Rotating versus exclusive website ad slots.

Single-sale inventory: one paid advert at a time.

Use a single-sale campaign when the commercial promise is that one accepted paid advertiser receives that campaign’s paid inventory. It can suit a sponsorship-style package, a high-prominence position or any offer where introducing another paid creative would change what the buyer purchased.

The setting applies to paid orders. It does not mean the space must remain blank before a sale or between eligible campaigns; fallback behaviour is configured on the placement, and house-ad delivery is controlled separately.

Weighted rotation: several paid adverts share delivery.

Use rotating inventory when the placement can be sold to more than one advertiser. Eligible paid banners enter a shared rotation, and package weights influence their share of selection.

Rotation can make one slot available to more buyers and lets a publisher sell packages with different relative weights. It also means no buyer should be told that they have sole paid use. State the shared model clearly on the public offer and price it as shared inventory.

Rotation does not fix an unsuitable package

Every creative still needs the exact dimensions used by the campaign, a valid destination, completed payment and any required publisher approval. A banner can only join delivery when it is eligible.

Payment is the availability boundary.

Reserving a single-sale slot as soon as someone begins checkout would let an abandoned browser session stop genuine buyers. D14 therefore keeps it available until payment is received.

For a single-sale campaign, the first completed payment closes new checkout. Payment creates a paid order pending the publisher’s decision; it does not automatically approve the advert. A provider checkout already issued before the first completion may still complete. If that happens, the additional paid order remains pending for the publisher to accept, request changes or decline—it is not automatically refunded.

For rotating inventory, completed orders do not close new checkout because accepting several advertisers is the configured model.

Choose house-ad behaviour separately.

A house advert is publisher-supplied creative, such as an “Advertise here” banner, newsletter promotion or link to another owned service. Its relationship with paid delivery has two modes:

• Fallback-only: the house advert fills the placement when no paid advert is eligible.
• Rotate with eligible campaigns: the house creative joins the configured weighted selection.

This choice is independent of whether paid inventory is single-sale or rotating. Placement fallback can also be set to collapse, remain empty or show custom HTML instead of a house advert.

Choose the model from the promise.

Single-sale can fit when:

• the package is described as sole or exclusive paid use;
• the placement is prominent enough that competing paid messages would materially alter the offer;
• the buyer is purchasing a sponsorship-style period; or
• you prefer to manage one active paid relationship for that campaign.

Weighted rotation can fit when:

• the placement is standard inventory intended for several advertisers;
• you want to sell additional packages while other paid adverts are active;
• buyers understand that delivery is shared; and
• package weights provide the commercial distinction you need.

Neither model is automatically better. The right one is the model your description, price and delivery can support honestly.

Make the distinction visible to buyers.

Use plain language on the package page: “one paid advertiser at a time” or “eligible paid banners rotate”. Then define the quantity or duration, placement and required sizes. A buyer should not have to infer whether another advertiser can share the same campaign.

Price the two models as different inventory. Exclusive use may justify a different price because the publisher is declining overlapping paid sales. Rotation creates more capacity, but each buyer receives a share of eligible delivery. The website advertising pricing guide explains how to combine this with other pricing factors.

After approval, use served, rendered, viewable, clicked and invalid reporting terms consistently. These metrics describe delivery; they do not promise conversions or return on spend.

Common rotation and exclusivity questions.