Surfside Ads
We recommend including Surfside Ads as part of your onboarding. It uses the same connections as Offsite Commerce Media to deliver ads and personalized experiences on your own website, app, and in-store screens. Surfside Ads is optional, and you can still launch offsite first if you prefer.
What Surfside Ads includes
| Capability | What shoppers see | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Sponsored products | Products promoted by brands, placed within your product listings, search results, and carousels, and labeled as sponsored. | Website and app |
| Onsite ads | Banners, videos, and product carousels in placements you choose, such as the homepage, category pages, or product pages. | Website and app |
| In-store ads | Ads on digital screens in your stores, such as kiosks and in-store displays. | Stores |
| Personalization | Tailored product recommendations powered by Surfside’s machine learning, including popular products at a shopper’s store and buy-again suggestions. | Website and app |
You can start with one capability and add others later. Your representative will help choose what fits your site and goals.
Personalization
Personalization gives you tailored product recommendations powered by Surfside’s machine learning, which uses shopping behavior and patterns from similar customers to suggest relevant products. You can help shoppers:
- Discover products suited to them with personalized recommendations.
- Explore local favorites by highlighting popular products at their store.
- Shop their favorites again with recommendations based on past purchases.
Personalization and sponsored products work together. A product carousel can lead with sponsored products and fill the remaining spots with recommendations, so every placement stays relevant. Learn about Surfside personalization.
What it adds to your setup
Surfside Ads builds on your website and apps, POS, and CRM connections. It adds two things:
| Addition | Why it’s needed | Who handles it |
|---|---|---|
| Product catalog | Sponsored products and recommendations need up-to-date product names, images, prices, and availability for each store. | Surfside, with your provider. See Product catalog. |
| Placements | The spots on your site, app, or in-store screens where ads and recommendations appear. | Your website or app provider, with setup details and support from Surfside. |
Your existing connections already provide the shopping signals that recommendations and ad targeting learn from.
How it fits into onboarding
- Tell your representative you’d like to include Surfside Ads, and which capabilities interest you.
- We set up your product catalog with your provider, alongside the core connections.
- We agree placements with you, then work with your website or app provider to add them. For in-store screens, your representative coordinates setup with you.
- We validate that placements are serving and tracking correctly before launch. See Validate and launch.
For your website or app provider
The Surfside Ads guides cover the technical integration, with four ways to integrate depending on your stack:
- Initialization sets up Surfside Ads on your site or server.
- Banners, Videos, and Carousels cover each format.
- Dynamic zones let one placement request several formats and fill whichever has demand.
Your Surfside representative will help identify the relevant steps.
Tell your Surfside representative if you’d like to include Surfside Ads in your onboarding. It’s recommended, and you can still launch offsite first if you prefer.
What’s next