Native Ads (Alpha) is Live

[imwatsi]

It's live! Native Ads (alpha) has been running for 4 days now. I've just finished working on the documentation so it's up-to-date and covers all the features that are currently live.

Documentation: https://gitlab.com/imwatsi/native-ads-docs
Source Code : https://gitlab.com/imwatsi/native-ads

If you'd like to integrate this in your front-end, the docs should cover most of the basics. You can also get in touch with me on Discord: imwatsi#8991

As it is still in Alpha, we may encounter bugs, so don't hesitate to contact me with bug reports, as well as feedback and suggestions.

I hope to prove core stability with usage of the Alpha version, before moving on to build more advanced features that I have planned.

I'll make follow-up posts with updates and new features.

Comments

[marki99]

Just went through the documentation, and correct me if I'm wrong:

Essentially it's a way to pay for ad space in communities or websites by turning the ad into a post, so it's a payment to promote the post. Monetizers can accept any hive-engine token and can decide whether they want to burn the token or keep it to themselves.

Questions:

• Can monetizers burn 50% of the payment and earn the other half? (or any other percentage)
• Can monetizers sell ad space which is not a hive post, for example a banner ad similar to the old Steemit, Inc ads, while using native ads?
• Is it possible for me to create a frontend for advertisers where they can choose a monetizer, and then set the other parameters, and then broadcast the custom_jsons? This would allow a central website to manage everything Native Ads related and would not cause each separate dapp or community to include changes for Native Ads.

Great work, I think this project is one of the most important on hive at the moment while being very under the radar.

[imwatsi]

Essentially it's a way to pay for ad space in communities or websites by turning the ad into a post, so it's a payment to promote the post.

Yes, communities, websites, games (e.g. @splinterlands) can create "ad_spaces" and accept payment for them

Monetizers can accept any hive-engine token and can decide whether they want to burn the token or keep it to themselves.

Currently, HIVE is the only supported token, more tokens are planned for integration (SMTs or Hive-Engine)

Can monetizers burn 50% of the payment and earn the other half? (or any other percentage)

That sounds like a good idea. It is possible to implement that in an update. I'd have to design that feature.

Can monetizers sell ad space which is not a hive post, for example a banner ad similar to the old Steemit, Inc ads, while using native ads?

Great question! Yes they can. More ad types are planned in the next update. Essentially, all ads will be posts containing Native Ads metadata, but the difference will be that post_global posts will be treated as normal posts and other types e.g. banner image or slideshow will be parsed differently so they won't show up as posts. I'll probably include the hidden flag in the requirements so that front-ends can hide the other types of posts from people's feeds.

Is it possible for me to create a frontend for advertisers ...

Yes! Please do. This is needed. So my vision is that a front-end can either have customized interfaces for advertizers, if they want to have that. But there should also be a dedicated front-end that exposes all Monetizer accounts on Hive. Similar to the Google Ads Dashboard.

That will create a big, dynamic market, where other stats can be incorporated to give detailed info about each Monetizer's offering. Then maybe 3rd party marketers can leverage it like they do Google Ads.

Thanks for your feedback. Much appreciated!

[marki99]

Amazing. This is exactly what I wanted to hear. Another fun feature I thought of is to include some kind of monetizer reputation, as in, those that burn the most hive through Native Ads should be allowed to show that to the Hive community or to advertisers.

This would essentially give them a kind of reward for burning hive. I know as a user that if two competing hive frontends, for example Ecency and PeakD were using Native Ads, I would definitely use the frontend with the highest burn percentage between the two, since it supports the price of hive.

Edit: Same applies to communities. If there are two gaming communities and one burns everything while the other keeps most of the rewards, I will definitely use the community which burns the most and post there/curate there.

Thank you for your detailed answer. I wish I could make that frontend, but I'm still an inexperienced dev and have a lot on my plate at the moment. I am sure there are people on hive much better suited for this, it doesn't sound super complicated. @theycallmedan is great at connecting people together for such work.

[imwatsi]

I like the Monetizer reputation idea. It's possible to calculate burn stats because we will have a lot of data to leverage: ad payments made by advertizers and the associated monetizers.

On top of burn stats, it's also possible to include other metrics as well, such as interaction stats as in how people interact with the ads/promotional content.

Lots of room to innovate.

[ammonite]

I understand that ads may be inevitable on Hive and I like the idea of burning tokens to post them. I was wondering could there also be a option to burn tokens so as not to have to see them?

[chekohler]

I’d actually prefer to just slow stake holders of a certain size to have an opt in and out so it gives an incentive for you to HODL

[imwatsi]

Stake-based ad-opt-out is another good idea. I think we'll get something like this in some apps, depending on their token's design and platform goals.

[chekohler]

Have any apps integrated native ads yet so we can take a look at how it all works? I assume this also means add blockers wouldn't work, which makes it attractive to advertisers but also consumers should have an opt in and out of some kind

[ammonite]

Opt in or out seems like the way to go. Brave has shown that our attention should be worth something and I really don't mind as long as I have the option.
!ENGAGE10

[chekohler]

Absolutely, if you feel you want to monetise your attention by all means, giving people options means a more dynamic ecosystem, and with stake being the deciding factor you encourage users to stake to have access to these options. Staking doesn't just have to be a return based incentive

[misterengagement]

Thank you for your engagement on this post, you have recieved ENGAGE tokens.

[imwatsi]

Interesting idea. I'm sure dApps will get creative with that aspect and offer that option, maybe as subscriptions.

[ammonite]

I am really getting into the idea that our attention is the most important thing on the internet. I like Hive the way it is and am willing to pay to not have it become too littered with ads.
!ENGAGE15

[misterengagement]

Thank you for your engagement on this post, you have recieved ENGAGE tokens.

[meesterboom]

Blegh @ads

[nathanmars]

I'll make follow-up posts with updates and new features

Looking forward to it

[pnc]

This project have been in work for while. Congratulation for releasing this alpha version @imwatsi

[imwatsi]

Thanks

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[felix.herrmann]

Interesting, what is the Purporse of Native Ads? Running ads paying in Hive? An Adnetwork protocol for all plaforms?

[imwatsi]

All the above. And you can look at it as a way for dApps to:

• create attention tokens whose value is bootstrapped by an attention market
• allow content creators to receive direct payments, in exchange for visibility in their audience

[felix.herrmann]

So a competitor to Brave Attention Token?

[crunchizz]

Wow.. yo're welcome bro

[seckorama]

This is an interesting project. I think it makes sense to have ads in all Hive front-ends. Of course, they should not be disturbing, because then the meaning of the blog is lost. 😁