WordAds

Earn income by displaying high-quality ads on your site.

Activate WordAdsMD

WordAds is a unique ad program from WordPress.com. You can join the ad program via your Jetpack connection. To get started, please follow these steps:

1. Purchase a Jetpack Security, Complete, or Growth Plan — no approval process is required.
2. Activate the feature in your WP Admin, under Jetpack → Settings → Monetize → Ads.
3. Save the settings to start seeing ads on your site right away.

If your WordAds application was previously approved on a Jetpack free plan, you may continue using WordAds. However, new applications will require a Jetpack Security, Complete, or Creator plan.

Control ad placementMD

You can control where ads show up on your site from within the Ads settings:

1. From the Jetpack → Settings → Monetize page in WP Admin, you can control ad placement on your front page, posts, pages, and archives
2. Select additional ad placements if you like, including at the top of each page, second ad below posts, or inline within post content.
3. If you wish to, you can enable targeted ads in the United States from the WordPress.com Dashboard at Tools → Monetize → Ads → Settings.

Customize your ads.txt fileMD

To maximize the revenue your site generates, you can configure Jetpack to control your ads.txt file. When Jetpack controls your ads.txt file, the list of approved partners updates automatically, allowing you to save time and better invest in running your business or creating new content.

Enable Jetpack to customize your ads.txt fileMD

1. Make sure you are running the latest version of Jetpack from your WP Admin Dashboard → Updates page. You can also check for pending updates on your Plugins page in WP Admin.
2. Head to yourjetpack.blog/ads.txt (replace yourjetpack.blog with your site’s domain), and copy the custom entries you find there.
3. Go to your site’s Ads section in WP Admin, at Jetpack → Settings → Monetize
4. Make sure Customize your site’s ads.txt file is toggled on.
5. Paste the entries you copied from yourjetpack.blog/ads.txt into the empty field below Customize your site’s ads.txt file.
6. Click the Save Settings button at the top of the Ads section when you’re done.
7. Confirm that there is no ads.txt file at the root of your site. If another plugin is trying to manage your ads.txt file, disable the plugin.

GDPR Consent Banner SettingsMD

When the GDPR consent banner is enabled in your Ads settings, visitors to your site from the European Union will be prompted to provide their consent for data usage as required by the GDPR. 

Enable the GDPR Consent BannerMD

1. Navigate to your WP Admin, and click on Jetpack -> Settings -> Monetize.
2. In the Ads section, you will find the “Enable GDPR Consent Banner” option.
3. Toggle the option on to activate the consent banner, or off to deactivate it.
4. Save your settings. The banner will now be displayed to your visitors as per your selection.

View EarningsMD

To view your Ads earnings, you will be redirected to the WordPress.com Dashboard for your site. The “View your earnings” link in the Ads page in your WP Admin will redirect you there.

You can also find the Ads Earning dashboard by navigating to WordPress.com, then to Tools → Monetize.

PayPal Payment SettingsMD

Earnings will be paid to the PayPal account you’ve added to your Ads settings. A PayPal account in good standing with the ability to accept funds must be maintained in order to receive earnings. You can verify which PayPal features are available to you by looking up your country on the PayPal website.

Add your PayPal email address to WordAdsMD

1. PayPal settings are in the WordPress.com Dashboard for your site. First, navigate to WordPress.com and choose the site you’d like to add a PayPal email for.
2. Click Ads at the top of the page to open the Ads Settings page.
3. Find the Payment Information section and enter your PayPal account email in the PayPal E-mail Address field.

Additional ad placement customization optionsMD

There are three other options for putting advertisements on your website:

• Use the Ads widget to place an ad unit in any widget area on your site, from Appearance → Widgets.
• Use the [wordads] shortcode to place an ad unit within the content of any post or page. Make sure the Shortcode Embeds option is enabled.
• Use the Ad Block.

Please check out our article on Advanced ad placement customization for even more options.

Ad formatMD

• Ads on your posts and pages are Medium Rectangle size (300×250).
• The ad at the top of your site is Leaderboard size (728×90).
• The ad widget lets you select Medium Rectangle (300×250), Wide Skyscraper (160×600) or Leaderboard (728×90).

Troubleshoot problems with WordAdsMD

Ads not showing upMD

• Turning off any ad blocker in your browser. Browsers that block ads by default, such as Brave, also hide WordAds ads.
• Confirming that ads are turned on and at least one ad placement is selected in Jetpack → Settings → Monetize.

Check whether ads are actually missingMD

Ads can be running on your site even when you can’t see them.

• Ad blockers hide WordAds ads. Browsers that block ads by default, such as Brave, also hide them.
• Site owners often see fewer ads than visitors do. Each ad is sold through real-time bidding, and advertisers bid less on a visitor who loads the same site many times a day.
• WordAds limits how many WordPress.com house ads (non-paying ads shown when no advertiser bids) each visitor sees. When no advertiser bids and that limit is reached, the ad space collapses and disappears from the page.
• Ads added with the Ad block do not collapse. When no ad is served, the block shows the word “Advertisement” with nothing below it.

To check what your visitors see:

1. Turn off any ad blocker, or open your site in a browser that does not block ads.
2. Open your site in a private or incognito window.
3. Visit several posts and pages, not only your homepage.
4. Ask someone in a different location to visit your site and tell you whether ads appear.

Check what changed on your siteMD

When ads stop showing on a site where WordAds was working, a recent change to the site is the most common cause. Work through the changes you made around the time ads stopped:

1. Theme. Ad placements depend on your theme, and not every theme supports every placement location. If you switched themes, switch back temporarily and check whether ads return.
2. Plugins. Performance and optimization plugins that minify JavaScript block ads from loading. Plugins that insert their own ads or manage the ads.txt file also conflict with WordAds. Deactivate any plugin you added or updated recently, one at a time, and check for ads after each one.
3. Ads settings. Go to Jetpack → Settings → Monetize and confirm that ads are turned on and that at least one ad placement (front page, posts, pages, or archives) is selected. Click Save Settings if you change anything.
4. Permalinks or server configuration. Changes to permalink settings or to your site’s .htaccess file break the ads.txt file. See the next section.

Check your ads.txt fileMD

Your ads.txt file lists the advertising partners allowed to sell ads on your site. A missing or broken ads.txt file reduces ad demand or stops ads entirely. Jetpack creates this file automatically. It is a virtual file: Jetpack generates it on request, and it does not exist as a real file on your server.

To check and fix your ads.txt file:

1. Visit yourjetpack.blog/ads.txt (replace yourjetpack.blog with your site’s domain).
2. Confirm that the page shows a list of WordPress advertising partner entries. If the page is blank, shows a 404 error, or shows entries you didn’t add, another plugin or a file on your server is replacing the Jetpack version.
3. Deactivate any plugin that manages or edits the ads.txt file.
4. Remove any ads.txt file in the root folder of your site, using your host’s file manager or SFTP. A real ads.txt file on the server overrides the one Jetpack generates.
5. Go to Settings → Permalinks in WP Admin. Confirm that Plain is not selected, then click Save Changes. This refreshes the rewrite rules Jetpack needs to serve the ads.txt file.
6. Visit yourjetpack.blog/ads.txt again and confirm the WordPress entries appear.
7. If you use custom ads.txt entries, add them back in Jetpack → Settings → Monetize under Customize your site’s ads.txt file, then click Save Settings.

Check for changes in advertiser demandMD

WordAds fills each ad space through real-time bidding. When no advertiser bids, no paid ad shows. A drop in advertiser demand reduces how often ads appear, even when your site and settings have not changed.

Advertiser demand depends on:

• The amount of traffic your site gets. A drop in traffic means fewer ads and lower earnings.
• Where your visitors are located. Advertisers bid more for visitors in North America and Europe than for visitors in other regions.
• Visitor consent. Visitors in the European Union see higher-paying personalized ads only after they give consent. Turn on the GDPR consent banner in Jetpack → Settings → Monetize if your site gets traffic from the EU.

The topic of your site has little effect on demand. Advertisers focus on who your visitors are, not what they read.

Check that your content follows the ads termsMD

WordAds does not show ads on sites with content that is not family-friendly, such as adult content or graphic violence. If you recently published content like this, ads on your site can stop. Review the prohibited content section of the Automattic Ads Terms of Service.

Not seeing earningsMD

Earnings are calculated daily, so you may need to wait to check the following day. The earnings are an estimate that will be finalized around the second week of the following month. Payments are sent on or about the last day of the following month. If you earned less than $100 in a given month, your earnings will carry over to the next month instead.

Unexpected adsMD

On a site that just activated WordAds, it’s normal to see only WordPress.com house ads for the first 24 hours. After a day or two, ads from other advertisers start to appear. This applies only to new activations. If your site showed ads from other advertisers before and now shows only house ads, please contact support.

We work with a wide variety of advertising partners, so it’s likely that you will see ads from various other networks such as Google.

If you have more questions about how ads work, please read this document.

Picard DSP in your connected applicationsMD

Picard DSP is a safe, official Automattic application. It is the advertising platform that powers WordAds and Blaze (DSP stands for Demand Side Platform). If you see “Picard DSP (wordads.co)” in your WordPress.com Connected Applications list, it was added automatically when you activated WordAds or used Blaze. In some accounts it appears as “Picard DSP (at localhost:3000,1,2,3)“. This is the same application.

This connection is not a sign that your account has been compromised. Picard DSP connects without a separate authorization prompt, and it shows “Global” access because it manages ads for any of your sites that use WordAds or Blaze.

WordAds and Blaze need this connection to work. If you no longer use WordAds or Blaze, you can safely disconnect Picard DSP:

1. Go to your WordPress.com Connected Applications page at wordpress.com/me/security/connected-applications.
2. Find Picard DSP in the list and click it.
3. Click Disconnect.

The application is removed from your account. If you activate WordAds or use Blaze again later, it reconnects automatically.

Privacy InformationMD

WordAds is deactivated by default, and unlocking/activating it requires an upgrade to the Security, Complete, or Creator plan. It can be deactivated at any time by toggling the Enable ads and displaying an ad below each post in the Ads section from Jetpack → Settings → Traffic in your WP Admin.

Data Used
Site Owners / Users To process payments via PayPal, the following site owner-related information is utilized: site owner’s email address, physical address, site URL, and WordPress.com-connected site ID.For compliance with US tax regulations, we also collect whether the site owner is a US Resident (or based in the US), and if so, we collect tax reporting information including Social Security Number or US Tax ID, Full Name or Business Name, and physical address.	Site Visitors We collect and send the following information (made available from the visitor’s browser) to our Demand Partners: IP address, geographical data (derived from the IP address), user agent, operating system, device type, unique user ID (randomly generated identifier), current URL, and IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) interest category. The advertising partners may use that information to display personalized ads to those visitors. The sharing of this information with our advertising partners may be considered a “sale” of information under US privacy laws. Data Retention: Log data (IP address, geographical data, user agent, operating system, device type) is stored for 30 days. The unique user ID is stored in cookies and is retained for 1 year.
Activity Tracked
Site Owners / Users We track when, and by which user, the feature is activated and deactivated. We also track updates to the user’s PayPal email address (so that we can continue successfully to process any payments).	Site Visitors We track ad impressions, video-related events (i.e. pause, mute, 100% plays, etc.) or errors, and ad click events.Various cookies are used for the following purposes: delivering targeted advertisements to specific visitors, storing user identifiers, and collecting anonymous ad platform stats.
Data Synced (Read More)
Site Owners / Users We sync options that identify whether the feature is activated, as well as the site’s current approval status (i.e. is this site approved to participate in the WordAds program?).	Site Visitors None.