Web interstitials are full-page web ads and are an additional inventory and revenue source. You can monetize web pages with impactful ads while respecting Better Ads Standards.
To respect the user experience, web interstitials:
- Have a clear exit option.
- Have a configurable frequency cap—by default, a given publisher can show an ad to a user only once per hour per subdomain.
- Match Google Search standards for avoiding intrusiveness.
On this page
Get started
- Tagging
- Add the
INTERSTITIALGPT slot type to the<head>element of the web page. - Display the ad slot as you would any other ad slot.
See more tagging details, including how to prevent certain links from triggering the interstitial, in the developer documentation.
- Add the
- Trafficking
- Create a new ad unit or use an existing one for the interstitial ad slot. Select the size 320x480, 300x250, and 336x280.
- Create line items:
Interstitial support for desktop is under experimentation and will eventually be available to all publishers. Therefore, consider targeting Mobile phones and Tablets in “Device category” now to prevent unintended delivery in the future.
- For reserved and programmatic direct inventories: Target inventory as normal. Creatives must have the size 320x480, 300x250, or 336x280. Note that you can target line items by Inventory format, with "Interstitial" as an option.
- For non-reserved inventory: Include the relevant ad unit in the Ad Exchange line item. Include the sizes 320x480, 300x250, or 336x280 in the associated placeholder creative. These fixed sizes are needed only for trafficking purposes on Ad Exchange line items. Ads served programmatically can be a range of sizes depending on the size of the viewport.
- For video out-stream ads (reserved and programmatic direct inventories): Target inventory as normal. Creatives must have the size 320x480, 300x250, or 336x280. Note that you can target line items by Inventory format, with "Interstitial" as an option.
- For web interstitials in private auctions:
Don't select a size. The deal can't be limited to the web interstitial format by selecting a size(s) but it can, if required, be limited to the web interstitial format by other means, such as, using an ad slot specific key-value, or using a separate inventory unit.
- Reporting
- Web interstitial is reported as "Interstitial" under the Inventory format dimension.
- "Total ad requests" for web interstitial does not include unfilled requests. As a result, "Total ad requests" for web interstitial may be less than "Ad Exchange ad requests" or "Programmatic eligible ad requests".
Demo interstitials
To demo the interstitial format, append #gamInterstitialDemo to a website page that already has some GPT tags. Clicking a navigation link on the page should trigger the format.
Triggers
Web interstitials can be triggered when a user:
- Navigates to a page
- Unhides a tab/window (for example, when they revisit a tab/window after going to another tab/window, revisit a tab/window after unlocking the device screen, or maximize a window after minimizing it)
- Clicks the browser's navigation bar (desktop only)
Web interstitials respect the frequency cap set by the publisher, even if a user triggers multiple actions that can display an interstitial.
Opt in to triggers
To opt in to receive additional triggers:
- Sign in to Google Ad Manager.
- Click Inventory, then Network Settings.
- Under the "Web interstitial triggers" field, select which trigger to opt into.
-
You can also opt into triggers by tagging your pages.
This example shows how to opt into the unhide tab/window trigger:
Example
const interstitialSlot = googletag.defineOutOfPageSlot(
'/6355419/Travel/Europe/France/Paris',
googletag.enums.OutOfPageFormat.INTERSTITIAL);
// The publisher wants to enable the 'unhideWindow' trigger.
interstitialSlot.setConfig({
interstitial: {
triggers: {
unhideWindow: true,
},
},
});This example shows how to opt into both the unhide page and navigation bar triggers:
Example
// Define a GPT managed web interstitial ad slot.
const interstitialSlot = googletag.defineOutOfPageSlot(
"/1234567/sports",
googletag.enums.OutOfPageFormat.INTERSTITIAL
);// Enable optional interstitial triggers.
// Change this value to false to disable.
const enableTriggers = true;interstitialSlot.setConfig({
interstitial: {
triggers: {
navBar: enableTriggers,
unhideWindow: enableTriggers,
},
},
});
Frequency cap
- The default frequency cap for web interstitials is 1 impression per 10 minutes.
- Frequency cap is configurable at a network-level or ad unit-level. You can lower the frequency cap to 1 impression per 1 minute.
- Ad Manager uses local storage to enforce the frequency cap. From November 4, 2024, users who previously did not provide local storage consent will also be served interstitials. Publishers can opt out of showing interstitials to users without local storage consent by including the following code snippet on their page:
Example
// Define a GPT managed web interstitial ad slot.
const interstitialSlot = googletag.defineOutOfPageSlot(
"/1234567/sports",
googletag.enums.OutOfPageFormat.INTERSTITIAL
);
interstitialSlot.setConfig({
interstitial: {
requireStorageAccess: true, // defaults to false
},
});Ineligible links
Some links on a page may be considered ineligible to show interstitial ads. Interstitial ads won't be shown when a user clicks an ineligible link, for example, links to URLs without HTTP/HTTPS and links that open a new window.
You can prevent specific links from triggering GPT-managed web interstials by adding a data-google-interstitial="false" attribute to the anchor element or any ancestor of the anchor element.