Advertising can be a great source of revenue for publishers, but it’s also complicated. Sovrn Advertising Exchange provides everything you need to connect with advertisers, set pricing for your valuable inventory, and maximize your ad revenue.
The first step toward earning money on our ad platform is getting approved. When you sign up, our team will review your site to ensure it follows industry standards and best practices for safety, fairness, and transparency.
Why it pays (literally) to get approved
Advertisers want to be sure their ads appear on high-quality sites. They want to reach real audiences that match their target criteria. And they’re willing to pay premium pricing for high-quality ad placements.
Ultimately, the success of your advertising program depends on your ability to attract ad buyers that recognize and will pay for the value of the original content you create. So it’s in your best interest to have your site vetted by a trusted ad partner before you attempt to sell ad space.
As a Platinum member of the IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) and TAG (Trustworthy Accountability Group), Sovrn is committed to combating online fraud and ensuring the health of the advertising ecosystem. The approval criteria we’ve established for our ad exchange are designed to protect both buyers and sellers by maintaining a safe and fair programmatic marketplace.
Standards for Sovrn Advertising Exchange approval
While approval isn’t guaranteed, it should be relatively straightforward if you’re operating a legitimate site, creating good content, and driving traffic from authentic sources.
Here’s a summary of our requirements for approval. (Check out our Ad Exchange Supply Policy for additional information and the most current list of approval criteria.)
Content guidelines
Our content guidelines are built to protect you, your readers, and the brands that advertise on your site. We start by ensuring that the unique, authentic content you create won’t be copied and monetized by other sites. We protect your readers by helping to create a safe user experience that preserves their trust in your site. We help brands to feel confident that their ads will appear alongside content that is original, fresh, and appropriate for all audiences – while creating an engaging experience for their target audience. And creating a high level of engagement requires new, regularly posted content that includes authorship and a timestamp.
- Content must be original
- Site may not contain file-sharing or copyrighted material
- Site may not redirect users to unwanted websites, distribute malware, or contain automatic downloads
- Content must be “safe for work”
- Content may not contain nudity or depict extreme acts of violence
- Content may not include hate speech, harassment, bullying, or threats
- Site cannot promote the use or acquisition of illegal drugs, firearms, or other illegal items
- Content cannot be entirely image-based
- Posts must be created regularly, list an author, and display a date/time stamp
Ad guidelines
Pages that suffer from poorly-labeled embedded ads and “ad clutter” are problematic for readers and advertisers alike. For readers, an ad-heavy experience can be confusing and detracts from the content you worked so hard to create. For advertisers, appearing alongside too many other ads means they have to compete for attention, which reduces the overall value of their ad placement, while refreshing ads more than every 20 seconds limits the time brands appear next to that content and reduces the value of those placements. Our ad guidelines are designed to address these issues.
- Page cannot consist of more ads than content
- Site cannot display more than three ads in view at one time
- Site may not contain pop-ups, pop-unders, or video ads with auto-play audio
- Ads must be clearly separated from content and labeled as ads when embedded in content
- Ads cannot distribute malware or enable cryptojacking
- Ad refresh cannot occur more frequently than every 20 seconds
Ownership and traffic guidelines
As a publisher, no one else should be able to profit from your content without your direct authorization. And brands that pay to advertise on your site should feel confident their ads will be served to real, human readers who have found your site through legitimate channels based on their interest in your content – not by clicking on misleading content or paid ads. These requirements around ownership and traffic help to protect those interests.
- Publisher must own or have a direct relationship with the domain
- Audience must arrive at the domain through primarily organic sources
- Traffic must meet minimum standard for quality
Ready to start earning with Sovrn?
For publishers who are looking to monetize their content, advertising offers a wealth of opportunities. And Sovrn Exchange provides everything you need to build and manage your advertising program. If you’re ready to start driving more ad revenue, sign up today. Once you’re approved, it’s easy to start earning!
And if you need help managing the complexities of day-to-day ad operations, look no further than Sovrn Ad Management. Our team of experts can provide tools and technical support to ensure the best possible ad performance.
