Google Adsense: Anchor ads coming to wider screens [Explained Update]

Wide screens: Desktops, Smart screens...great news to content creators

Is it really good news to content creators who have their content connected to Adsense Ads? What does it really mean? What are Anchor Ads? ...Anchor Ads are more like Overlay Ads which have been there for a very long time, Google Adsense and other affiliate marketing options have been using it for Mobile Advertising. I personally have been fond of it because lets say it doesn't take much space but sends the message home to the reader.

Let's talk about Anchor Ads today... What is an Anchor Ad? Why use the word anchor in naming an ad?

According to the English Dictionary, an Anchor is a heavy object attached to a cable, chain or rope and used to hook a ship to the sea bottom. Have an idea yet? Right on! An Anchor Ad is a type of overlay ad which stays at the bottom of a webpage regardless of scrolling. These ads form part of Google AdSense’s Page Level Ads (along with Vignettes). On mobile and on desktops, they are generally the size 320×50, and 728×90 respectively.

How they look

Screenshot: Anchor Ads on Mobile device

Google AdSense includes Anchor ads as part of their page-level ads package though its predecessor the Overlay ads are usually more annoying to users than valuable to websites, Adsense included an arrow for users to collapse an anchor ad at any time by clicking the arrow to minimise it.

To bloggers and website managers, anchor ads allow one to improve Adsense monetization of mobile web pages, using a high-performing, mobile-first format that is compliant with the Better Ads Standards.You can traffic anchor ads that float at the top or bottom of your mobile web pages, remaining in view as the user scrolls. My advice is to place it at the top so that Cookie Policy and social media buttons can be comfortable at the bottom and at the top it can be minimised or hidden to ensure menus at the top of the page aren’t covered.

Anchor ads coming to desktops and other larger screens is a plus for marketers and for bloggers to gain more. For sites that have anchors turned on, anchor ads will soon start to appear on wider screens such as desktop. According to Google, anchor ads experiments show that they perform well on wider screens. If you'd prefer not to show anchors on wider screens, you can turn this option off using the new "Wide screen" control in your Auto ads settings on your Adsense account.

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