Quick answer
In-feed ads are sponsored posts inside a feed, in the same card format as the posts around them and labelled as promoted. They are read as part of the feed, which is why they work on audiences that ignore banners.
In-feed ads
DefinitionThe format is the native ad's most common form: a card with a cover image, a headline and a source, inserted among organic posts at a set frequency. The reader meets it the way they meet everything else in the feed, by reading, which is the point.
Also called: In-feed native ads, Feed ads.
How do in-feed ads work on a developer platform?
A promoted post is inserted into the feed at a set frequency among the organic posts, in the same card: cover image, headline, source name, and a "promoted" label. Targeting decides whose feed it appears in, usually by the tags and topics a developer reads, their seniority and their region. The developer reads it the way they read everything else, and clicks through to your page or your post.
On daily.dev the card is a 1024 × 512 image and a headline of up to 80 characters, shown in the feed developers open 6–7× a day, 90% of the time on a desktop at work (daily.dev platform analytics, cited in "Where to advertise to developers"). Frequency capping keeps the same card from showing up too often to one person.
What makes an in-feed ad perform?
- A headline that states the result: "Trace requests across 40 services without changing code" beats "Observability, reimagined".
- A cover that looks like the post: a screenshot, a diagram, a terminal, not a stock photo with a logo.
- Targeting to the tags where the problem lives, not to the whole platform.
- A landing that delivers the headline: the tutorial, the benchmark, the quickstart.
- A company page behind it, so a developer who liked the post has something to follow.
The card competes with the best organic posts of the day, so the bar is "would a developer upvote this", not "does it look like our brand".
Common mistakes
- Banner creative in a card that was supposed to look like a post.
- A headline about the brand instead of the result.
- A two-week burst, then judging the channel before recognition built.
- Landing on a demo form from a post about a tutorial.
How developers experience it
- The card is one more post; they read the headline and decide in a second.
- They respect the "promoted" label and ignore anything that pretends otherwise.
- They follow the company whose promoted post was actually good.
How should in-feed ads be bought and run?
As an always-on monthly placement with a few creatives in rotation, reviewed weekly: the headline that is read most stays, the one that is not gets rewritten. Recognition builds over weeks, and the following on the company page is what the campaign leaves behind, so a two-week burst wastes the ramp. Pair the feed with the Digest slot on the same tags to reach the same developers in the inbox.
Measure by reads and clicks per thousand served for the creative, and by sign-ups and activations with a weeks-long window for the channel.
What should you promote in the feed?
Posts developers would read anyway: a release with a changelog, an engineering story, a tutorial, a benchmark with its method, an open-source announcement. A product page can work when the headline is specific. A "book a demo" page does not; developers in a feed are reading, not shopping, and the card has to respect that. When in doubt, promote the post the engineering team is proudest of this month.
On daily.dev
How it works on daily.dev
In-Feed Ads are the core placement on daily.dev: a promoted card in the feed developers open to keep up, targeted by stack, seniority and region, with a 1024 × 512 image and a headline of up to 80 characters. Our team shapes the creative with you.
Explore my optionsIn-feed ads vs display ads vs sponsored content
| Capability | In-feed ads | Display ads | Sponsored content |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where it sits | Among the posts, in the same card | Around the content, in a banner | As a full post on the platform |
| Blocked by ad blockers? | Rarely | Mostly | Rarely |
| Creative | Cover and headline | Banner | A whole article |
| Bought as | Always-on monthly placement | CPM flights | Per article, on reads |
| Measured by | Reads, clicks, follows, activations | Impressions, clicks | Reads, engagement, activations |