Lazy loading
Sulvo-powered ads can be configured to utilize lazy loading, this configuration is done per ad unit under settings in Inventory. With this feature, publishers have the flexibility of defining "how far away" the ad should start to initialize (ad units have the option of soft, medium, aggressive, and none).
Lazy loading is a technique that defers the loading of non-critical resources at page load time. Instead, these non-critical resources are loaded at the moment of need. Where ads are concerned, "non-critical" is often synonymous with "off-screen". Instead of loading all of the content when the page is accessed, content can be loaded when the user accesses a part of the page that requires it. With lazy loading, pages are created with placeholder content which is only replaced with actual content when the user needs it.
Benefits of lazy loading
Lazy loading strikes a balance between optimizing content delivery and improving UX.
Users connect to content faster, since only a portion of the website needs to be downloaded when a user first opens it.
Ad viewability rates will increase as the ad unit is not loaded until it is ready to be viewed.
To learn more about the importance of viewability please see the "What is PIS" article.
What should I configure?
Sulvo cannot give advice about the use of these features as results can vary greatly based on many factors and specific use case. Due to these variables, we have not enabled lazy loading by default and always recommend testing on each site for the best results.
Soft, Medium, and Aggressive determine the minimum distance between the top of the ad unit and the bottom of the current viewport for the ad to start loading. An ad unit configured as Soft loads an ad when the bottom of the viewport is 3 viewports or less away from the top of the ad unit (or 6 viewports in mobile), Medium it's 2 viewports (4 in mobile), and aggressive 1 viewport (2 in mobile). The size of a viewport is the size of the window where the page is opened.