How to Make More Money with AdSense Anchor Ads?

Google offers different types of ad formats for AdSense publishers. You can create some of them as independent ad 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 which appears between page views. 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 were displayed only on mobile devices. Later, Google included anchor ads to start showing on large desktop devices from 19 July 2021. Larger devices include any screen size greater than 1000 pixels 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. Though Google allows sticky display ad format for regular AdSense publishers, most sites showing sticky display ads either use ad exchange partners 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.

Note: There is also separate Side Rail format to show sticky floating ads on the right, left or both sides on larger desktop devices. This is a default ad format part of AdSense Auto Ads setup and you can enable or disable like Anchor ads.

Display of Anchor Ads

You can check the anchor ads preview in your AdSense account, and it will look like below on desktop devices.

• Anchor ads will load only when users scroll the page down.
• Earlier, anchor ads used to display on top of the page on mobile and bottom on desktop devices. Later, Google added an option to choose the display position. However, you need to choose top or bottom for all the devices.
• The ad will stick on the top / bottom while user can scroll the content.
• Users have an ability to click on the small arrow to hide the anchor ad.
• Unlike vignette ads that loads on set periodic interval, anchor ads will load on each page user visits on your site.
• You can also enable collapsible anchor which will show larger ad (mostly on first page view).

How to Enable or Disable AdSense Anchor Ads?

If you are not using AdSense Auto Ads and wanted to enable anchor ads, then follow the below instructions:

• Login to your Google AdSense account.
• Go to “Ads” section where 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 “Overlay formats” option and enable “Anchor ads”. This will only show the ads on mobile devices. Meanwhile Google will scan your site and show the preview on left pane. Scroll content on the website preview section to view the anchor ad is sticking to the top / bottom.

Additional Anchor Ads Settings

Google added more controls to adjust the behavior of anchor ads. Scroll down to “Advanced settings” section and fine-tune the followings:

• Allow collapsible anchor ads – this option was added from 01 December 2024. This will enlarge the height of mobile anchor ad when users scroll, and users can collapse it back to smaller size.
• Allow anchor ads on screens wider than 1000px, like desktop – to show anchor ads on desktop devices also. If you enable this option, toggle the preview to desktop and check how the anchor ad is showing on wider screen.

• Select anchor ad position – select the position of the ad to stick to top or bottom or switch between both positions.
• Click on “Apply to site” button to 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” section, click on the “See report” icon against your site (under “By site” tab).
• 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” and “Apply” the changes.

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

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 them on your site.

• You can’t create independent anchor ad unit as it is part of auto ads. Enabling all auto ads formats may insert advertisements randomly in unwanted positions. To avoid this, go to “In-page formats” and “Intent-driven formats” sections and disable all available options.
• 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 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 on top position. It may overlap the header, especially on mobile devices.
• Avoid using collapsible format as it will distract users by occupying almost half of the screen on mobiles.

Final Words

Google makes all efforts allowing publishers to earn 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 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.