Most dev ad platforms miss the mark. They rely on low-intent, mobile SEO traffic. The ideal platform reaches developers when they’re in discovery mode - on desktop, during work hours, with hyper-targeted, relevant ads. That’s exactly what daily.dev offers.
Until now.
If you’ve ever tried running ads to developers, you know it’s not just about impressions. It’s about catching them at the exact right moment, when they’re actually open to exploring something new. Most platforms miss that moment entirely.
Let’s break down what the ideal developer advertising platform should look like, and why most options on the market fall short.
Intent is everything
Most advertising platforms rely heavily on SEO-driven traffic. A developer searches for “how to do X in React,” lands on a blog post, skims it, solves their problem, and bounces. That’s not discovery behavior, it’s transactional. They’re in a task-focused mindset, not a browsing one. That’s the worst time to try to convince them to try your product or sign up for your event.
Contrast that with a platform like daily.dev, where users open the app or extension proactively to see what’s new. They’re not reacting to a problem, they’re exploring with curiosity. This is what marketers dream of: attention with intent, but without the resistance of urgency.
And we have the data to prove it.
Figure 1: Most of daily.dev’s traffic is direct. This means users actively choose to visit it’s high-intent, high-quality traffic.
Figure 2: In contrast, most dev-focused content sites rely on SEO. These visitors are less likely to explore, click, or convert.
Direct traffic is a signal that people remember and return. That’s brand-level behavior. That’s where you want your ads to show up.
Desktop-first or don’t bother
Developers are one of the few audiences where desktop still dominates. Why? Because the work they do—evaluating tools, deploying environments, testing APIs—happens in-browser, in-terminal, in-IDE. Not on their phones.
But most scalable ad networks today are mobile-first by default. That skews your impressions toward low-intent, passive mobile users. It looks like scale on paper, but in practice it creates drop-off, poor session quality, and underwhelming ROI—especially for B2B or dev-focused products.
daily.dev flips that model. The vast majority of our sessions are on desktop, during work hours, when developers are in flow. This is when they sign up, install, bookmark, share. Your brand becomes part of their workflow—not just an ad they scrolled past on the train.
You’re not just getting visibility. You’re getting relevance.
Targeting that’s actually useful
Generic targeting doesn’t work on developers. You can’t just say “tech professionals in North America” and expect results. The difference between a junior React dev and a senior SRE is night and day in both behavior and buying power.
daily.dev solves this with purpose-built data. Because the platform is built around technical content, every user interaction - what they read, click, follow, save - builds a signal-rich profile over time. We know if someone is deep into DevOps, just getting started with Rust, or experimenting with AI agents.
And when the ad fits the user, it doesn’t feel like an ad. It feels like something useful they just hadn’t seen yet. That’s when ads convert and even build trust.
You can target by:
- Programming language or framework
- Developer tools and libraries
- Career stage or seniority
- Geographic region
- Topical interest (e.g., security, DevOps, frontend, AI, etc.)
This level of targeting lets you:
- Show a new testing framework to people who follow Cypress and Jest
- Promote a cloud security tool only to backend engineers
- Target frontend developers in Europe interested in performance optimization
Most platforms either guess at your audience or force you to cast a wide net. We help you hit the bullseye.
A better way to reach developers
Developers are one of the most valuable (and most skeptical) audiences on the internet. They don’t respond to gimmicks. They don’t tolerate irrelevant ads. They tune out quickly unless something truly resonates.
But here’s the thing: when you meet them in the right place, at the right time, with the right message - they act.
daily.dev gives you that trifecta:
- The right intent (users come to discover)
- On the right device (desktop, during working sessions)
- With the right targeting (based on real technical interest)
That’s why over 1 million developers trust daily.dev to start their day. And it’s why brands who advertise here consistently outperform their benchmarks on other channels.
If you’re serious about reaching developers, don’t settle for generic impressions. Start with a platform that’s purpose-built for how developers explore.
👉 Get in touch to explore custom targeting.
