User Experience

Ads and user experience: how many ads is too many?

A good ad experience is one readers can live with: ads that take up no more than 30% of a mobile screen, never push content around, can be closed when they cover it, and load only when they can be seen. Fusion measures each of these on your own pages, including ads from other providers, so you can find the right balance between revenue and readers.

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How it works

Bringing a heavy mobile page back under 30%

01
Measure
Diagnostics shows your mobile ad density every day, counting our ads and any from other providers, next to heavy ad interventions and viewability.
02
Find the cause
See which units add the most. A sticky unit, an in-article unit every few paragraphs and a third-party widget can tip a page over 30%.
03
Fix
Space units further apart with CSS selectors, swap a unit for one that doesn't take page space, or load a unit only when another is empty.
04
Check
Watch density, viewability and Core Web Vitals come back into range, and run an experiment to see what the change did to revenue.

Ad-heavy vs ad-optimised

What separates an ad-heavy page from a good one

Cramming in more units rarely pays for long. These are the differences readers and Google notice.

An ad-heavy page compared with an ad-optimised page
	Ad-heavy page	Ad-optimised page
Mobile ad density	Over 30% of the page	30% or less, counting every provider's ads
Layout	Ads drop in and push the article down	Space reserved for first-screen ads; formats that never shift content
Ads over content	Can't be closed	High-impact formats the reader can close
Loading	Every slot requested on page load, seen or not	Units load when scrolled into view and refresh only while in view
Scripts	Several ad partners, each with its own code	One async tag, built only with the features you use
What follows	Unhappy readers and editorial teams, lower CPMs, and Google may restrict ads	Happier readers and editorial teams, higher viewability, and CPMs that hold up

What to measure

The user experience checks, and what healthy looks like

Each of these is measured on your own pages, from real visitors, so you can see the effect of every change.

Ad user experience checks: what each measures, the healthy value and where to see it in Fusion
Check	What it measures	Healthy	Where in Fusion
Mobile ad density	Share of a mobile page taken up by ads, ours and third-party	30% or less	Diagnostics, Benchmarking
Heavy ad interventions	Ads Chrome removed for using too much CPU or network. A removed ad earns nothing	Around 0.3%	Diagnostics, Benchmarking
Cumulative Layout Shift	How much content moves while the page loads	Under 0.1	Core Web Vitals
Interaction to Next Paint	How quickly the page responds to taps and clicks	Under 200 ms	Core Web Vitals
Viewability	Share of impressions with 50% of the ad in view for at least one second	High, with In-view loading on	Diagnostics, Demand Mix
Page to Ad Load	Time from the page arriving to the first ad appearing	Around 3 seconds	Ad latency, Metrics

Ad density in the docs

In Fusion

The controls for a lighter ad layout

All set in Fusion against your one tag, so editorial and ad ops can agree a layout without waiting for a developer.

Place ads by CSS selector

Choose exactly where units go, such as every fifth paragraph, and change it in Fusion without a release.

Different layouts per device

Target units by device, viewport, browser, country and URL path, so mobile readers get a lighter layout.

Load and refresh in view

Units wait until they are scrolled into view and refresh every 35 seconds by default, only while seen. Background tabs pause.

Formats that don't shift layout

Adhesion sticks to the screen edge and In-Image sits over your photos, so neither pushes content around.

Learn more

One ad or the other

Load a unit only when another is empty, such as skyscrapers only when no takeover is available, or switch ads off on sensitive pages with a body class.

Test before you roll out

Run a lighter layout against your current one on live traffic and compare revenue, viewability and heavy ads.

Learn more

Results

Where publishers got to on Fusion

Results are for each publisher's whole Fusion set-up.

+1,710%net revenueTimes Higher Education — header bidding, dynamic floors and refresh on a managed stackRead the case study +131%total revenue, including directLondon South East — Managed Service, with +121% user RPMRead the case study +129%overall revenueKelsey Media — across its flagship sites, versus the previous partnerRead the case study

FAQ

Ad density and user experience questions, answered

How many ads is too many on a page?

On mobile, there is a clear line: ads should take up no more than 30% of the page. Above that risks penalties and hurts the reading experience. On desktop there is no single standard, so judge it by how much content the reader sees and test changes with an experiment.

What is mobile ad density, and how is it measured?

It is the share of a mobile page taken up by ads. Fusion's Diagnostics counts both Content Ignite's ads and any third-party ads on the page, so the figure is your total, and Benchmarking compares it with similar publishers.

Why would Google restrict ads on my site?

Google rarely gives a reason, but common ones are ads covering content or other ads that can't be closed, ads taking more than 30% of a mobile page, and ads that encourage accidental clicks, such as ads that look like menus or sit too close to content. Start with any recent change to your site. Our Google FAQs cover how to fix it.

What is a heavy ad intervention?

Google Chrome removes an ad that uses too much CPU or network data, and a removed ad earns nothing. Across sites it is typically around 0.3% of ads. It is mostly down to advertisers' creatives, so Content Ignite reviews the demand behind it; keeping your pages fast also helps. Chrome explains the limits in its heavy ad interventions post.

Do fewer ads mean less revenue?

Not always. Ads that load only in view raise viewability and click-through rate, which advertisers pay more for, so CPMs should rise after a short while even if total impressions fall. Readers who stay engaged for longer also see more ads. The way to know for your site is to test the lighter layout against the current one.

How do I stop ads making the page jump?

Give ad slots in the first screen, such as the header leaderboard and sidebar MPU, a container with a fixed size, so the space is there before the ad arrives. Ads further down can stay flexible. Adhesion and In-Image units never cause layout shift. See Core Web Vitals.

Are interstitial and sticky ads bad for user experience?

They don't have to be. Fusion's Interstitial shows between page views, not over the article, and the reader can close it at any time. Adhesion sits at the edge of the screen without covering content or shifting it. Read interstitials vs video for how to choose.

Can readers find out why they see an ad?

Yes. Every Content Ignite high-impact ad has an info button where readers can find out more and opt out of personalised ads. Without consent, ads default to non-personalised. See privacy and compliance.

See what your ads cost your readers.

Get a free Revenue Healthcheck: mobile ad density, Core Web Vitals and tag set-up scored and benchmarked against similar publishers.

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