Smartfeed™: What Is Infinite Scrolling and Why You Should Be Using It
In less than 30 years, internet surfing has gone from this…
To this:
In fact, already in 2016, web browsing on mobile surpassed desktop.
The internet revolution, followed by the smartphone revolution, brought many changes to our lives. One of the most striking is the way we physically interact with media, and with the devices on which we consume media. Ever had the feeling that the web page never ends? That you could keep scrolling down forever on your laptop or smartphone without clicking through to another page? This is what is known as “infinite scrolling”.
Infinite Scrolling: The Long (and the Short) of It
Imagine reading a book and never needing to turn the page. Instead, the more you read the page, the longer it gets.
What is Infinite Scrolling?
Infinite scrolling is a technique used in web design in which the web page continuously loads new data as the viewer scrolls down. Infinite scrolling encourages people to engage with the content, rather than having to bother too much with navigation or the “Next” button. It also removes the need for pages to preload – which means less waiting and more engagement for users.
Infinite Scroll Popularity
Infinite scrolling is a very popular and common design feature on millions of websites. What’s more, it is a natural fit for the mobile experience. Rather than struggling to click through to numerous web pages on a small smartphone screen, the infinite scroll makes it very comfortable for mobile users to continually discover new content on the go with a scrolling swipe of the finger.
You will also encounter infinite scrolling in your social media feeds. Why is this format so popular in social media? Because it solves a problem. As social networks grow, there are more and more posts from your friends and connections. In fact, there are too many that could ever fit into your feed. So, the social media platforms developed “news feeds” in which only selected posts are presented to the viewer, based on their preferences and past viewing habits. The infinite feed keeps filling with more and more posts – but really these are just a fraction of the posts available.
Social news feeds are based on content from closed networks (such as Facebook, LinkedIn or Instagram). What if you could recreate the infinite feed experience on the open web?
Smartfeed™: Combining Infinite Scroll & Interest Targeting
Today, we are web-connected 24/7. The information available online is far more than any human can ever consume. As the internet continues to grow with every passing second, so too the need to deliver focused, targeted content to the right audience becomes even more important.
This is where Smartfeed™ by Outbrain comes in. Smartfeed is Outbrain’s content feed that delivers an infinite scrolling and discovery experience for audiences. It uses Outbrain’s interest targeting algorithms to provide an endless stream of content served in real time to match the authentic interests of the specific user.
How Smartfeed™ Works: A Case Study
The popular UK-based media titles The Daily Express, Daily Star, and OK! Magazine sought to increase page views and maximize revenues at the same time. Outbrain migrated these titles to Smartfeed and Native In-Feed solutions. This meant that readers of these online publications enjoyed infinite scroll of content discovery via Outbrain’s targeted advertising feed, while advertisers were able to better utilize their spend by serving ads in the best way to the right audiences. The results were clear: increased revenues of 143% across all sites, an organic CTR increase of 29% month on month, and an RPM uplift of 60%.
Smartfeed™: Infinite, Versatile, Engaging
Smartfeed supports a whole range of ad formats and types – native ads, content articles, outstream video, carousel ads and more. By mixing it up, keeping the content interesting and engaging with a variety of ad formats, in a feed designed to fit natively to any website, Smartfeed provides a better user experience for consumers, and higher revenues for advertisers and publishers.
PC image courtesy of http://www.thunderboltgames.com/feature/gaming-in-the-90s-pc-the-other-console
