Self-serve advertising

How it works

1. The advertiser creates an account.
2. They add money to a balance.
3. They build a campaign: which placements, which countries and devices, when it runs, the budget and the bid.
4. They upload their creative.
5. The publisher approves it, or does not.
6. It runs, and the advertiser follows the results in their own dashboard.

The big ad platforms are all self-serve, which is why a local business can be advertising on a search engine by the afternoon. A self-serve portal on your own site offers the same for your inventory.

What it replaces

The email asking for rates, the media kit sent back, the negotiation, the insertion order, the invoice, the payment chase, the creative in the wrong size, the screenshot of results at the end of the month. None of it is hard. It is slow, and on a small booking it costs more time than the booking is worth, so small advertisers quietly give up.

What stays in your hands

• Approval. Nothing runs until you have seen it.
• Prices. Your floor decides what the space costs.
• Who you accept. You can decline a campaign or an account.
• The big deals. A sponsor who wants a conversation can still have one.

Who it suits

Sites that already get asked "how much for an ad?" and answer slowly. Sites with many small advertisers, such as local news or niche communities, where each booking is too small for a sales process. And any publisher who would rather set prices once than negotiate every deal.

How Pyrobid handles it

Pyrobid gives your site a self-serve ad portal under your brand. Advertisers sign up with an email and a password and are straight in, fund a balance with a voucher you issue for money you took any way you like, build campaigns in a guided wizard and read their own reports. You approve every ad before it runs, unless you choose to switch review off.