“Above the Fold”

Taken from the newspaper industry which would refer to a key story (or advertisement) appearing above the crease in a newspaper, and thus indicating it’s importance, and presumably higher viewing and attention it would receive, online advertising as adopted the term “above the fold” to mean placements that appear on the screeen without having to scroll (or read below the fold). Advertisers often insist on placements appearing above the fold and are will to pay a premium for such placements because overall performance (click-throughs, interactions, etc…) are higher with these ad units. Google has created an “above the fold” tool (though I find it crude and questionable in its accuracy, I applaud the effort and appreciate Google giving it’s folks 20% of their time as “free time” to come up with stuff like this). This tool is supposed to give you some sense of what percent of the population can see how much area on your screen.