rest assured that they always use the most up-to-date and effective strategies.

The list of competitive advantages of PriceGenius makes it a perfect supplement to Google Optimized Pricing. Experience the benefits of a personalized, transparent, and user-friendly approach to ad revenue optimization. 

Don’t miss the opportunity to maximize your programmatic revenue – test PriceGenius today! We’re confident that our product will work perfectly for you, so we offer a free trial for one month with no implementation or technical costs. Our team of experts is ready to guide you through the setup process and help you unlock the full potential of your ad inventory.

LET’S GET IN TOUCH!

Bartłomiej Oprządek
Senior Business Development Manager & Team Leader
publishers@yieldbird.com

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The post Google Optimized Pricing: How to Make It Works Better first appeared on Yieldbird - Research Hub.

As it’s not a new solution, we have tested it twice in the past, and the results did not indicate implementing this functionality. But assuming the latest interest, we’ve decided to test it again. This time by using the A/B testing module in our Prebid Stack, which allows us to observe even minimal effects of changes that would be “covered” by differences in tests based on comparing two periods. 

Read the article to check the results and find out if you need Prebid Flooring for programmatic monetization.

Implementing Prebid Flooring – Main Challenges

Implementing Prebid Flooring is quite a challenge, especially if the publisher has a complex setup and an extensive pricing strategy based on Unified Pricing Rules. First of all, synchronizing prebid Flooring and UPR take time. Additionally, it requires considering that prices will change from period to period, often several times a week. That may cause additional work for publishers without automation of this task. Therefore, it is worth testing this solution to weigh the cost of implementation and the potential benefits.

Does Prebid Flooring help publishers? – Yieldbird’s Research

Yieldbird’s research team conducted A/B tests to determine if the Prebid Flooring is worth implementing. 

The test used six display/mobile web ad units with different parameters and proportions of monetization methods. Ad units 1-3 were the dominant programmatic Open Market auction, and ad units 3-6 had a high direct sales share (only 30% programmatic open auction).  

Read also: Direct Sales vs. Open Market: How and Why These Two Sales Strategies Should Be Aligned

The research was conducted in our header bidding tool Prebid Stack, where we can run A/B tests. Our experiment included ten samples, so we divided them into two sets of five-floor prices. The first set used Prebid Flooring and sent fools to SSPs, and the second one didn’t use PF. At the same time, all samples had Unified Price Rules set up with corresponding prices. Performance data from Google Ad Manager and bid data from Prebid Stack’s reporting module were used for the analysis.

Read also: How To Strike a Balance Between Open Market Optimization and Protecting Direct Sales?

How Prebid Flooring influence programmatic monetization – Research Results

We have analyzed several indicators, e.g., total eCPM, rCPM, Header Bidding eCPM, Header Bidding share, Adx eCPM, Adx Share, and Winrates, from which I will further discuss selected ones, most important from the publishers’ point of view to evaluate if it has a real impact on programmatic monetization.   

We’ve noticed prebid Flooring launched to work together with UPR does not have a significant impact on the improvement in monetization illustrated by rCPM (look at the diagrams below). We don’t ignore the fact that in most cases, the rCPM of samples with Prebid Flooring was higher by a small amount, such as about a +0.4% boost. The highest record ad unit reaches a +2% increase. It should be noted there was also noticed a negative case (-1.2%). In general, these are too small differences to state the value of PF unequivocally.

While analyzing total eCPM results, we noticed its course is similar to rCPM. Moreover, the revenue share of buyers in Header Bidding and their average eCPM also does not indicate whether Prebid Flooring affects them in a specific way.

But on the other hand, there are some interesting insights from Bids analysis. Starting from winrates on ad units 1-3, we defined a clear trend – a boost in winrates with an increase in Flooring. As you can see in the diagrams below, there is a filtering of bids lower than the floor.

In the case of ad units 4-6, we cannot see it as clearly as in the first three ones. However, there is an interesting trend in the course of bids, where on a floor below $1, there are more bids on the Prebid Flooring movement and above $1 – less. This suggests buyers use the bid data to buy more in price ranges that suit them.

Is Prebid Flooring increase programmatic monetization?

Based on our research, we may say:

• Prebid Flooring application doesn’t have a significant impact on rCPM and overall programmatic monetization;
• However, it does change the bidding characteristics of SSPs, as seen in the number of bids and win rates;
• Supply Side Platforms begin to select traffic more deliberately by eliminating bids that would have no chance of winning or sometimes increasing the number of bids in regions of favorable floor prices.

As you see, the decision is not that simple, and it depends on every single example. If you want to find out if this would work for you, schedule a call with our experts and check the possibilities of Prebid Stack and the rest of our programmatic solutions. 

LET’S GET IN TOUCH!

Piotr Niedziela
Optimization Expert
publishers@yieldbird.com

[contact-form-7]

The post Does Prebid Flooring Boost Programmatic Monetization? first appeared on Yieldbird - Research Hub.

In this article, we will delve into the importance of sell-through rates in the advertising landscape and discuss the key data provided by AdManager 360. Moreover, we’ll explore a recent case study that compares GAM360 and forecast data. 

What is Sell-Through Rate?

The sell-through rate (STR) is a key performance indicator in the advertising industry. It represents the percentage of impressions taken by direct advertising campaigns from the total available impressions. Basically, the higher the sell-through rate, the more successful the ad campaign. Therefore, it’s crucial to analyze and optimize STRs to maximize the effectiveness of advertising efforts.

Google Ad Manager 360: A Powerful Tool for Reporting

GAM 360, or Google Ad Manager 360, is recognized as the superior edition of free Google Ad Manager. GAM 360 is particularly advantageous for significant enterprise-level publishers who require advanced reporting and analytics, as well as a more intricate advertising setup.

Google Ad Manager 360 provides advertisers with essential data to optimize their campaigns. The platform offers:

1. Forecasted impressions: The predicted number of impressions for a specific ad campaign.
2. Available impressions: The number of impressions that will not be taken by direct advertising campaigns.
3. Reserved impressions: The number of impressions that direct advertising campaigns will take.

With this data, advertisers can track and improve their sell-through rates, ensuring their campaigns are as effective as possible. Additionally, Google AdManager 360 allows reporting by ad units, dates, and other dimensions like line items, orders, and countries. Moreover, it helps to find out what part of the inventory is still available for new campaigns.  

Case Study: Comparing Google Ad Manager 360 and Forecast Data

Our research team conducted a study comparing Google Ad Manager 360 and forecast data to analyze the effectiveness of advertising campaigns. The research covered three days (July 8th to 10th, 2022) and aimed to identify the accuracy of the forecasts and the actual sell-through rates. 

Key Findings:

1. On average, 34% of ad units had an actual sell-through rate equal to the predicted rate.
2. Most ad units had a sell-through rate difference of less than 10 percentage points between actual and forecasted data.

Note: Some inaccuracy in the prediction may be due to delays in reflecting newly created campaigns in the reports, as Goggle explains in the documentation, it is noted that it may take up to 36h to include data on new line items in this report.

These findings highlight the importance of leveraging Google AdManager 360 data to monitor and optimize sell-through rates. By comparing actual and forecasted data, advertisers can make informed decisions about their campaigns and improve their overall performance.

Take advantage of Google Ad Manager 360

As you see, GAM 360 is a powerful tool for advertisers seeking to optimize their sell-through rates. By tracking forecasted, available, and reserved impressions, businesses can make data-driven decisions to enhance the effectiveness of their advertising campaigns. Regularly comparing GAM and forecast data is crucial to identify trends, adjust strategies, and ultimately achieve advertising success. 

LET’S GET IN TOUCH!

Bartłomiej Oprządek
Senior Business Development Manager & Team Leader
publishers@yieldbird.com

[contact-form-7]

The post How to Use Google Ad Manager 360 Data to Improve Sell-Through Rates first appeared on Yieldbird - Research Hub.

What are push notifications?

These are small, subscription-based messages that are displayed on the user’s device (either desktop or mobile). Typically, push notifications consist of:

1. A short message (one, max two sentences)
2. A logo or small graphic
3. Big image
4. A link or a CTA button

The goal is to reach the user in a quick and effective way with a small piece of information that might be interesting for them. Here’s an example of how a push notification in the publishing industry can look:

Getting acquainted with such a message doesn’t take much time, and if the subject is interesting to a given person, it is likely they will click the link to find out more. According to PushPushGo case studies, well-tailored and personalized push notifications can have up to 25% CTR, which means that every fourth person who saw a specific notification, clicked the link/button. That’s a very good result, surpassing ads and newsletters.

How can the publishing industry utilize push notifications?

Put shortly, to stay in touch with readers. The goal is to encourage your readers (both potential and current) to visit your website more often, correct? To achieve this you can send manual campaigns or set up automation scenarios. Therefore, you can opt for push notifications that:

• Inform your readers about new publications/articles. Here, personalization is crucial. If a given person usually reads the news and political news, informing them about a new cooking show isn’t the best idea.
• Inform your readers about Breaking News. When every second counts, we recommend using Rocket Push – just copy and paste the link of the article and the content of notification is filled from the meta description of the page.
• Encourage current readers to join the VIP club. Many online magazines use such clubs to promote premium content that’s not available to an ordinary reader. Many of your regular readers could be interested in joining such a club. You can use pushes to introduce them to such an opportunity.
• Send reminders. Even the most loyal reader can simply forget about you from time to time. That’s why it’s so important to remind them about yourself through web push. You can send notifications to people who haven’t visited your website for at least a week and encourage them to drop by and read some of the latest pieces.
• Promote special offers/events. Sometimes, you may want to organize a marketing campaign where, for example, you give temporary access to the premium section for free so that your readers can see for themselves whether it’s a good idea to join the VIP club. Use web push to inform every non-premium reader about the opportunity.
• Send welcome/thank-you messages. Your readers want to be appreciated. They want to feel like they belong and are important to you. Send them short messages thanking them for visiting your website or subscribing to the newsletter. It’s the same story with welcome messages that could be displayed to every new subscriber (you can also use web push even to build a subscriber base from scratch!).

Take a look at this example of a web push automation scenario used to increase reader retention:

As you can see, it’s a very simple scenario based on just one premise – reaching out to people who haven’t visited your website for at least a week. Such a scenario, provided you gather that kind of data, could be set up and launched within an hour. A piece of cake! Creating a push notification doesn’t differ that much from creating an email or text message. You don’t need any coding skills.

How to make push notifications effective?

Before you start, you have to tick one box – you have to gather data about your readers. The more you know, the better. Some of the crucial pieces of information that you ought to have comprise:

• User interests (based on articles read and sections visited)
• Last (or previous) visit(s)
• Recently viewed articles/publications
• Is a given person a premium content subscriber

This way, you can reach the right people with the right message. Remember, the secret of the effectiveness of web push lies in personalization. If you want to achieve a high CTR (click-through rate), you need to display notifications that are vital to your readers. Don’t send random articles to random people; this way, you will only get a spammer label. But when you know your readers and encourage them to read articles that you know should be interesting to them – that’s a different story.

When that’s done, you can concentrate on other elements that are necessary to drive interest and engagement:

• Send notifications when people read. For example, many readers want to get acquainted with the latest news in the morning before they start working. That’s a good time to send that kind of information. Texts about your readers’ personal interests should be promoted in the afternoon when people are back from work and have some time for themselves.
• Don’t flood readers with messages. Of course, you should stay in touch, but don’t go overboard. Sending too many messages will get you nothing but canceled subscriptions.
• Write good copy. Push notifications are short. Therefore, they have to be concise and attractive. Write a good copy, add a relevant picture, and a well-thought-out CTA button, and you’ll see the results.
• Target mobile devices. More than 85% of web push subscribers in publishing industry use mobile device to keep in touch with the site. Don’t forget to tailor your push notifications to smartphones as well. After all, many of your readers visit your website on a bus on their way home!

Do you want to know more? Join our online workshop!

Here, we showed you the basics of push notifications. But there’s more! Join us:

How to balance personalized experiences and effective monetization in publishing

20 October 2022, 3:00PM CEST 

This workshop is a project of two companies working in the publishing industry: Yieldbird and PushPushGo. During this event, you will discover how to use push notifications to drive customer engagement and improve monetization. The workshop will be hosted by

We hope to see you then! Book your place today

The post How to improve user engagement in publishing with push notifications? first appeared on Yieldbird - Research Hub.

TABEL OF CONTENTS

• How to recognise user behavior?
• Which tools to use and what information can you learn from them?
• What tips do key industry reports provide?
• How to plan your unique Ad Layout step by step?

Knowing your audience

Typically, users behave differently on desktop and mobile computers, primarily due to the nature of these devices. Remind yourself in what situations you use the phone, computer or tablet. Due to the size of the computer, you cannot use it in a car, in a queue, in a waiting room or while walking. Smartphones, called by some a small window to the world, are present with us on a daily basis and make it possible to maintain divided attention. Unfortunately, divided attention is also followed by various types of distraction and ultimately the possibility of detachment.

The nature of the Privacy Sandbox has seen the evolution of solutions, and FloC was not the first interest-based You can check how quickly your users get distracted while browsing your content using an analytical tool such as Google Analytics, which measures the average duration of a session. For some of the e-commerce sites we analyzed, the average duration of sessions on computers was 11 minutes, and on mobile devices 6 minutes. In the case of news sites – depending on the item (current affairs, lifestyle, or sport), it took up to 1 minute on a mobile device and up to 2 minutes on a computer.

How can information like this be of benefit to you? It is crucial to determine how much time users spend on your website, and to be aware of how low their scroll reaches your content. With that, you can set a point below which ads will be reaching low viewability and performance. You can also add relevant related content widgets in order to deepen the user’s session. The point of low viewability is no longer as obvious as it used to be. Still, the area above the fold is the most important part of the website, but according to NN/g research, since 2010 users have begun to spend much more time BTF (57% is spent ATF, 80% was in 2010 in the research conducted in 2018.)

Tools to help you out when planning Ad Layout

The best tools that can help you identify the visible parts of your website are heat maps. There are three basic maps that are the most important for you – click, scroll and hover.

In a click map, you are able to see where the users click:

You can use click map in a variety of ways in order to determine user behavior. For example, in this Washington Post article, there are content recommendations in the right-hand column:

Later on, there is another similar widget with recommended content and another one at the end of the article. With clickmap, you can determine what is the most optimal amount of content within each of the widgets, as well as their placement on the website. This is only one example of many other usages of this tool.

Another type is a scroll map, which uses scale to represent how deep the average scroll was:

Most of the tools on the market, like HotJar or Smartlook, mark the average fold for each of the devices. Usually, scroll depth falls quickly around the second or third fold. During our research at Yieldbird, we have found out that most of the articles are read till the end by 50% of users on both desktop and mobile, and viewability drops pretty quickly below them. E-commerce websites are usually scrolled by up to 50% of users to half the length, with mobile user numbers coming in a bit lower than this. It is not a solid rule, as there are some exceptions – the best way to determine this is by testing it yourself.

Hover map-tracks the mouse, following the assumption that users point to where they look. This is not 100% accurate and is available only to desktop users.

Most of the tools available on the market work in a way that records user sessions and processes them so as to create relevant information. Depending on what information you are obtaining and in what way, you may or may not ask the user to consent to participating in such a recording. The best way of determining this is to contact the technology provider. As for the providers, some of the most popular ones include HotJar, Smartlook, or Mouseflow; and a number of them offer packages of sessions for free, but whether that is enough for you depends on how many daily sessions your websites generate.

You can measure scroll depth also through Google Analytics, by using Google Tag Manager, which allows for the measuring of both horizontal and vertical viewability (with the same trigger). To learn how to set a trigger in GTM, visit this support article, as well as this one to learn how to measure scroll depth.

What can you do if you do not have access to any of these tools? The best way is to measure yourself against the competition. It is not the best way to plan your ad layout, so keep it as a last resort; but still, it is an option to consider. In this linked article regarding assessing the quality of the inventory, I briefly go through the process of auditing inventory value and recognizing your competition.

Look for clues in the guidance and policies

There is a lot of secondary research available on the web. Secondary research is a great option, as it is carried on a large scale with a diverse audience, which is something that small and medium Publishers might not be profitable enough to do (due to the large costs of reaching an audience and creating and maintaining a team for data analysis, etc). One of the best sources is the research conducted by the Better Ads Coalition, which contains data for mobile, desktop, and video ads, as well as advertising technologies (and recently updated with Mobile Apps).

For example, let’s take a look at the mobile experience. One of the best-ranked ads are sticky ads on the bottom and the top of the page. Also, both video and standard banners ads within content do not disrupt the user experience. At the very bottom of the list, there are pop-ups, prestitial ads, and video ads with sound on. Similar conclusions were drawn from NN/g research in their article ‘The most hated advertising techniques’ from 2017 (but still relevant).

As we can see, similar types of ads were marked as ‘strongly disliked’, but with higher scores on mobile devices. This is quite a natural occurrence, as with shorter sessions, disruptive ads can cause more annoyance than on desktop – with almost twice longer ones.

Another useful information source are guides, released by IAB. In their Ad portfolio, you will find not only knowledge regarding available ad sizes within Programmatic, but also requirements that ads need to meet (in both placing and formatting). Recently realized guides for Native and IN-APP advertising are also available through the IAB Europe website.

Planning Your Ad Layout – step by step

1. Investigate user behavior: session depth, clicks, and (in the case of desktop) hovers.
2. Find out about the latest reports, policies, and competition behavior.
3. Plan an Ad layout – you can find more detailed tips here.
4. Be careful with successive ad units, prioritizing user experience over ad revenue.
5. Analyze the results and check changes in user behavior after making the changes.

To sum it all up

There are many resources on the web that will help you create the best ad layout, such as secondary research from IAB, or NN/g, which are available for free. Technologies like heat maps usually require some outlay, but the information they provide is valuable for auditing and improving your inventory. Assess what is best for you based on the scale of your business and its complexity, and move forward accordingly. It is worth remembering that technological developments and changing market trends have created room for improvement in your inventory.

Do you have any questions regarding Ad Layout designing?
Feel free to contact us – our team will be more than happy to discuss it with you!

LET’S GET IN TOUCH!

Oliwia Gruszewska
Senior Customer Performance Analyst

[contact-form-7]

The post Desktop vs Mobile – Planning Ad Layout for Different Devices first appeared on Yieldbird - Research Hub.

As previously, examples in the guide below are based on Chrome version 94.0.4606.71. You can use other browsers as well, but keep in mind that not all features described below might be available.

Troubleshooting Ad Implementation – where to start when you detect an issue in ad setup?

Open Chrome browser developer console

Here is a handy shortcut to open the browser developer console:

• Command+Option+J (Mac)
• Control+Shift+J (Windows, Linux, Chrome OS)

If that doesn’t do the trick, you can look at other options here.

Simulating a mobile device

Chrome mobile device simulation allows you to see how your ads may behave on real mobile devices. To open the device toolbar, you can click on the icon on the top left corner of developer tools or use the keyboard shortcut:

• Command+Option+M (Mac)
• Control+Shift+M (Windows, Linux, Chrome OS)

Chrome mobile device simulation allows you to see how your ads may behave on real mobile devices. To open Once you are in the mobile device simulation, you can adjust a couple settings to replicate user experience like resize the simulation window to whatever dimensions you need either by specifying values, using handles in responsive mode or even use one of the predefined.

Chrome mobile device simulation allows you to see how your ads may behave on real mobile devices. To open Once you are in the mobile device simulation, you can adjust a couple settings to replicate user experience like resize the simulation window to whatever dimensions you need either by specifying values, using handles in responsive mode or even use one of the predefined values for common devices. With the use of , you can switch between portrait and landscape mode.

Also, you will be able to adjust the page view using media queries that are specified on a given page. This is especially useful when you need to build responsive ad units and you want to know how media query breakpoints are affecting your ad slot behaviour; and at the same time you do not need to contact your developer team or dig too much into code, just click on media query to automatically adjust the view. You need to be in “responsive” mode in order to be able to switch between media queries.

Throttling the network

Another quite useful feature is network throttling, especially when most of your traffic comes from mobile devices. It allows you to simulate different internet connections. Chrome gives you some most common internet connections available nowadays but even if predefined settings do not satisfy you, Chrome gives you the option to set custom settings for the internet connection.

Throttling settings will affect after page reload. Just remember to revert this setting once you are done with your troubleshooting.

Tip: Whenever you override default settings you will see a warning icon on the panel where a modification has been made.

Local overrides

Personally, local override is my favourite feature of Chrome. It makes troubleshooting a lot easier because you are able to play around with the webpage code and make some changes locally on your machine even if you do not own the website and you do not have access to the unminified code base. When you make changes on the file in developer tools, developer tools saves a copy of the modified file to your local directory and next time you refresh the page with overrides enabled developer tools will serve your local copy of the file. How cool is that? For AdOps it is exceptionally cool!

Imagine you are working on the implementation of a new feature or preparing a test, but you do not want to bother developers or you are not sure if something will help or not you can quickly apply a “fix” and immediately see the result.

To enable local overrides you need to navigate to the Sources panel and open the Overrides tab. Then Select folder for overrides and choose the directory on your computer where you want to save your changes. Allow developer tools read and write access to the directory (a pop-up will appear).

You are ready to start working on the files of your interest.

One way to save the file is to go to the Sources tab and choose Page; and then look for the file of your interest. Then click with the right mouse button and select Save for overrides from the menu (You can do so also through the Network tab).

I hope you have found those cool features useful and that they will help you in your day-to-day work!

Do you have any questions regarding Ads Implementation?
Feel free to contact us – our team will be more than happy to discuss it with you!

LET’S GET IN TOUCH!

Dariusz Siudak
Senior Adops Specialist
publishers@yieldbird.com

[contact-form-7]

The post Troubleshooting Ad Implementation AdOps Guide – part II first appeared on Yieldbird - Research Hub.