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Exit-intent ads
An exit-intent ad is a single small ad card that appears when a visitor is finishing with your page — about to leave it, coming back to it after being away, or done reading it. Visitors don't need to subscribe or allow anything, and exit-intent ads are off by default — you decide whether to use them.
How it works
- You pick the moments when a card can appear. There are four, each one on or off — see When the card appears.
- The card is labelled Ad, sits at the edge of the screen, is never wider than a small banner, and closes instantly on the × or the Escape key. By default it also hides itself after a few seconds.
- Each visitor sees at most one card per page view, and by default at most one every 10 minutes — however many moments you turn on. Loading a new page starts fresh.
- The listing comes from the ad feed you pick for the placement. You earn when a visitor clicks it.
When the card appears
Four moments, each one on or off. Turning on more than one doesn't mean more cards: whichever moment happens first shows the card, and the limits above still apply.
Mouse leaves the page
Which devices: computers only. On by default.
What it means: the visitor's mouse moves up and out through the top of the page — the move someone makes when they reach for the address bar or another tab. A mouse that flicks out and comes straight back doesn't count.
What you can adjust: Top edge sensitivity (px) — how close to the top of the page the mouse has to leave for it to count. Default: 20 px.
Back to your tab
Which devices: all devices. On by default.
What it means: the visitor switches to another tab or app, then comes back to your page.
What you can adjust: Away for at least (seconds) — how long they have to be away first. Default: 5 s. A quick flick to another tab and straight back doesn't count.
Finished the article
Which devices: all devices. Best on phones.
What it means: the visitor reaches the end of the article and then scrolls back up, or stays at the end for a few seconds — 5 seconds on a phone, 10 seconds on a computer. We look for the article itself, not the bottom of the page, so a short page, a category listing, or a feed that keeps loading more usually doesn't count as finished.
What you can adjust: Which part of the page is the article? — leave it empty and we find the article automatically. If your pages use unusual markup, put the CSS selector of the block that holds the article text here, for example article or .post-body. Default: automatic.
Back after a pause
Which devices: all devices. Best on phones.
What it means: the visitor stops scrolling and tapping for a while, then starts using the page again. The card appears the moment they start using the page again, not while they are away.
What you can adjust: Quiet for (seconds) — how long the pause has to be. Default: 30 s. The minimum is 20 s, so a pause to read doesn't count.
If most of your traffic is on phones
Phones have no "leaving" signal. Nothing a phone reports before someone closes a tab arrives in time to show anything, and the tricks that claim otherwise — trapping the Back button above all — are exactly what Google Search treats as spam. So we don't use them, on any device.
Instead, the moments below are finished-reading moments: points where the visitor has got what they came for and is deciding what to do next. These aren't our invention — Google's own Ad Manager web interstitial fires on the same moments: when someone reaches the end of an article, when someone is inactive for 30 seconds and then touches the page again, and when someone comes back to a tab.
For a phone-heavy site, turn on Finished the article and Back after a pause, and leave Mouse leaves the page on for your desktop visitors. It costs nothing on phones — it simply never fires there.
What it deliberately does not do
This list is the design, not a disclaimer — the format is built so that none of these is possible.
- It never touches the Back button. No browser-history tricks of any kind. Trapping the Back button is the technique Google Search treats as spam and holds ad platforms responsible for, so the format does not use it, in any form, on any device.
- It never opens a tab or window by itself. Only a real click on the card does, and that click opens the advertiser's page in a new tab.
- It never blocks your content. No dimmed page, no scroll lock, no full-screen overlay, and the card never swallows a click aimed at something underneath it. (The one exception is the two account-manager options below.)
- It never looks like a system or browser notification, and our own wording never mentions notifications, messages, warnings or updates.
- It never reports an ad nobody saw. If the visitor has already switched away by the time the ad arrives, nothing is shown and nothing is counted.
Works alongside Google ads
The card is designed to meet the Better Ads Standards: small, clearly labelled, at the edge of the screen, and dismissible in one click — the kind of banner Google's own guidance names as acceptable. You can keep running AdSense or Ad Manager on the same pages.
One exception. Two options — centring the card and dimming the page behind it — can only be turned on by your account manager, and they take the format outside those standards. With either one on, Chrome can filter every ad on your site, AdSense and Ad Manager included. Leave both off unless your site runs no Google ads.
Set it up
- Go to Placements and click Edit on your placement. (For a brand-new placement, save it first — exit-intent ads can only be set up on an existing placement.)
- Open the Ad formats tab and choose Exit-intent ads.
- Turn on Enable exit-intent ads.
- Choose the Feed that serves the card. Required — the format doesn't run without one.
- Under When it appears, choose the moments that can show a card. Turn on at least one — with none on, the card never appears.
- Adjust the optional settings below, then click Save changes.
Settings explained
The card
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Feed | The ad source that supplies the card for this placement. Required. |
| Sub ID | Optional traffic-source label used in your reports. Leave empty to use the site domain. See Traffic sources. |
| Query | Optional keywords the ad feed matches on. Leave empty to use the placement's name. |
| Audience | Everyone, or Only visitors without push to keep the card away from people who already subscribed. |
When it appears — turn a moment on and its own setting appears beside it.
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Mouse leaves the page | Computers only. Top edge sensitivity (px) sets how close to the top of the page the mouse has to leave. How this works |
| Back to your tab | All devices. Away for at least (seconds) sets how long they had to be away first. How this works |
| Finished the article | All devices, best on phones. Which part of the page is the article? is optional — empty means we find it automatically. How this works |
| Back after a pause | All devices, best on phones. Quiet for (seconds) sets how long the pause has to be. How this works |
How often it can appear — always on: one card per page view, whichever moments you picked.
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Don't show it in the first (seconds) | How long a visitor must be on the page before any card can appear. |
| Gap between cards (seconds) | One visitor sees at most one card per this many seconds. Default: 600 — one card every 10 minutes. |
| Remember that for (hours) | How long that count is remembered in the visitor's browser. |
How it looks
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Position | Which edge of the screen the card sits at. Centring it is an account-manager option — see above. |
| Color scheme | Light or dark, or your own colors. |
| Hide the card after (seconds) | Seconds before the card hides itself. 0 means it stays until the visitor closes it. |
| Hide description (title only) | Drops the description line, leaving just the headline. |
| Show the ad image | Whether the listing's image appears on the card. |
Good to know
- Off by default: new placements never show exit-intent ads until you turn them on.
- The limit lives in the visitor's browser, in a cookie called
dlserve_exit_t. If someone clears their cookies the counter starts over; if their browser blocks cookies entirely, the card still appears at most once per page view. - Web only: exit-intent ads aren't available for Android app placements.
- Your results appear in reports as Exit shown, Exit clicked, Exit CTR and Exit rev.