How to sell advertising space on your website.

Start with the inventory, not a price.

“Advertise on my website” is an invitation, not a package. A buyer needs to know which website, where the banner appears, its dimensions and what quantity or duration the price covers. Begin by identifying the page position you can reliably deliver.

Describe the position precisely

Use names that make sense outside your own team: article sidebar, site-wide header or product-directory square are more useful than “Slot 2”. If a placement only appears on certain templates, say so in the public description.

Choose the exact dimensions

Create the placement around the size that genuinely fits your layout. Do not add 728×90 and 468×60 requirements simply because they are familiar banner sizes. D14 asks an advertiser for the distinct dimensions used by the campaign’s placements.

Install the placement and verify the website.

D14 generates a small asynchronous snippet for each placement. Paste it where the advert should appear. Its first live request identifies the hostname, adds the website to the publisher account and confirms control automatically.

The snippet is also the delivery point. Campaigns, creative and fallback behaviour can change in D14 without replacing the code on every page. Verification proves that the snippet loaded on the domain; it is not an independent audit of traffic volume, audience demographics or editorial quality.

Choose what happens when no paid advert is eligible

• House advert: promote your own product, newsletter or advertising page.
• Collapse: remove the unused space from the layout.
• Leave empty: preserve the slot without showing creative.
• Custom HTML: provide your own fallback content where appropriate.

Build a package a buyer can evaluate.

A package joins the placement to its commercial terms. State whether delivery is measured by a configured quantity or a date-based run, list the required asset dimensions and write public terms before sending a buyer to checkout.

Set a price you can honour

Consider the location, visibility, duration or quantity, audience relevance and whether the buyer receives exclusive paid use. Include your own payment-provider costs, taxes and the separate D14 fee in your planning. D14 invoices 7% of a marketplace sale to the publisher rather than taking it from the buyer’s checkout payment.

For a deeper method, use the website advertising pricing guide.

Choose one buyer or a weighted rotation.

A campaign can sell one paid advert at a time or accept several advertisers into a weighted rotation. For single-sale inventory, merely starting checkout does not reserve anything. The first completed payment closes new checkout; an already-issued provider checkout may still complete, leaving that paid order pending for the publisher’s decision.

Rotating inventory stays available for additional orders. Eligible paid creative shares the placement using package weights. House-ad behaviour is a separate setting: it can remain fallback-only or participate in a configured rotation.

Compare the trade-offs in rotating versus exclusive ad slots.

Make the payment and approval lifecycle clear.

The advertiser pays the package price to the publisher’s connected Stripe or PayPal account. A completed payment creates a paid order, but it does not force the creative live. The order remains pending while the publisher checks the banner, destination and stated rules.

The publisher can accept the advert, request a change or decline it. D14 does not automatically refund a declined order; refunds remain with the publisher and the provider that received the payment. Write approval rules that can be applied consistently and review the destination as well as the visible image.

Once accepted and eligible, the advert can deliver. Reporting distinguishes served, rendered, viewable, clicked and invalid events so that both sides can discuss the same stages.

Give buyers a route to the offer.

For public discovery, enable marketplace visibility for the website. Publishers with several sites can make that decision per website, allowing selected properties to appear while others remain private.

You can also place the publisher-specific marketplace embed on your own website. It shows only your active slots and sends each interested buyer to the appropriate package page. A plain “Advertise with us” link to the website’s advertising page is another useful path.

Common questions about selling ad space.