Castaway

While the castaway works great as a masthead it can also be dynamically inserted in-between article content when a user scrolls down to its position, which helps improve viewability when such placements are desirable.

Customization

  • By default the castaway is automatically closed after 15 seconds, but you can adjust this from 1 to 900 seconds.
  • The castaway will adjust to fit ads of varying sizes and orientation.
  • Making the castaway responsive can be achieved by showing differently sized creatives on desktop, tablet and mobile or they can also be hidden on tablets and mobile phones.

Media Support

  • Graphic banners (GIF/JPG/PNG)
  • Flash banners
  • HTML5 banners
  • Custom HTML banners, including forms with CSS and JavaScript
  • Third-Party banners from agencies and ad networks such as DoubleClick, Google, Sizmek and others

Deployment

Deploying castaways on your web site couldn't be easier. Our code wizard will generate all of the HTML code for you. All you have to do is copy and paste that code into your web page in the desired position.

The code wizard also gives you the option to adjust the auto-close timeout if the default 15 seconds is not suitable.

Recommendations

  • Castaways are best implemented with large-scale banners since they can utilize a good portion of the browser window area, but if mobile placement is desired keep in mind they shouldn't exceed 30% of the screen height in order to comply with the Better Ads standards.
  • We recommend serving 970x250 or 970x90 banners to desktop/laptop users since they fit nicely on larger screens.
  • Medium range sizes such as 728x250 or 728x90 are better suited for tablet users.
  • Smaller sizes such as 300x100, 320x50 or 300x50 can be utilized for mobile phones users, which will improve the usability of your web site by not taking up too much vertical screen space.
  • To make the castaway a bit more polite you can optionally set it to disable itself for the remainder of the current browsing session if a visitor clicks the close button.

Advanced Techniques

Close Button

Don't like the default close button? You can change it by going to Settings > Basic > Code Wizard

Close Callback Function

The ability to include a JavaScript callback function in custom creatives is useful to stop audio or video from playing promptly when the castaway is closed by the user: 

<script type="text/javascript">
function castawayCloseCallback() {
// your custom close logic here...
}
</script>

Remember this needs to be a global function in order for it to be visible to the castaway wrapper code. Using this callback is not necessary with HTML5 banners or video banners. Those types of banners are designed to destroy any audio/video components upon closing so they stop playing automatically.

Return to Example Gallery