Take a look at our common questions and answers! If you don't find the answer you need, be sure to reach out to your Customer Success Team!
Onboarding Portal
| How do I book a meeting with my Onboarding Specialist? | Select "Onboarding" from the top menu, select the Onboarding Name from the list. At the top of the page, select the "Book Meeting" button. In the new Window - Fill out the form and submit. |
| How do I message the Sales or Onboarding teams? | Select "Support" from the top menu then copy the email address for the team you wish to reach and email from your preferred email program. |
| After my onboarding is complete, how do I contact Freestar for support? | Select "Support" from the top menu then copy the email address for the team you wish to reach and email from your preferred email program. |
| How do I edit my contact information? | Select your name from the top right menu and select "My Profile". Select Edit, make your changes then select save. |
| I have more than one (1) contact, how do I know which contact is my primary contact? | Select the contact that most interacts with Freestar as your primary contact. |
| How do I reset my password? | Select your name from the top right menu and select "My Profile". Select Settings & Preferences from the left menu. Select Change Password. Enter your current password and new password. Select save. |
| How do I report an issue with the system? | If you have any issues, talk to your Freestar representative or email success@freestar.com. Make sure to include screenshots and details of the issue whenever possible. |
Integration
| How long does an onboarding take? | Onboardings typically take two (2) to four (4) weeks to complete. Your Onboarding Specialist will do everything they can to accelerate the timeline. You can help speed up the process by promptly responding to our communications, and creating your test page quickly. For more information, see our knowledge base Onboarding Timelines. |
| When will I get my tags to implement on my website? | Once your onboarding is in the Integrating stage, you'll be provided with the tags you need to create your test page. |
| When using my own Google Ad Manager (GAM), why does Freestar require so many permissions? | We use the Google Ad Manager (GAM) API to connect to your Google Ad Manager. The API requires us to have additional permissions in order to function. If we do not have the requested permissions, the API request will fail. |
| Where can I find integration information for Freestar? | Our integration documents differ depending on if you are using React, SPA or our Standard Implementation. If you would like to preview our Integration documents, you can view them in our knowledge base: Freestar Integration |
| How do I add more ad units? | 1. Contact your Onboarding Specialist or Customer Success Manager to request the new ad unit. Let us know the location of the unit and the maximum height and width you would like. 2. Your Onboarding Specialist or Customer Success Manager will provide your new tag. 3. Add the new tag to your page. 4. Contact Freestar to let us know the new ad is on page so we can confirm it is working correctly. |
| How do I get my ad unit tags? | Contact your Onboarding Specialist or Customer Success Manager to get your ad unit tags. During onboarding we will automatically send these to you once they are ready. |
| How do I use Freestar's dynamic ads.txt? | Add a redirect to use Freestar's ads.txt file. Our dynamic ads.txt automatically updates your ads.txt lines as new partners are added. For more information view our knowledge base: Select the "Ads.txt" tab |
| What CMP does Freestar use? | Freestar uses the Quantcast Choice CMP for Consent Management. For more information, see our knowledge base Freestar's Hosted Quantcast CMP or Quantcast's website. |
| Is the CMP that Freestar uses compatible with TCF 2.0? | Yes. Freestar uses the Quantcast Choice CMP, which is TCF 2.0 compatible. For more information, see our knowledge base Freestar's Hosted Quantcast CMP or Quantcast's website. |
| Is the CMP that Freestar uses compatible with Google? | Yes. Freestar uses the Quantcast Choice CMP, which is Google compatible. For more information, see our knowledge base Freestar's Hosted Quantcast CMP or Quantcast's website. |
| How do I cancel my onboarding? | We are always sad to see our customers go. If you are thinking about canceling your onboarding with Freestar, talk to your Freestar representative, or email onboarding@freestar.com and let us know what your issues or concerns are so we can try to address them. |
Demand
| How long does it take to get approved by demand partners? | Receiving a review from all of our partners takes an average of one (1) to two (2) weeks. |
| How many demand partner approvals should I expect? | Every site is different. The amount of approvals depend on the type of site, content, and the type of users that visit your site. If, previous to joining Freestar, you already have demand partners buying on your site, send us a list of your current partners. This may help to expedite approvals from your current partners. |
| Why did some demand partners not approve my site? | Each partner has their own criteria for approvals. If your site is not approved, we can ask the partner why it was not approved. However, most partners are not able to share this information and do not give specific information on how to fix and/or improve the issues. |
| For Publishers that are utilizing the Freestar’s GAM instance, this is also referred to as a Google MCM Managed Inventory setup. This process has two levels of approval, both at the overall Account level and then individually for each site. Each level of approval can take up to two weeks so we advise to move quickly on these initial steps of: | 1. Accepting our initial invitation which initiates approval at the Account level 2. Adding our Google ads.txt line: google.com, pub-3605257360853185, RESELLER, f08c47fec0942fa0 |
Policy
| Where can I find your supply policies? | Our Supply Policies are detailed in our knowledge base: Supply Policy |
| Why was my site rejected? | Freestar works with many partners that have strict content restrictions. If your site does not meet the minimum criteria, we are unable to onboard your site. A list of criteria is included in our Supply Policy. |
| Where can I find a sample privacy policy? | You can find a sample privacy policy and a list of privacy policy requirements in our knowledge base: Your Site's Privacy Policy. |
Documentation
| Where can I find training documents? | You can find a walkthrough of our Freestar Dashboard here. You can find a walkthrough of our implementation here. |
Finance
| When will I get my first payment? | Your contract lists your payment terms. Within the contract, you'll see text similar to this: "4.2. All amounts set forth in the Addendum shall be paid to Publisher X calendar days after end of the applicable month." Where X days is the number of days for your terms, your first payment will be payable to you X days after the month is complete (if the amount meets our minimum payout of $100 for check/ACH/Tipalti or $500 for wire (USD)). For example, if your term is 60 days and you went live on May 15, your payment would be due July 31 as this is 60 days after June 1. If you would like to receive payment earlier then Freestar's terms you can use Tipalti's NetNow payment option to get paid earlier for an additional fee, the option for this will be in the monthly email sent by Tipalti. |
| How do I setup my financial information? | 1. Log in to Freestar's dashboard https://dashboard.freestar.io/dashboard. 2. Select "Payments" from the left menu. 3. Select the “Sign up” tab. 4. Fill out your financial information. 5. Fill out the W9 form. Note we are unable to take a PDF of your W9. You must fill out Tipalti’s form. 6. If your payment information is correct you will receive an approval email. |
| I am not able to see the Payments information in the dashboard, how do I get access? | Send an email to your Onboarding Specialist or Customer Success Manager explaining your situation and our team can give the appropriate user access. |
| What happens if I am located in a country that is different from the country I would like to get paid in? | Send an email to payments@freestar.io and cc'ing your Onboarding Specialist explaining your situation and our finance team can reset the country field on your account. |
| How do I fill in the tax form? | As every customer's situation is different and varies based on location we are unable to give tax advice on filling in the tax form. You can visit Tipalti's site where they have answered some of the common questions. If you have any further questions please contact your tax professional to get advice based on your situation. |
| How do I edit my payment address or bank account? | You can make these edits directly in the Freestar Dashboard. Login to the Freestar dashboard and select "Payments" from the left menu. Select Edit, change your address. Select Next. Select Confirm and Continue. |
| How do I postpone/defer a payment? | You can put your payments on hold through the payments section in the dashboard. Login to the Freestar dashboard and select "Payments" from the left menu. Select "Hold My Payments". The hold option is an option controlled by you, Freestar does not have the option to hold/unhold payments. Once you would like payments to proceed you can log in to the dashboard and set your payments back to active. |
| When Freestar sends a payment, does the currency conversion happen on your side prior to it being sent, or does Freestar send a USD amount and the conversion happens when the payment is received? | The currency conversion is being made by Tipalti, so while it's not Freestar, it is our vendor. We make a payment in USD & if a publisher chooses to receive funds in a different currency that translation is made by Tipalti & the chosen currency is deposited in the publisher's account. |
Reporting/Performance
| Where can I find training documents? | You can find a walkthrough of our Freestar Dashboard here. |
| Why does Freestar require Google Analytics access? | We use your Google Analytics for a variety of reasons to help further optimize your site. You can see a full list of how and why we need Google Analytics access here. |
| Why does Freestar require my historical earnings? | We use your historical earnings as a benchmark for earnings with Freestar to help us compare to Freestar's performance after launch. This helps us troubleshoot any issues at set-up, and ensures that we can help you reach your goals. |
| How can I access Freestar's reporting platform? | Access our reporting platform by going to dashboard.freestar.io/dashboard and using the username and password given to you by Freestar. If you need to reset your password, email your Onboarding Specialist or Customer Success Manager to send a reset email. |
| What's the difference between Gross and Net Revenue? | Gross Revenue is your total revenue. Net Revenue is your total revenue minus Freestar's fees. |
| What's the difference between Requests and Impressions? | Ad Requests are the number of ad slots requested. Ad Impressions are the number of ad requests that were filled with an ad. This counts any type of ad including Direct, Programmatic, house, or backfill ads. |
| How do I use the Dashboard? | The dashboard automatically runs with the last 30 days of your company's data. You can add additional tiles as needed. Check out our video for how to use the dashboard. |
| How do I create an Advanced Report? | The advanced report lets you select the data you would like to view for your company. Select Advanced Reporting in the left menu of the dashboard and select "Create New Report". Select metrics, filters or dimensions as needed. Check out our video for how to use the advanced report. |
| How is RPM being calculated in the Freestar dashboard? | Freestar tracks pageviews where our code is present so we are able to provide you with an accurate RPM metric within the dashboard. If you have any questions about specific Freestar pageviews contact your Onboarding Specialist or Customer Success Manager and they will be able to provide you with a report to show this. |
| How do I remove Freestar's adhesion unit from the bottom of my page? | Using Freestar's JavaScript file automatically adds Freestar's adhesion unit. The adhesion unit is highly viewable and typically a high revenue unit for most sites. We recommend keeping adhesion units whenever possible. If there is an issue causing the adhesion to load incorrectly, or it is covering key site information, talk to your Freestar representative or email success@freestar.com to discuss solutions for the issue. |
| My performance is lower than I expected, what can I do? | Increasing viewability is one of the best things you can do to increase your performance. Having higher viewability allows your ads to be eligible for more campaigns and therefore increased CPMs. If you would like suggestions for how you can improve viewability on your site reach out to your Onboarding Specialist or Customer Success Manager and our Yield Managers can make suggestions specific to your site. Also if you are using your own Consent Management Platform (CMP), check that you are properly sending and receiving consent. |
| My CPMs are low, how can I increase them? | Increasing viewability is one of the best things you can do to increase your CPMs. Having higher viewability allows your ads to be eligible for more campaigns and therefore increased CPMs. If you would like suggestions for how you can improve viewability on your site reach out to your Onboarding Specialist or Customer Success Manager and our Yield Managers can make suggestions specific to your site. Also if you are using your own Consent Management Platform (CMP), check that you are properly sending and receiving consent. |
| What is the optimal viewabilty percentage? | We recommend having a viewability percentage of 70% or higher, with a minimum of 60%. |
| My viewability is low, how can I increase it? | Increasing viewability is one of the best things you can do to increase your performance. Having higher viewability allows your ads to be eligible for more campaigns and therefore increased CPMs. If you would like suggestions for how you can improve viewability on your site reach out to your Onboarding Specialist or Customer Success Manager and our Yield Managers can make suggestions specific to your site. Also if you are using your own Consent Management Platform (CMP), check that you are properly sending and receiving consent. |
| There is a two (2) to three (3) second delay in loading ads, what's wrong? | If your website was using a non-header bidding partner previously (like AdSense), you may notice a delay of two (2) to three (3) seconds when switching to a header bidder partner like Freestar. This delay is expected, as it is used to hold the header bidder auction. The delay allows as many partners as possible to respond to the request before it times out, allowing you to earn the highest amount. |
| Ads are not loading in the EEA region, what could be wrong? | If you are noticing that ads are not loading exclusively in the EEA region, this may be due to Freestar waiting for a response from your Consent Management Platform (CMP). If you are using your own CMP, confirm it is working as expected or email success@freestar.com to have Freestar enable our CMP. If you are using Freestar's CMP check if consent was approved or clear your cookies on your site and try to provide consent again, if the CMP is not loading or you are still having issues talk to your Freestar representative by emailing success@freestar.com. |
| How long does it take for performance to ramp up? | Typical ramp-up times after launch can last around 14 days for demand partners to reach their previous spending. We ask that you give at least 14 days for any trials to give partners an opportunity to get used to your inventory. |
Blocklist/Ad Quality
| What are my blocklist options? | We offer three (3) options for blocklists: Default, Standard, and Sensitive. A breakdown of each option is available in our knowledge base Onboarding Blocklists. |
| Can I block custom categories or URLs? | Contact your Onboarding Specialist or Customer Success Manager to see if we are able to use custom blocks for your site. |
| What do I do if an ad appears that is against my blocklist? | Contact Freestar and let us know what happened so we can investigate. If possible, provide as much of the following information as possible: URL on which ad was seen Description of issue (including frequency if applicable) Platform, Operating System and Browser (version details are also helpful) Date, Time and Timezone IP Address Geographical location of user Position of ad on page Screenshot Text file containing full ad HTML call |
