The AI-powered ad network for
outbid boards
The first programmatic ad network for alternative channels, built for SaaS founders.
Smart bidding meets alternative media
Set a budget and an objective. Sidecar bids on the placements most likely to convert, across the media Google and Meta don’t sell.
Buy the top slot on maker boards and launch lists.
You hold the rank for as long as your bid wins. The row is the ad.
The primary sponsor slot in the tech newsletters your buyers already open.
Tracked link, pixel on the trial. You see signups, not open rates.
A native sponsored row on the directories people search to pick tools.
They came to compare. You show up first.
Host-read mid-rolls on developer and founder shows.
Booked like a deal, priced like an ad, attributed to the trial.
Sponsored posts from builders whose audience trusts their picks.
One post, one tracked link, one honest CAC.
Integrated reads and dedicated segments on tech channels.
Bid per video. The link in the description does the work.
Sponsor the repos your users already star.
A slot in the README and docs, where developers actually read.
Placements on the calculators, converters and utilities developers use every day.
Cheap, high-volume, and filtered by the algorithm for what converts.
Ads inside AI chat and answer interfaces, shown while the model thinks.
The newest inventory on the web. Sidecar Earn is how it’s sold.
How it works. One loop, run for you: launch a campaign, let the algorithm buy the placements most likely to convert, then let the results decide where the next dollar goes.
Why Advertise on Sidecar?
Conversion-based bidding
The algorithm bids across newsletters, podcasts, directories and creators, and buys or offers the placements most likely to produce a trial.
Start at $5/day
Google & Meta Ads never gets a chance at that budget.
Attribution that isn’t a screenshot
Cookieless pixel + advanced link tracking. You see the trial, not “the newsletter said 40k opens.”
acme.dev signed up 41 min after the click. Cookieless pixel matched the session; no screenshot, no “40k opens”.
How Sidecar compares
The ad networks built for developer and SaaS audiences, side by side.
How does Sidecar’s ad network operate?
You set a monthly budget and campaign objective. Instant inventory (directories, boards) is bought in a real-time auction. Booked inventory (newsletters, podcasts, creator posts) is an offer at the publisher’s price. Clicks and conversions hit your pixel and links. The next dollar goes to placements that produced a result, and stops going to the ones that didn’t.
How much does it cost?
No subscription. You set a monthly budget and pay only when a slot fills or a publisher accepts an offer. You can start around $20/day. There is no fixed Sidecar CPM. Instant inventory behaves like a real-time auction. Booked inventory is the publisher’s set price.
How do I launch a new ad campaign?
Create an account, add a payment method, set a monthly cap and an objective. Upload creative (logo, line, destination URL). Install the pixel if you want spend to follow signups and trials. Launch. Instant slots can fill as soon as they match. Booked slots show up as offers publishers accept or decline. You can pause the cap any time.
What are the different campaign objectives?
Maximize impressions spends the cap to get the most views across eligible placements. Use it for awareness.
Maximize clicks spends the cap to get the most clicks.
Maximize conversions spends the cap to get the most signups, trials, or other events your pixel fires. Needs the pixel.
Target CPA is coming soon. You will set a cost per result and bidding will try to stay near it.
You pick one objective per campaign. Booked slots still need a publisher to accept. The objective decides which offers and auctions we take, not whether a host has to say yes.
How does Sidecar’s smart bidding work?
It scores each eligible placement on your objective: chance of an impression, a click, or a conversion, using your pixel and what similar campaigns already did in that vertical. Instant inventory goes into a real-time auction. Booked inventory is ranked and sent as offers, a few per publisher per month so we don’t spam them. As results come in, more of the cap goes to placements that hit the objective and less to the ones that did not. New campaigns start on vertical priors, not on an empty guess. It will not behave like Meta on $20 and 3 conversions. It gets sharper as events show up.
How is this different from Google Ads or Meta Ads?
Google and Meta sell Search and Feed. Sidecar sells the other shelf: newsletters, directories, creators, boards. Their auctions need volume before bidding gets smart. Here the unit is a placement, not a keyword. Use them for scale. Use this when you want that budget on media they don’t sell, with a pixel on the trial.
How is this different from Carbon Ads or Ethical Ads?
Those networks sell a CPM on docs and tools. Sidecar is one campaign across newsletters, directories, creators, and boards. Bidding can route spend toward placements that created a signup or trial on your pixel, not only toward more impressions.
How does attribution work?
A cookieless pixel on your site plus link tracking on every placement. Signups, trials, and engagement are what the system learns from. Newsletter “opens” are not the win.
What if an influencer scams me?
Booked deals only run after they accept. If they take the money and never deliver, we refund you and drop them. Instant slots (a directory row, a board) go live when they’re accepted. You see that spend as delivered, not as a promise for next month.