Ads & Monetization

Ads & Monetization

ZenFlip's ad stack is direct-booked: you sell ad space directly to your own advertisers, at whatever rate you set (CPM, CPC, or a flat fee), and ZenFlip takes no cut of that revenue. There's no ad network, no ZenFlip-run marketplace, and no revenue share - you're always in control of who advertises and what they pay.

How It Works

You draw ad slots on specific pages of a publication (or use a bulk template), add your own advertiser as a contact, then create a placement that links a creative to that slot with flight dates and a price. Once you activate the placement, it goes live in the viewer. ZenFlip tracks impressions, clicks, and MRC-standard viewability (at least 50% of the ad's pixels visible for at least 1 second) so you have real numbers to report back to your advertiser or bill them against.

Ad Slot Positions

Ad slots are page-region based, not interstitial. Available positions:

• Cover, Inside Cover, Back Cover, Inside Back Cover - premium positions on the outer/inner cover pages

• Full Page, Half Page - draw a region on any interior page using the visual editor

• Banner - a smaller strip placed on a page

• Sticky Header Banner - a special fixed position that renders once in the viewer's persistent header bar and stays on screen for the reader's entire session, unlike the other positions which live on a single page and flip away with it. Choose the "Sticky header banner" template when creating a slot - it fills in the position for you since there's no page number or geometry to configure. Only one active sticky header banner is allowed per publication, and it doesn't appear in embedded viewers or the native app.

Creating an Ad Slot and Placement

1. Open the publication and go to the Ads tab

2. Click + New Slot, choose a position, and (for page-region positions) draw the region on the page - or use a bulk template to place several slots at once

3. Save the slot, then create a placement on it: add your advertiser (a contact record you manage - not a ZenFlip account), upload the creative, set a clickthrough URL, choose your rate type (CPM, CPC, or flat fee) and price, and set flight dates

4. New placements save in Scheduled status - you must explicitly activate a placement for it to go live; creating the slot and placement alone isn't enough

Revenue & Performance

Each placement's performance page shows impressions, viewable impressions (the MRC-standard metric), clicks, click-through rate, viewability rate, and estimated revenue (calculated from your own rate, not a ZenFlip-set number). You can "seal" a period's numbers into a tamper-evident, SHA-256-verified ledger entry - useful for your own records or for reporting to an advertiser you're billing directly.

Since ZenFlip never collects the advertiser's payment on your behalf, there's no ZenFlip payout to wait for - you invoice and collect from your advertiser however you normally do business with them.

Advertiser Access

Give an advertiser a read-only portal link (no ZenFlip account required) so they can see their own placement's performance without you having to share screenshots or reports manually.

Plan Availability

Related Guides

• Understanding Your Analytics - Full analytics dashboard overview

• Managing Your Subscription - Upgrade your plan to unlock monetization