Better Ads - About

[admin]

Better Ads is a complete advertising management system for SMF 2.1.x designed to handle the entire advertising process from first inquiry to campaign reporting.

It started as a simple way to place advertisements around an SMF forum and grew into a full advertising workflow that remains easy for both administrators and advertisers to use.

Admins can create reusable advertising units and place them throughout the forum, Better Portal, and Better Gallery. Ads can use images or raw HTML/code, target specific audiences, boards, or member groups, run on schedules, rotate through placements, and repeat between topics, replies, or gallery items.
Better Ads also includes a complete advertiser-facing system.
Site owners can create advertising tiers that define the placement, price, campaign duration, and payment information. Visitors can choose a package, submit an advertising request, upload their creative, and receive a private order link.
From there, Better Ads guides both sides through the entire process:
Request → Approval → Payment → Campaign → Statistics → Renewal

Advertisers automatically receive email updates as their campaign moves through each stage, so they always know what is happening and what to expect next.
Once the campaign is created, the same private order link becomes a read-only performance dashboard showing impressions, clicks, CTR, campaign status, time remaining, and renewal options.

Administrators get a clean workflow inside the Better Ads admin area, including dedicated sections for campaigns, advertising tiers, requests and orders, statistics, and settings.

Main features include
- Image advertisements
- Raw HTML/code advertisements
- Reusable advertising units
- Global header and footer placements
- Board and topic placements
- Repeat-between-topic and repeat-between-reply ads
- Better Portal integration
- Better Gallery integration
- Full-width sponsored gallery rows
- Sponsored gallery cards
- Audience targeting
- Board targeting
- Member-group targeting
- Scheduled campaigns
- Campaign expiration
- Ad rotation
- Click tracking
- Impression tracking
- CTR reporting
- Today, 7-day, 30-day, and lifetime statistics
- Advertising tiers
- Public Advertise With Us page
- Advertiser request workflow
- Creative uploads
- Hosted payment-link support
- Private order pages
- Automated advertiser email notifications
- Campaign performance dashboards
- Campaign lifecycle tracking
- Renewals
- Admin pending-request notifications
- Native SMF admin badge integration
- Archive and status filtering
- Mobile-friendly advertiser pages

Better Ads does not collect credit-card information itself. Payment is handled through hosted payment providers, while Better Ads manages the order, campaign, communication, and reporting workflow.

The goal is simple: make advertising on an SMF site feel professional for the person buying the ad and painless for the administrator managing it.

Sell the placement. Manage the campaign. Keep the advertiser informed. Show them the results.