Advertiser Resources

How does StumbleUpon work?
StumbleUpon is a great way to discover really interesting websites, photos, videos, blogs, and more! If this is your first introduction to the service, check out this demo or sign up as a member. We send visitors to millions of personally relevant sites everyday. Yours could be one of them.

StumbleUpon gives members a guided tour of the internet. Using Firefox and Internet Explorer integrated toolbars, StumbleUpon brings personally relevant websites, videos and photos to members, displaying that content directly in their browser. We don't serve pop-ups/unders, banners or other invasive forms of advertising.

Can I see a demo of StumbleUpon?
A demo is available here.

What kind of content works well with StumbleUpon?

Entertaining and informative content works best. Every StumbleUpon user should appreciate advertisements as one of their stumbles. Our millions of members are looking to discover new and interesting information, and will give you valuable feedback (thumbs up or thumbs down ratings) if you provide them with an entertaining, enlightening, or informative experience.

Here are some examples of pages that have performed very well:

In order to offer the best discovery experience for our users, StumbleUpon provides Content Guidelines to help you communicate more effectively with your desired audience.

Where will my content appear?
When a person clicks the "Stumble!" button on their StumbleUpon toolbar, we send a personally relevant website to them, displaying it in their web-browser. Members love the service as they feel a real sense of discovery - much like they felt the first time they ever used the internet. Content delivered to people is targeted to their personal interests and demographic profile.

When you use StumbleUpon to promote your website (or other content), we send your site directly to people who match your targeting criteria, and specifically to those who have expressed an interest in similar sites before. We display your content directly in the user's browser - not as an ad, but as the sole and entire focus. Each unique URL is displayed only once to each member.

How can I get Viral Marketing from StumbleUpon?
The more popular your site, video, photo, etc, the more people will see it. Using the StumbleUpon toolbar, members rate content "thumbs-up" (really like it) or "thumbs-down" (not for them). The more people who vote "thumbs-up", the more quickly it will spread. Well designed and targeted content often starts to spread virally through StumbleUpon. The more people who see it, the more they pass it on to their friends (both within and outside of StumbleUpon).

Do I need to create an ad?
No. We send visitors directly to your website (or photo or video). StumbleUpon doesn't serve pop-ups/unders, banners or other invasive forms of advertising. At this time we have contextual text ads on StumbleUpon.com (provided by Google AdSense), but it is not possible to purchase these directly.

You can create a specific page/video/etc for StumbleUpon. Make it a fun, entertaining, or informative experience for people who love new and exciting stuff.

What am I paying for? What do I get?
Premium inclusion in StumbleUpon starts at 5 cents per targeted visitor. We show your site directly to StumbleUpon members (a demo is available here). Targeting by personal interest, history of rating similar sites, location, and demographics (age, gender) determines who will see your site. There is no ad impression or click-through. Rather than using intrusive forms of advertising (like popup ads), we display your entire page. Your page will be the only content displayed in the user's web-browser. Your site isn't wrapped inside a frame or presented as an ad within another page. You have the visitor's full attention.

How is this different from PPC, pops, banners...?
Paid keyword search is an excellent way to get targeted traffic. StumbleUpon opens up a new opportunity to reach targeted audiences. We recommend using StumbleUpon to complement keyword search campaigns. One advantage of StumbleUpon is the sense of discovery our members feel when they use the service. It's a different mindset than search. Rather than looking for something very specific, our members are in an open state of mind, eager to learn and experience.

Unlike pop-ups/unders and banners, StumbleUpon takes people directly your content (webpage, video, photo, blog...). What people see is not an ad - it is your full site, unobstructed by any other content. No new creative is required (you don't need to create a text ad), no clickthrough necessary, and you get immediately feedback (thumbs up or down) on your content from your visitors. This makes a StumbleUpon campaign one of the easiest ways to improve your traffic and get website feedback.

Why doesn't StumbleUpon do pops, banners...?
We feel that a lot of online advertising is obtrusive and takes away from the user experience. We wanted to create something that benefits both the advertiser and the visitor. Yes, you can acquire sales by displaying thousands of popups and annoying countless people in the process. The StumbleUpon experience is all about discovering new and interesting content, whether paid or organic. Either way, it has true value to the person visiting that content.

How does StumbleUpon prevent click-fraud?
StumbleUpon doesn't syndicate paid listings to third parties - the primary source of click-fraud in pay-per-click networks. We also don't have any mechanism by which someone can force your site to come up as a paid result, so a competitor can't drain your account.

Is StumbleUpon right for my business?
StumbleUpon is an effective way to reach a large, enthusiastic audience. People who use StumbleUpon are excited about the websites, photos, videos, and blogs that they discover here. They're eager to try new products and explore new services.

If you haven't experienced StumbleUpon for yourself, try or see a demo, or sign up.

StumbleUpon works best for businesses with something valuable to offer, presented in an informative or entertaining way. You can target a narrow group of people or seek exposure to a broad audience. As a new and unique marketing channel, StumbleUpon is becoming a valuable part of many business's promotional strategies. Get started today.

How can I target a specific audience?
In addition to StumbleUpon's built-in behavioural targeting, you can target campaigns by:

Category - more than 500 to choose from.
Location - country, state, city (US & Canada)
Demographics - age, gender

What kind of traffic volume can I expect?
StumbleUpon delivers millions of "stumbles" per day. These are spread across a broad range of web-pages, videos, photos, podcasts, blogs.... The volume of visitors we can send to your site depends on two main factors: how many member we have who are interested in sites like yours, and how tightly you choose to target the campaign. For example, if you limit a campaign to a specific age group, you can expect less traffic than if you leave age unset.

In the future, we will offer the ability to predict traffic for each desired set of targeting criteria.

How can I increase how much traffic I get?
If you have targeted campaigns that you would like to receive more traffic, try these approaches:
1. Edit the campaign to loosen or remove age targeting
2. Loosen or remove location targeting
3. Remove gender targeting
4. Make a new campaign targeted to another relevant topic

For targeting by age, we only know the ages of a portion of our users. If age targeting is not vital, or if you want to target a broad age group, you may be able to reach substantially more users by removing that targeting. We have proportionally few members under 18 years and we don't allow people under 13 to sign up.

Can I set spending/traffic limits?
Yes. You can limit each campaign to a maximum number of visitors per day. You can also set a global maximum dollar spend per day. When a limit is met, no more traffic will be delivered until the following day (Pacific Standard Time). There is no minimum spend - you can spend as much of as little as you want.

My Google Analytics / Urchin stats don't match. Why the difference?
Analytics packages like Google Analytics, Urchin, Webtrends, etc., use javascript to track traffic. You may see a difference between the traffic reported by these services and the traffic reported by StumbleUpon.

A large portion of our Firefox users have added the NoScript add-on to their browser. This is one of the top-10 most popular extensions for Firefox. This extension blocks any javascript calls that the user doesn't approve of. Blocking javascript causes Urchin, Google Analytics, Webtrends, etc to not work. These tracking services never see the traffic because NoScipt blocks it.

You may see a larger difference in reported traffic than with other advertising services because StumbleUpon has a much higher proportion of Firefox users -- and in particular, a much larger proportion of people who use browser extensions -- than a typical audience. In essence, StumbleUpon's early-adopter user-base is much more privacy and security conscious than the typical internet user, and they block tracking services as a result.

It is possible to verify that you are receiving the correct amount of traffic. If you have access to your actual weblogs (e.g. Apache, IIS, etc), you can see how many times StumbleUpon has sent people to your site. You will need to use a unique URL when advertising with us, so you can look for that URL in your logs.

Can I use tracking code?
Presently, StumbleUpon is unable to recognize that multiple URLs differentiated with tracking code (but having the same content) are actually the same page. This causes users to see the same page multiple times (once for each tracking code used), which can become undesirable and encourages thumbs-down ratings.

You can identify traffic from StumbleUpon by looking for either of these referers:
http://www.stumbleupon.com/refer.php?url=...
http://www.stumbleupon.com/refer.html

What frequency caps does StumbleUpon use?
Each unique URL is displayed at most once to each member of StumbleUpon. The same member will never see the same URL twice. If you want to increase exposure, create a new campaign with a different URL. Providing a few different pages on the same theme is a great way to drive your message home. Try to make each page interesting of its own right, with some unique content, even if overall the pages are fairly similar. For example, if you have a DVD or book store, you could make different campaigns for each genre.

Can I promote multiple URLs?
Yes, you may promote as many different URLs as you wish. They many be on the same or different domains. To promote a new URL, you can create a new campaign.

Can I create multiple campaigns?
Yes, there is no limit to the number of campaigns you may have. You can use the same URL in multiple campaigns (but with different targeting parameters). Or you can use the same targeting criteria but with different URLs. Or any other combination.

How long does it for a new campaign to start?
New campaigns usually start receiving visitors within 24 hours.

How can I tell if my campaigns are performing well?
The great thing about StumbleUpon is that our members vote on content that we send to them. Using the StumbleUpon toolbar, you can click either "thumbs-up" to endorse a site (and spread it to like-minded people), or click "thumbs-down" to indicate that it's not for you. As a website owner, blogger, advertiser, or media buyer, this is potentially very valuable information. You can see what percentage of people rated your content positively, what demographics are performing best, and even read specific written feedback from members.

What kind of reporting is available?
For each campaign, we provide data and graphs showing daily visitors and ratings ("thumbs-up" / "thumbs-down" ). We plan to add much more in-depth reporting in the future. If you have ideas about how to improve reporting features, please email
aaron stumbleupon.com

How can I target multiple topics/demographics?
Choose the topic (category) that you feel is most suitable for the content you wish to promote. For each additional category or demographic group that you would like to target, create a new campaign. In the future we plan to allow multiple topics/demographics within a campaign.

The benefit of creating one campaign for each category is that you can compare the performance of each. Some categories will naturally produce better results than others. Focus more effort on those and perhaps discontinue those that aren't as successful to increase the effectiveness of your targeting.

How do StumbleUpon members know that my site has been sponsored?
When a person stumbles upon your website, a green button will appear that says "sponsor" and it links to a description of sponsored stumbles located here.

Can I make any changes to my campaigns?
While a campaign is pending, advertisers are unable to make adjustments. Once a campaign has been approved changes can be made to location, age and gender targeting which can be found in the Advanced Options.

How long does the review process take?
The review process usually takes one (1) business day. We do not review ads on the weekend or during observed U.S. holidays.

Are there any content restrictions for the URL's submitted?
Visit our Content Guidelines (http://www.stumbleupon.com/content_guidelines.html) to learn more about what content works well in the StumbleUpon community.

What forms of payment does StumbleUpon accept?
StumbleUpon uses PayPal for all payments. PayPal allows you to pay with a credit card, bank account or existing PayPal balance.
Follow the orange "AddFunds" link from your account once your campaign has been approved. This will prompt you to add funds with PayPal.

How long before my funds are active and traffic is delivered?
Please note that despite PayPal notification of a "complete" transaction, it may take up to five (5) business days for funds to become available in your StumbleUpon Advertising account. Once the funds are active you should expect traffic immediately.

What is the process for requesting a refund?
To receive a refund please send an email with your name, the email address of the account and transaction number(s) of you PayPal transactions to: refunds (at) stumbleupon (dot) com

How long does it take for refunds to be issued?
After a refund request is received, it can take up to 3-4 weeks for processing. During this time you may be contacted to confirm account details and provide additional transaction information. Once your refund has been processed you will receive a confirmation email.

I forgot my password, how do I get it back?
You can recover your password here.

One of my campaigns was not accepted, what can I do?
If we haven't accepted one of your campaigns, it doesn't mean that you can't advertise with StumbleUpon. Rather, the content of that particular campaign might not fit well with the general user experience that we try to maintain. For example, pages that consist largely of a form and credit card payment probably won't perform well. See "Content Guidelines" for more details.

A lot of the time, the solution might be as simple as choosing a different page on your site. For example, if you have submitted a page containing little more than a credit card form, try another page that introduces and explains the benefits of your product/service

Also, make certain that the content you are submitting isn't flagged by McAfee SiteAdvisor.

Can I stop or pause one of my campaigns?
Yes. Simply hit the 'Pause' button and this campaign will be put on hold. At any time you can resume the campaign by clicking the 'Resume' button in this column.

How can I rename my campaigns to better organize them?
Simply click the 'Rename' button and a pop-up will let you assign any label or keyword to this campaign. Campaigns can be renamed multiple times if targeting criteria for them is modified.

What is 'Approval' rating?
Approval rating is the percentage people who have given your site a thumbs-up after stumbling upon it. It is the number of thumb-up ratings, divided by the total number of ratings, which a particular campgaign URL has gotten. Thus, the higher your campaigns approval rating is, the more people are liking it. Both the targeting (relevance to users) and quality of your site determines the approval rating.

You can improve your approval rating by targeting your page more accurately (choosing better topics), trying different geographic locations (state, rather than city) and improving the content and presentation of the URL being distributed (clear, informative and well designed pages do best). Approval ratings of over 70% generally indicate your product is being well-received within the StumbleUpon community.

Please direct any general StumbleAds inquiries to: advertiser (@) stumbleupon.com

Create a campaign now >

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