Full-screen scrollover
Full-screen Scrollover Ads · experience 13 of 23
A large ad floats over the text. To keep reading, you have to scroll past it, and it hides the content.
Understand it in 1 minute
A full-screen scrollover is an ad that appears over the content and forces the person to scroll through it to continue. According to the Coalition for Better Ads, these ads take up more than 30% of the page and float over the main content, covering what is underneath. The person wants to keep reading, but has to get past the ad to do so. It is like reading a notebook with a loose advertising sheet on top, which you have to push aside to see the text.
The official number is more than 30% of the page. The Coalition gives no other number for this case. What defines the scrollover is the sum of three things: the ad sits over the content, blocks the reading and forces the person to scroll through it.
The difference from a regular ad is in the movement. The Coalition says the scrollover is different from similar ads that scroll along with the content, in the middle of the text, and leave the screen more smoothly. A decision by the Coalition's Interpretation Panel supports this: the panel looked at a vertical full-screen video that sits between paragraphs, which the person can scroll past at any time, and compared it with the tested "full-screen in text" experience, which did not fall below the standard. So a large ad that stays in its place inside the text and leaves the screen with the scroll is different from an ad that floats over the content.
Allowed
- An ad in the middle of the text that scrolls along with the content and leaves the screen smoothly.
- A full-screen ad between paragraphs that scrolls along with the text (the "full-screen in text" format, which did not fall below the standard).
- A vertical full-screen video between paragraphs that the person can scroll past (Interpretation Panel decision).
Not allowed
- An ad that floats over the text, takes up more than 30% of the page and forces the person to scroll through it.
- A full-screen ad layer over the content that the person has to scroll through.
- An ad that sits over the main content, blocking the reading, while the person scrolls to get past it.
In practice
Imagine a travel site that tested an ad format that floated over the text on mobile. To keep reading, the person had to scroll through the ad, which covered the content. This is the full-screen scrollover. If the ad stayed in the middle of the text and scrolled along with it, leaving the screen normally, it would be different from the case described by the Coalition.
Why it's annoying
The ad sits on top of the text and forces you to scroll over it. This is disorienting and hides the content.
How to fix
- The ad should scroll with the content and leave the screen normally.
- Don't use formats that float over the text taking up more than 30%.
- Test scrolling on a real phone.
In ConsentMode
Detects large layers over the content. The real ad is checked by hand.
Run an audit