Ad Campaigns currently focus on inserting ads into the body of posts. They do not place ads in your theme or in newsletters.
Ad Campaigns list showing campaign name, status, audience, and date range
How ad campaigns work
When a reader loads a Ghost post page, Outpost’s site plugin runs through the active ad campaigns. If a campaign matches the reader’s audience type and the post’s tags, its ads are injected into the post body on the live site. Each campaign contains one or more ads (campaign items). You create the ads while building the campaign; you don’t author them in the CTA Library first.Creating an ad campaign
Go to Ad Campaigns under the Labs group in the left navigation and click New Campaign.Basic settings
Adding ads
Click Add Ad inside a campaign to pick the ad format:- Banner Ad: wide horizontal placement.
- Square Ad: square placement.
- HTML Box: paste your own HTML for full control.
The HTML Box format takes markup you write yourself instead, with separate blocks for desktop and mobile, and it opens with Settings and Preview tabs only. See Library & Styling.
Every ad you add is created fresh inside the campaign. Campaign ads don’t appear in the CTA Library, and you can’t pick an existing Library CTA to run in a campaign.
Audience targeting
Each ad in the campaign can target one or more audience types:
If no audience is specified, the ad shows to all audience types.
Tag targeting
Tag targeting is optional. If both lists are empty, the campaign runs on every post.
Site-wide exclusions
The Site-Wide Exclusions tab on the Ad Campaigns page lets you set Ghost tags that exclude every campaign for your publication. These global exclusions are merged with each campaign’s own “Don’t Show” tags, so a tag in either list keeps ads off matching posts.Campaign status
Ad Tool vs. Ad Campaigns
Ad Campaigns is the scheduled, audience-targeted system. The In-Post Ad Inserter (Ad Tool) is a simpler always-on placement system also delivered via the Ghost site plugin. Both run on the same channel (your live Ghost post pages), and they can overlap. If you have both enabled, take care that placements don’t collide on the same post.Use cases
- Sponsor takeovers: Run a sponsor’s banner across all paid-tier post views for a fixed window.
- Upgrade promotions: Show upgrade ads only to free readers, only on premium-track tagged posts.
- Cross-promotions: Promote partner publications to specific audience segments.
- Seasonal campaigns: Time-limited promotions with automatic start and end dates.
Related features
In-Post Ad Inserter
Always-on ad placement on your Ghost post pages.
Sponsorship Boxes
Branded sponsor blocks designed for inline post placement.
CTAs
How calls to action work across Outpost, including the CTA Library.
Email Campaigns
One-time email sends, separate from Ad Campaigns. Email-injected ads are not currently supported.
FAQ
Can I run multiple ad campaigns at once?
Can I run multiple ad campaigns at once?
Yes. Every active campaign that matches a post’s tags and the reader’s audience type runs on that post. Use tag targeting and audience filters to control which ads appear where.
What's the difference between Ad Campaigns and Sponsorship Boxes?
What's the difference between Ad Campaigns and Sponsorship Boxes?
Ad Campaigns is the scheduled, audience-targeted system delivered via the Ghost site plugin. Sponsorship Boxes are individual sponsor blocks you create once and either insert into a new Ghost draft or copy/paste into an existing post.
Do I need to create CTAs before creating a campaign?
Do I need to create CTAs before creating a campaign?
No. You create a Banner, Square, or HTML Box ad at the point you add it to the campaign. Campaign ads are separate from your CTA Library, so there is nothing to set up first and nothing to pick from.