We’re pleased to announce "lazy loading" for ads, an exciting new feature that significantly increases ad viewability.
When enabled, BLOX will only serve lazy loading ads when the spot becomes viewable on a reader's device. Ads towards the bottom of a page, for instance, serve when a user scrolls down the page.Â
Implementing lazy loading is a critical step for increasing viewability of media sites. Many industry experts recommend publishers have a total ad viewability rate of 70 percent or more.
Enabling lazy loading across an entire site may result in reduced overall ad impressions, but the expectation is that Cost Per Thousand (CPM) rates will increase over time.
To allow for a smoother transition to a high viewability model, there is the ability to use an option called "always load." With this option enabled for a block, the ad will be served regardless of whether or not it has appeared on a reader's screen (meaning, it will not be lazy loaded). Using this feature, sites will be able to turn on lazy loading, while strategically enabling the "always load" option.
For example, a site may turn on the lazy loading option but enable "always load" on the bottom leaderboard ad and the bottom right rail ad. Perhaps those positions are sold to local advertisers as a sponsorship. Doing this results in decreased overall impressions, but an increased viewability score. Two weeks later, the site turns off "always load" on their bottom leaderboard, which decreases ad impressions but increases viewability even more. The site should continue to make changes as needed until they can reach the industry-recommended viewability score of 70 percent.
