We reach developers & designers in their natural habitat
Carbon Ads is a curated native advertising network serving 350+ developer and designer websites. Since 2010, we’ve connected technical brands with developers where they work — on documentation sites, developer tools, and trusted resources they visit daily.
Transparent pricing, up front
Most folks want to know pricing but they have to wait. We don’t charge a $40 CPM (cost per thousand impressions) like ProductHunt, or a $10 CPM like StackOverflow.
| Audience | Pricing |
|---|---|
| Developer | $6 CPM · Optimized ROW Blend* |
| Creator | $5 CPM · Optimized ROW Blend* |
* Optimized ROW is “Run of world” including our standard anti-targeting. We remove 20+ countries with non-English primary languages at no additional cost.
Up to 15% added value
We offer a transparent discount opportunity that maximizes success outcomes based on historical campaigns. We offer up to 15% added value (AV) when we commit to the following:
- +5% AVClearly defined campaign goals and quantitative KPIs
- +5% AVRead-only access to GA4 and/or consistent weekly conversion reporting
- +5% AVCreative refreshes every 45–90 days
A research-driven technical audience
- Working-hours traffic patterns
- High engagement with educational content
- Active seekers of new tools and solutions
- Influence on technology purchasing decisions
Roles reached
Geographic targeting
- Global reach with country-level targeting available
- Excludes top 20 non-English speaking countries at no extra cost
- Ideal for remote developer workforce
Audience quality
- Curated technical professionals actively seeking developer tools
- High-intent audience visiting trusted developer resources
- Decision-makers and influencers in technical purchasing decisions
Two circles, one network
- Personal blogs from industry leaders
- Documentation pages for frameworks
- Online development tools
- Technical reference sites
- Open source project pages
- Industry resource sites
- Educational platforms
- Community-driven content
- Design inspiration galleries
- Development tutorials
Why Carbon Ads works for developer marketing
Reaches developers where they work
- 350+ curated websites including documentation sites, developer blogs, tools, and resources
- Sites developers know and trust during their working hours
- Only contextual, relevant advertisers — no Coca-Cola or irrelevant brands
- Single ad unit per site — not cluttered with programmatic ads
Overcomes ad blocking
- Whitelisted on AdBlock Plus as a trusted publisher network
- Typically see 20–25% impression lift compared to standard display advertising
- Ads appear as product recommendations rather than intrusive banners
Proven advertiser success
- 91% decrease in CPA for a leading identity management solution
- Works with companies from pre-Series A to post-IPO
- Many advertisers call us their “secret sauce for growth”
Native ads that feel like content
Carbon’s native ads integrate seamlessly into each publisher’s unique design, creating an experience that feels like curated content rather than advertising. Every ad is custom-implemented by our publisher partners to match their site’s aesthetic and user experience.
Carbon Classic
- Click-through: 0.8%–2.1%
- Viewability: 95%+
- Brand lift: 23% avg. increase in aided awareness
- 260 × 200 image (PNG or JPG)
- 80 characters of compelling copy
- Landing page URL
- Optional: multiple creative variations for A/B testing
- Custom implementation on each publisher site
- Performance tracking and analytics
- Monthly reporting with insights
- Campaign optimization recommendations
Carbon Cover
An interactive format available on select sites: the image retracts on hover to reveal your ad copy.
- Click-through: 0.8%–2.1%
- Viewability: 95%+
- Brand lift: 23% avg. increase in aided awareness
- 250 × 100px transparent logo (PNG)
- 500 × 500px visual banner (JPG or WEBP)
- Campaign tagline (max 45 chars)
- Campaign description (max 120 chars)
- Call to action (max 20 chars)
- Background color (in hex)
- Landing page URL
- Optional: multiple creative variations for A/B testing
- Custom implementation on each publisher site
- Performance tracking and analytics
- Monthly reporting with insights
- Campaign optimization recommendations
Building successful campaigns together
We’ll help you test CTA and creative to build your market playbook for scale.
- A/B test creative
- Goal: ID strongest messaging and creatives
- Create dedicated landing pages per audience for messaging and the correct offer
- Install attribution tracking
- Goal: optimize based on shared performance data
- Scale campaign
- Ongoing performance optimization
Budget & impressions
- Minimum 1M impressions per month recommended
- CPM pricing model with competitive rates
- Prepayment required to secure inventory
Measure what survives contact with revenue
- Daily performance data: impressions, clicks, CTR by creative
- Creative-level reporting for optimization insights
- Mid-campaign optimization meetings with a dedicated success team
- Click and View-through tags can be utilized across Carbon
- Developers often research independently after seeing ads
- Halo effect on organic search — many search your brand after exposure
- Self-reported attribution works — ask “Where did you hear about us?”
- Don’t rely solely on CTR — brand impact extends beyond clicks
What advertisers come to us for
- Free trial signups
- Product registrations
- Demo requests
- Newsletter subscriptions
- Brand awareness for new/unknown products
- Product launches
- Feature announcements
- Thought leadership content
- Hackathon promotion
- Webinar registration
- E-book downloads
- Conference sponsorships
Live in two or three days
- Quick launch: can go live within 2–3 days
- Asset requirements: image creative + 80 characters of copy
- Landing page optimization: test different pages for best performance
- UTM tracking: implement for backend conversion tracking
- Cost per visit to your site
- Time on site and engagement metrics
- Backend conversions (signups, trials, purchases)
- Brand awareness lift via surveys or self-reported attribution
- Organic search traffic increase (halo effect)
The AI wave is here
Developers today are racing to close the AI skills gap, and the pressure to hire for AI fluency is reshaping technical teams. Carbon Ads reaches these developers in the places they learn and build, positioning your brand as a resource that supports their growth rather than an interruption.
If your AI solution helps developers learn faster, code smarter, or ship AI-powered features, Carbon puts you in front of the audience actively looking for that edge. Brands like Agent.ai, Bolt, Together.ai, MongoDB, and Google Cloud use AI messaging on Carbon and across our developer ecosystem to connect with these high-intent audiences.
Proof from real campaigns
As a long-time buyer, MongoDB recently started running on the Carbon ad network. After 1 month of testing, BSA optimized performance and decreased cost per registration by 90% over a 3-month campaign.
Andela observed the first increase in organic traffic since August 2024, directly correlated with the duration of their BSA campaign. BSA’s placements have been their top referring domains.
In their own words
“Reaching developers as a marketer can be hard. I come back to Carbon Ads because I know I’ll reach developers in their native digital communities, and that reach will help create more authentic connections to our target audience.”
“I have deployed Carbon Ads across my previous 3 roles because it reliably isolates high-intent technical audiences without bleeding budget on unqualified impressions. It is a highly capital-efficient tool for capturing a relevant audience directly into our funnel.”
Developers trust Carbon Ads to deliver real results
- 16+ years supporting the independent web
- $120M+ paid out to publishers
- Well-known in the developer community — often requested by name
- Consistent presence across developer workflows and resources
- Curated advertiser network — only developer-relevant brands
- Trusted by site owners who choose to integrate our ads
- Non-intrusive format designed specifically for technical audiences
- Transparent approach — no hidden fees or surprise charges