Ads: KDN & header search
Beyond Boost, the ads suite gives you three placement families — the Distribution Ad Network (KDN) across publisher surfaces, header search ads inside platform search, and Featured Search Ads in the search-suggestions Featured tab — plus a full console: campaigns, creatives, analytics, links, context rules, an ad pixel, and a lead pipeline.
The placement familieslink
- check_circleKDN (Distribution Ad Network) — your campaigns served across publisher surfaces with CPM/CPC billing, built from the campaigns and creatives you manage under Partner → Ads.
- check_circleHeader Search Ads — the exclusive, fixed-tenure sponsored placement in the platform’s header search: one pinned slot per pillar, reserved self-serve from the partner console in Koins (escrowed at purchase, charged only when the ad is approved).
- check_circleFeatured Search Ads — the self-serve sibling of header search ads: non-exclusive sponsored listing cards in the search-suggestions “Featured” tab, fixed tenure (3/6/12 months), bought in Koins from the partner console.
Featured Search Ads: escrow, review, servinglink
Featured Search Ads promote one of your OWN published listings — the ad is your listing card itself, labeled “Sponsored”, shown under the Featured tab of the search autocomplete suggestions. Inventory is non-exclusive: a capped number of sponsored cards per pillar (default 6) rotate in the tab, which is why a tenure costs roughly a tenth of the equivalent exclusive header-search placement (for example, Software: 199 Koins for 3 months vs $1,999 for the exclusive header slot — pricing table subject to change).
Billing is escrow-honest. Buying a tenure at /partner/ads/featured-search reserves the Koins in a server-side hold and submits the placement for review; nothing is charged yet. If the placement is approved, the hold settles (that is the only moment you are charged) and the tenure window starts the same day. If it is rejected, the hold is released — a full, automatic refund — and the reason appears on the console card so you can fix and resubmit.
On environments where the purchase/review backend has not been deployed yet, the console says so explicitly and disables purchasing — it never simulates a purchase, and no Koins can be escrowed.
The ads console, page by pagelink
Everything under Partner → Ads, and what each page is for:
- check_circle/partner/ads/create — create a campaign (goal, targeting context or "All categories (run of network)", daily budget).
- check_circle/partner/ads/campaigns — My Campaigns: status, spend, impressions, clicks, and the lifecycle actions (submit for review, pause, re-activate, end).
- check_circle/partner/ads/creatives — the Creative Studio: design creatives and attach them for review.
- check_circle/partner/ads/analytics — ads intelligence: performance of your inorganic (paid) traffic.
- check_circle/partner/ads/pricing — the ads pricing page; placements still rolling out say so and bill nothing until live.
- check_circle/partner/ads/links — create and track campaign links.
- check_circle/partner/ads/pixel — ad-side conversion tracking: provisions your ad pixel server-side. This is a different page from /partner/pixel/setup, which is the listing conversion pixel.
- check_circle/partner/ads/pipeline and /partner/ads/messages — the ad lead pipeline and lead messaging: work the leads your ads generate without leaving the ads suite.
- check_circle/partner/ads/featured-search — Featured Search Ads: pick one of your published listings, choose a 3/6/12-month tenure, and escrow the Koins for review.
- check_circle/partner/ads/header-search — Header Search Ads: reserve the exclusive pinned slot for your pillar (3/6/12-month tenure, your own headline and description). Koins are escrowed at purchase and charged only when the ad is approved; a rejection refunds in full. Per-pillar availability shows whether the slot is open, booked, or under review. A 100% Refund Plan for the 12-month tenure is coming soon — it opens once its refund terms are published, and is not purchasable until then.
- check_circle/partner/advertise/header-search-ads — the Header Search Ads overview: placement preview, pricing by pillar and tenure, and specs.
Context rules: AI ad-copy optimization you controllink
/partner/ads/context-rules controls whether Kariant AI rewrites your ad title, body, and CTA to match the viewing buyer’s real-time context. It is off until you enable it, configured per campaign, and each context source has its own toggle: the buyer’s KlickChat conversation, their workspace tools, their active Kanvas project or task, and their team/department. A browsing-history source is listed but not yet read by the optimizer — its toggle honestly stays off rather than pretending to work.
Because this adapts your ad using signals from what a buyer is doing on the platform, treat it deliberately: you choose which sources may influence the rewrite, you can disable the whole thing per campaign at any time, and buyers see contextually adapted sponsored content that remains labeled as sponsored.
Attribution: pixel and kclidlink
Ad clicks carry the same kclid tracking parameter as every Kariant click-through. With the Kariant Pixel installed on your site, sign-ups, trials, and subscriptions that started from an ad attribute back to the campaign — appearing in your Kontinue funnel and My Sales dashboard with source marked as ads, so you compare ad-driven results against organic side by side.
Two honesty rules apply to the counts. Page-load telemetry (pixel loaded / page viewed) never increments conversion counters — only real conversion events do, so conversion numbers may read lower than before this correction, and lower than raw landing traffic. And during the current rollout, pixel conversion events are reporting-only: recorded and attributed with no per-event Koin price and no wallet debit.
Budget stopslink
Spend is capped twice: your daily budget stops the day’s serving when reached, and a lifetime cap of 30× the daily budget bounds the campaign as a whole. You also get spending alerts as budgets approach exhaustion, and you can pause, re-activate (from paused), or permanently end any campaign at any time from My Campaigns.
Creatives and reviewlink
Every creative passes review before it serves — design and attach them in the Creative Studio (Partner → Ads → Creatives). Rejected creatives show the reason on the campaign card so you can fix and resubmit. Koin billing for the ads suite activates at launch; campaigns configured today are never charged retroactively.
Frequently asked questions
How do I know ads actually produced revenue?expand_more
Install the Kariant Pixel and fire conversion events. kclid attribution ties each conversion back to its source — ads, Boost, AI, or organic — in your Kontinue and My Sales dashboards.
Can a campaign overspend my budget?expand_more
No. The daily budget stops serving when reached, and the automatic 30× lifetime cap bounds total spend. Alerts fire before exhaustion.
Where do header search ads appear?expand_more
In the platform’s header search experience, alongside results and clearly labeled as sponsored.
How are Featured Search Ads different from Header Search Ads?expand_more
Header Search Ads are one exclusive pinned slot per pillar at the full tenure price — reserved self-serve in Koins, with the Koins held in escrow and charged only once the ad is approved. Featured Search Ads are non-exclusive cards (a capped rotation per pillar) in the suggestions Featured tab at roughly a tenth of the price — also bought in Koins and reviewed before serving.
When am I actually charged for a Featured Search Ad?expand_more
Only when the Kariant team approves it. Purchase escrows the Koins in a hold; approval settles the hold and starts the tenure that day; rejection releases the hold back to your wallet in full.