How to Make More Money with AdSense Anchor Ads?

Google offers different types of ad formats for AdSense publishers. You can create some of the them as independent add units and manually insert anywhere on your site. However, there are few formats available only as Auto Ads that Google will automatically insert on your site using AI technology. In our earlier article, we have explained how to make money with vignette ads. In this article, let us explore how to make more money with AdSense anchor ads.

AdSense Anchor Ads

As of 18 July 2021, AdSense anchor ads will display only on mobile devices. Later Google included anchor ads will also start showing on large desktop devices from 19 July 2021. The large devices include any screen size greater than 1000px wide. Along with vignette ads, you can enable anchor ads for wider screen and start making more revenue from your online content.

When browsing internet, you might have seen the ads sticking on the sidebar of many websites. Google does not allow sticky display ad format for regular AdSense publishers. Those sites showing sticky display ads either use ad exchange partners like BuySellAds or using Google Ad Manager (earlier known as DoubleClick for Publishers). Anchor ads with dismissible option is a good substitute for sticky display ads. With the availability on desktop devices, you can expect it to generate similar revenue like sidebar sticky display ads.

Display of Anchor Ads

Basically, you can check the anchor ads preview in your AdSense account.

• Anchor ads will load only when user scroll the page down.
• As per the preview, it will display on the top of the page both in mobile and desktop devices. However, we have noticed it shows at the bottom in desktop.
• The ad will stick on the top in mobile while user can scroll the content below. Similarly, it will stick at the bottom in wide screen.
• Users have an ability to click on the small up arrow to hide the anchor ad.
• Unlike vignette ads that loads only on first page transition, anchor ad will load on each page user visits on your site.

With the introduction to desktop devices, you can easily increase the revenue with this sticky anchor ads.

How to Enable or Disable AdSense Anchor Ads?

You do not need to do any changes in your setup, if you are already using AdSense Auto Ads. Remember, Google will show ads automatically when you have enabled auto ads and there is an ad unit present on the page. You do not need to insert special auto ads code for showing any auto ad formats like in-page, vignette or matched content ads.

If you are not using auto ads and wanted to enable anchor ads then follow the below instructions:

• Login to your Google AdSense account.
• Go to “Ads > Overview” section.
• You will see the list of approved sites under “By site” section.
• Click on the “Edit” icon showing against your site which will take you to the auto ads setup screen.

• First, enable auto ads from the right sidebar under “Ad settings” section.

• Now, click on the “Ad formats” option on the right sidebar and scroll down to “Anchor ads” section.
• Enable “Anchor ads” option which will show the ads on mobile devices only. Make sure to enable “Wider screen” option to show anchor ads on desktop devices also.
• Meanwhile Google will scan your site and show the auto ads position on the left pane.
• Scroll content on the website preview section to view anchor ad sliding from the top.

• Toggle the display to desktop by clicking on the “Desktop” icon and preview the anchor and other auto ads on wider screen.

• Click on “Apply to site” button and save your changes.

Google will take 10 to 20 minutes time to start showing auto ads on your site.  

Monitoring Anchor Ad Performance

Similar to any other ad unit, you can view the performance report of both mobile and desktop anchor ad units.

• When you are on the “Ads > Overview” section, click on the “See report” icon against your site.
• This will take you to the reporting section with an unsaved open report.
• Click on the filter icon and select “Ad format” option.
• Choose “Anchor” which will show as the last option and “Apply” the changes.

• Change the time period you want to view the performance and get the report.
• You can get the details in the line chart as well as in the table format.

Limitations in Using Anchor Ads

Anchor ads are good for making more revenue from your AdSense account without any additional setup. However, remember the followings when using it on your site.

• You can’t create independent anchor ad unit. This is part of auto ads and enabling auto ads may insert advertisements randomly on unwanted position. Though you can remove the unnecessary auto ad placements from the setup screen, you can’t avoid the misplacement completely. For example, you can display normal display ad units in-between paragraph elements. However, auto ads may appear in-between list elements which may annoy users.
• You can’t enable only in desktop devices which is a similar problem like vignette ads. Since wider screen option is under the mobile anchor ads option, you have to use both or only on mobile.
• Anchor ads will directly impact the page loading speed as it will load on the above the fold area. This will highly impact the blocking time and hence your site will fail in Core Web Vitals and page experience measurements.
• Most important part is that you should not use sticky header navigation when using anchor ads. It may overlap the header, especially on mobile devices.

Final Words

Google makes all efforts to make more revenue from AdSense auto ads setup. As a content publisher, you can be happy in making money without additional effort. However, AdSense sites have traffic guidelines and heavily rely on organic traffic from search engines. Using anchor ads will impact the page loading time and hence the search results position as speed is one of the ranking factors in Google search algorithm. Therefore, test your site with Google PageSpeed Insights and GTmetrix to evaluate the impact of the enabling anchor ads on mobile and desktop. If necessary, you can delay loading of JavaScript on your site to manage the page speed while leveraging the anchor ads setup.