The sticky sidebar ad has always been a great performer. Now, you can take that performance a step further with Grow Slidebar!
What is Grow Slidebar?
Grow Slidebar places additional sticky sidebar ads on longer posts with a Grow widget in between. It boosts sticky sidebar impressions and desktop revenue while also creating more opportunities for reader engagement.
How to Decide if Grow Slidebar is Right for Your Site
The performance increase with Grow Slidebar will vary between sites because it is dependent on post length, reader behavior, percentage of desktop traffic, and a few other factors.
Sites that will see the most benefit have:
Plenty of desktop traffic - Grow Slidebar is only available on desktop devices (and some tablet layouts).
Long content - The longer readers scroll, the more impressions they will see. Very short posts may only have one sticky sidebar ad.
An uncluttered sidebar - Just like the regular Sticky Sidebar ad, Grow Slidebar performs best when it comes into view just below the fold
High Sitewide Viewability - Grow Slidebar is slightly less viewable than the regular sticky sidebar ad because it behaves differently. Instead of one ad that sticks for the entire post, it is a series of ads that stick for a shorter length of time.
The impact to sitewide viewability should be minimal, but it can vary from site to site. We recommend watching viewability closely after enabling Grow Slidebar. The goal should be a sitewide score of over 70%. Learn more about viewability and how to improve it here.
How to Set It Up
Slidebar is exclusively available to sites using Grow Recommended Content. If you don’t have Grow yet, RUN, don’t walk, and turn it on. Learn more about Grow here.
Enable Recommended Content in the Grow Publisher Portal. This is the primary widget that is coupled with Grow Slidebar, and is required for the feature to work. More widget options are coming soon!
Note: Any of the Recommended Content widgets can be enabled to unlock Grow Slidebar, not just the Sidebar Widget.
2. Head back to your Mediavine Dashboard and turn on Grow Slidebar!
Settings > Ad Settings > Grow Slidebar:
3. Check to make sure:
Additional sticky sidebar ads load as you scroll ✔️
Grow widgets consistently load between the ads ✔️
Everything else looks normal (sidebar formatting, content spacing, etc.) ✔️
Note: This feature may not be compatible with all themes. It’s important to check several posts and pages to ensure there are no conflicts. Sites with an infinite scroll setup will need careful inspection.
How to Monitor Performance
Slidebar is only available on desktop devices (and some tablet layouts), so you'll want to focus on sticky sidebar and desktop metrics.
Narrow down the dashboard to include days when Slidebar has been active and compare that to the same days of the previous week (or the most recent week when it was not enabled). If you compare to a time of lower spend, keep seasonality in mind (August vs July or February vs January etc).
In the Ad Unit Report, look at:
Sticky Sidebar Impressions - You should see a significant boost here. Be sure to weigh this against changes in desktop traffic.
Sticky Sidebar RPM - Ad Unit RPM is one of the best ways to monitor performance because it takes impressions, CPM, and traffic into account.
Sitewide Viewability - Slidebar is less viewable than the regular sticky sidebar ad because it behaves differently. The impact to site-wide viewability should be minimal, but will vary from site to site and we recommend monitoring it after enabling this ad unit. You can find site wide viewability at the bottom of the Ad Unit report.
Grow Slidebar FAQ
I turned it on in my dashboard, but I don't see it. Is something wrong?
Slidebar requires Grow Recommended Content to work. Head over to Grow Publisher Portal to make sure it's turned on. Test a few posts in an incognito window with ?test=houseads. If Recommended Content is enabled and you still don't see it, please reach out to publishers@mediavine.com
What is the benefit over the regular sticky sidebar ad?
Grow Slidebar typically yields more ad impressions versus the regular Sticky Sidebar Ad. The impact will vary based on post length, reader behavior, etc.
How do I disable Grow Slidebar on a specific post?
If you'd like to disable it on any post, follow these instructions and use the code for the Sticky Sidebar Ad.
Can I choose which Grow widgets appear between ads?
Not yet! More widget options and customization abilities are coming soon to the Grow Publisher Portal.
How do I customize the posts shown in the Recommended Content Widget?
The content that is recommended gets better over time, but if there are posts or pages you'd like to exclude from recommendations: