You can traffic anchor ads that appear at the top or bottom of your web pages, remaining in view as the user scrolls. Anchor ads allow you to improve the monetization of your web pages, using a high-performing format that is compliant with the Better Ads Standards. Users can dismiss an anchor ad at any time by clicking the arrow.
On this page
Top anchor ads
A top anchor ad is initially hidden to make sure menus at the top of the page aren't covered. Anchor ads appear as the user scrolls. To ensure content isn't covered when the user scrolls to the top of the page, space is reserved at the very top by setting padding-top to match the height of the slot on the body element. Make sure the CSS on your site causes the space to be reserved.
| Dismissed | Anchor |
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Dismissed
Anchor
Bottom anchor ads
Bottom anchor ads appear after the ad has been fetched. To make sure content isn't covered when the user scrolls to the bottom of the page, space is reserved at the very bottom by setting padding-bottom matching the height of the slot on the body element. Make sure the CSS on your site causes the space to be reserved.
| Dismissed | Anchor |
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Dismissed
Anchor
Side rail anchor ads
Side rail anchor ads are a type of ad unit that appear on the side of desktop pages, where space is generally free. Ads appear as soon as the ad has been fetched. The ad size is optimized for the available space but if side rail anchors are not supported, the ad doesn’t render.
If the window is resized causing the ad to not fit in the empty space anymore, the slot is temporarily hidden until space becomes available again. The ad slot gets as close as possible to the main content, in the 5 pixel to 25 pixel range.
Example of a side rail anchor ad on desktopDismissed
Anchor
Web anchor sizes
| Inventory type | Sizes |
|---|---|
| Traditional reservations |
These reservation sizes are supported:
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| Programmatic demand |
For programmatic:
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Get started
| For details on tagging, like device targeting or how to control whether an anchor slot is created on desktop or mobile, go to the developer documentation. |
Tagging for anchor ads
- Add the
TOP_ANCHORorBOTTOM_ANCHORslot type to your web page, ideally within the<head>element. - Display the ad slot as you would any other ad slot.
defineOutOfPageSlot()returns null if the page doesn't support the format. -
For side rail anchor ads:
- Create a new GPT slot in the
<head>element of your web page using:LEFT_SIDE_RAILorRIGHT_SIDE_RAIL. - You can demo side rail ads on any page that shows ads with GPT by adding
#gamLeftSideRailDemoor#gamRightSideRailDemo.
- Create a new GPT slot in the
Tagging tips
- Only add anchor slots where you want an ad to be shown. Be aware that anchor ads are not limited to mobile devices. If you serve the same code to both mobile and non-mobile users, it's recommended to explicitly define when and where anchor ads should be shown for each environment. See an example of how to target by device in the developer documentation.
- To see what your page would look like with a top or bottom anchor ad, append the hash parameter
#gamTopAnchorDemoor#gamBottomAnchorDemoto any page that already loadsgpt.js. - You can demo side rail ads on any page that shows ads with GPT by adding
#gamLeftSideRailDemoor#gamRightSideRailDemo.
Traffic anchor ads
- Create ad units (or use existing ones) for anchor slots. To streamline trafficking, include the size 320x50.
- To streamline trafficking, include the available sizes for traditional reservations.
- For side rail anchor ads, create or reuse existing ad units and line items, and add the following sizes (for desktop, reservations and backfill/programmatic demand): 180x500, 160x600, 120x600.
- Create line items:
- For reserved inventory:
- Target anchor ad inventory as you would any other type of inventory.
- Creatives must have one of the available sizes for traditional reservations.
- Note that you can target line items by Inventory format, with "Anchor" as an option.
- For programmatic inventory:
- Include the relevant ad unit in the Ad Exchange line item.
- Include one of the available sizes for traditional reservations in the associated placeholder creative.
- Note that anchor ads can be larger for programmatic.
- For reserved inventory:
Report on anchor ads
Use the "Inventory format" dimension to see how anchor ads are performing compared to other formats.
