CTR and VTR are among the most valuable programmatic advertising metrics (to see the full list of digital advertising abbreviations and their meanings go to our glossary).
Why? Well, they literally determine how successful the ongoing advertising campaign is. Depending on these two, advertisers decide whether to continue placing their creatives on the same site next time or not. Sounds quite important, right?
The thing is that often publishers neglect CTR and VTR assuming that it is beyond their control. Plus, you may think that there is an unlimited demand for all kinds of inventory. Don’t want to disappoint you, but none of these statements are true.
Despite neverending campaigns, advertisers rarely put ads wherever it feels right. They wisely choose placements to generate the most engagement. And if a publisher doesn’t take care of these two metrics, the chances that a buyer will go someplace else after are incredibly high.
Yet it is not a 100% publisher’s responsibility, there are things you can do to boost your CTR and VTR. Check the list below and tell us if you follow all of our recommendations.
Sufficient Content-Length
If a piece of content you publish is too short, a user may leave the page before an ad is fetched from an ad server.
Try to grab users’ attention to extend the time they spend on each page by making your articles longer.
Imagine an article, which is one paragraph long, and has multiple ads failing to upload. Not the best example of content presentation. Every time something like this happens, a brand risks to lose a potential customer.
A good job was done by Buzzfeed. While there is not too much text, they added lots of attention-grabbing content to entertain users. Visitors happily scroll down and spend more time per article. Embed a sticky video ad format and high VTR and CTR are guaranteed. Utilizing this type of ads is good not only for the advertiser but the publisher too. While the former benefit from high ROAD the latter enjoy additional revenue without annoying visitors with intrusive ads.
Place Ads Above the Fold
Do not place ads where no one can see them. Maybe you’re creating a positive, ad-free environment for your audience, but it hijacks VTR. What does that mean? Simply that next time an advertiser will choose someone who provides better ad locations.
Keep an Eye on Ad Density
We all know that high ad density creates a wrong, spammy image. It neither helps your metrics nor persuades new advertisers to work with you. Choose the right amount of ads and place them wisely.
Some visitors developed so-called “blindness” to ads, so choose formats, which are highly viewable, send the right message yet do not disturb or annoy a visitor.
As a publisher, you are in charge of finding the best performing slot for ads. This tactic may increase the number of buyers willing to work with you and improve your Fill Rate.
Avoid Pagination and Use Infinite Scrolling and Grids Instead
Infinite scrolling is a web-design technique that loads content continuously as the user scrolls down the page, which eliminates the need for pagination.
Another techy trick is to change the way your pages are refreshed. When the page is being reloaded, make sure that only certain parts of it are refreshed while the ads stay where they are.
Something Else?
What works for one publisher, may not work for another. If you struggle with improving VTR, email the Impactify’s team directly and we will work out a unique strategy tailored especially for your website and audience.
