Sticky Anchor Ads and Side Rails
Sticky ads stay in view while the visitor reads: an anchor strip along the bottom of the screen, and side rails in the empty space beside a centred page. They never cover the content, they follow the scroll, and they can load a fresh banner after a set time on screen. Every GoAdserver publisher can switch them on in the zone settings. Ordinary banner campaigns fill them, so advertisers don’t have to change anything.
What a sticky anchor ad is
An anchor is a full-width strip stuck to the bottom of the screen (or the top) with the banner centred in it. It stays put while the page scrolls underneath, so the ad is in view for the whole visit instead of the few seconds a reader spends passing an in-content slot. A tab on its edge folds the strip away with one tap, so the reader stays in control. This is what keeps anchors acceptable to visitors and to browser ad standards.
The usual setup is two zones: a 728 × 90 anchor for desktop screens and a 320 × 50 anchor for phones. Each zone has a smallest and a largest screen width, so every visitor sees exactly one anchor in the right size.
Side rails on wide screens
Most sites centre their content in a column, which leaves empty space left and right on a wide monitor. Side rails put a 160 × 600 skyscraper into that space, held halfway down the screen while the page scrolls. With a smallest screen width of about 1400 px they only appear where the space really exists. On laptops and phones they are simply not shown, so they never squeeze the article.
Refresh on real viewing time
A sticky unit can load a new banner every 30 seconds to 5 minutes. The clock only runs while the ad is actually seen: the browser tab is visible, at least half of the unit is on screen and it is not folded away. Each new banner is a new impression in the statistics. That is how sticky placements turn long reading sessions into more paid views without adding a single extra slot to the page.
How to set it up
- Create a banner zone with the display type Floater and pick its size.
- In the Floater Settings, switch on Anchor and choose a bottom or top position. For a rail, pick Left Middle or Right Middle instead.
- Set Refresh the banner and the screen-width range (for example at most 768 px for the phone anchor, at least 1400 px for rails).
- Copy the zone code onto your pages. The unit positions itself.
The same settings are in the public API (floater_settings.anchor, refresh_seconds, min_width, max_width). The details are in the documentation: interstitial and floating zones.
Part of a complete publisher ad server
Sticky anchors and rails sit next to every other format in GoAdserver: banners, native, video, push and high-impact units. They all draw on the same campaigns, targeting and reporting. See the full list of ad formats or read how the publisher ad server fits together.