Custom Ad Units

Products listed here must be produced and served in-house via CNET Group studios. Designs may be provided by the client if appropriate templates are utilized

Quickslider

Quickslider
with video

Animated Quickslider

Cinematic Quickslider

Quickslider with Shoppable Product Carousel

Mobile Interscroller

Mobile Interscroller with Video

Mobile Interscroller with Shoppable Hotspots

Desktop Interscroller

Desktop Interscroller with Video

Relay

Relay with Video

Relay with Shoppable Product Carousel

Partner Spotlight

In-Content Partner Spotlight

Standard Banners with Video

Shoppable Showcase

Static Mobile Anchor

Animated Mobile Anchor

Premium Features for High Impact Units

Display Ads

Billboard (970×250)

Medium Rectangle (300×250)

Half Page (300×600)

Leaderboard (728×90)

Mobile Leaderboard (320×50)

Video

Pre-Roll

Amplification Units

Products listed here must be produced and served in-house via CNET Group studios. Designs for certain units may be provided by the client if appropriate templates are utilized

Content Lift

Premium Content Lift

Miniscroller

Review Resurfacer

Magnifier With Video

Mobile Magnifier With Video

Newsletters

Sponsorship Newsletters

Dedicated Newsletters

Social

Social Distribution Products

Social Conversion Feature

Advertising Policies

CNET Group reserves the right to remove or reject any ads, software code (pixels, tags, JavaScript, etc.), or websites to which ads are linked where CNET Group determines that they do not comply with the policies posted by CNET Group or with applicable law.

  1. HTML5 spec basics: 200k initial load, and 2MB *polite (secondary) load.
    *Polite load is waiting until after the rest of the page loads (or 4 seconds into the page load) to serve the sub-loaded files
    This is in line with the new IAB Display Ad standards set
    1. Viewability and Ad Verification measurement (ie pixels from IAS, MOAT, etc.) are not counted towards the 200k load. However, if the measurement pixel file sizes are extremely large we may request revisions be made.
    2. We cannot locally host JS files. These ads should not have any dependency on CNET Group servers to function properly.
    3. Up to 4MB is accepted for user-initiated load.
  2. We can host HTML5 creative.
    1. For site served HTML Banners they must use Google ClickTag guidelines. CNET Group Is able to site serve basic HTML5 Creative, but said creative must follow the coding rules found at this link HTML5 requirements for Ad Manager. If your creative includes video, we will not be able to host as a basic HTML banner and will have to serve as a rich media banner. Building a Rich Media banner will require the assistance of creative production team, CNET Group Studios. If HTML5 creative production and serving assistance is required, please contact your CNET Group Sales rep.
  3. Ads must average 65% or less CPU usage with occasional spikes allowed.
  4. We allow implementation of up to three 3rd party pixels on individual creatives within a placement. Note pixels are not allowed for non-ad served products.
  5. Platform splitting – For cross platform Display and Video lines, we will only traffic separate tags when the client has valid reason for creating multiple tags.
    Pre-approval for tag splitting within a line is given for the reasons below:
    1. Different exit url for mobile – examples: A separate exit for the iOS store or Android Store, a different exit url for users on Desktop vs Tablet
    2. Different creative per platform – example: HTML5 ad with video for desktop, and an HTML5 ad with simple animation for mobile
  1. We do not site serve HTML Banners.
    1. Any HTML5 banner running on CNET Group must run through a 3rd party server. If HTML5 creative production and serving assistance is required, please contact your CNET Group Sales rep.
  2. We do not allow auto-sound.
    1. Muted auto-play video is acceptable.
  3. Rich Media Display Banners are not allowed on Mobile Apps
    1. Display banners with Auto Play Video, User Initiated Video, or Heavy Animation are not allowed in our Mobile OS based apps.
  4. Surveys may not contain any Ziff Davis logos or logos from our properties.
    1. Surveys may not imply Ziff Davis or any of our properties are sponsoring the survey.
  5. We cannot accept blocking ad tags.
    1. They limit proper ad serving. Any filtering or targeting should be handled in the CNET Group ad server. Tracking and monitoring pixels may be used to track a variety of information but tags that control serving are not allowed.
  6. We do not accept unsecure ad tags.
    1. Please provide HTTPS tags for all placements.
  7. We do not allow trackers that gather a user’s personal data.

Approved Vendors

CNET Group serves ads through Google Ad Manager and follows Google’s Certified Vendor guidelines:

Google Ads Certified External Vendors
Youtube Certified External Vendors