Building an Ad Network from scratch

[Godzillion]

Hey guys,

So I’ve decided to build something kinda wild: a programmatic ad network for “banned” stuff: adult content, gambling, alcohol, and all the spicy niches that Google and Meta don’t want anything to do with.

These industries print money, have paying audiences, but they’re still stuck with sketchy popunders and garbage traffic. I think we can do way better.

Instead of playing by the old rules, I’m going off-road with:

• Twitter/X accounts & shoutouts
• Niche sites sponsorships
• Paid placements in Telegram & Discord groups
• Collabs with OnlyFans creators, indie creators, streamers — anyone with an audience and no fear

The idea? A lightweight ad network powered by an alternative distribution method. Less bureaucracy, more results.

I’m building the whole thing myself, dashboards, targeting, analytics, billing... everything! And yeah, I fully expect this to make a fuck ton of money. Not overnight, but eventually. The potential here is massive.

And even if it flops? I’ll walk away way smarter, with real stories. That’s a win in my book.

I’ll post weekly updates here: builds, fails, traffic tests, sketchy wins, and random thoughts.

If you’ve ever worked with or run campaigns on adult ad networks like TrafficJunky, JuicyAds, ExoClick, etc drop a comment!
Any red flags? Tips? Common pitfalls? Stuff you wish you knew before? Help brighten up this thread for all of us diving into the chaos

Follow along if you're into:

• Indie monetization
• Full-stack development
• Building outside the system
• And trying to print money without asking permission

Let’s fkn go

 

[HenryObi]

Hey guys,

So I’ve decided to build something kinda wild: a programmatic ad network for “banned” stuff: adult content, gambling, alcohol, and all the spicy niches that Google and Meta don’t want anything to do with.

These industries print money, have paying audiences, but they’re still stuck with sketchy popunders and garbage traffic. I think we can do way better.

Instead of playing by the old rules, I’m going off-road with:

• Twitter/X accounts & shoutouts
• Niche sites sponsorships
• Paid placements in Telegram & Discord groups
• Collabs with OnlyFans creators, indie creators, streamers — anyone with an audience and no fear

The idea? A lightweight ad network powered by an alternative distribution method. Less bureaucracy, more results.

I’m building the whole thing myself, dashboards, targeting, analytics, billing... everything! And yeah, I fully expect this to make a fuck ton of money. Not overnight, but eventually. The potential here is massive.

And even if it flops? I’ll walk away way smarter, with real stories. That’s a win in my book.

I’ll post weekly updates here: builds, fails, traffic tests, sketchy wins, and random thoughts.

If you’ve ever worked with or run campaigns on adult ad networks like TrafficJunky, JuicyAds, ExoClick, etc drop a comment!
Any red flags? Tips? Common pitfalls? Stuff you wish you knew before? Help brighten up this thread for all of us diving into the chaos

Follow along if you're into:

• Indie monetization
• Full-stack development
• Building outside the system
• And trying to print money without asking permission

Let’s fkn go

I'm curious to see how this goes. Good luck on your journey.

 

[natsuko]

Just make sure your billing system ain’t sketchy af, that’s where most flop.

 

[ZooRick]

Something different for once. Hope you update this thread regularly and good luck!

 

[Godzillion]

I'm curious to see how this goes. Good luck on your journey.

Thanks man, appreciate it! Gonna keep this thread updated weekly. Whether it scales or burns, it’ll be a fun one to watch

 

[Godzillion]

Just make sure your billing system ain’t sketchy af, that’s where most flop.

100% agreed, billing is such a pain in this case. I've talked with CCBill a couple hours ago and they only support sexual content, no gambling, sports betting or the likes. So I might use a payment orchestrator and route each kind of campaign through different payment networks, in order to have fallbacks in case any of them shuts it off. Another option is crypto (which I don't have the slightest clue about payment processing). If you've got tips on how to avoid billing bans I'm all ears!

 

[Godzillion]

Something different for once. Hope you update this thread regularly and good luck!

Appreciate that! I'll be dropping a full update every week with how things are going. Trying to keep it raw and useful, not just hype.
Worst case? We all learn a few things from it.

 

[Proxy Cake]

For crypto, amthe best payment gateway imo is Cryptomus. They auto convert each crypto payment to USDT so there's no volatility

 

[Godzillion]

For crypto, amthe best payment gateway imo is Cryptomus. They auto convert each crypto payment to USDT so there's no volatility

Oh thanks! Never heard of them. I wonder if they could also handle payouts

 

[Godzillion]

Small update:

• I've been designing the database schemas with every relation that I will need.
• Starting to set up a payment provider aggregator (I won't depend on a single payment gateway but multiple of them so the payment can be re-routed if anything goes wrong)
• Learnt all the models and jargon used here: CPM, CPC, CPA, CPL, CPI, CPV, CPX, Flat rate... I guess I'll simplify it.
• The goal is to keep the platform extremely simple and intuitive: both for advertisers creating a campaign, and for publishers who want to add their distribution channels. I really want to avoid making it bloated like most ad networks.
• I'm also planning to include some light AI-powered features, like automated A/B testing for creatives to see what performs best.
• Still figuring out how to do distribution and outreach to attract both publishers and advertisers. My idea for now is to manually contact big Telegram channels and groups, and offer them to add my bot as admin. The bot would automatically post ads in the right language and category, and delete them after a few minutes to keep the feed clean. We'd track clicks and impressions per post.
• Also .com domain secured! I've been developing the user facing interface and backend server logic.
• Wrapping my head around how to make a robust ad server.
• Evaluating different ad-serving approaches, iframes, script tags, api for mobile/social (telegram, X...), websockets for live video (camsites).
• Oh, also considering vector similarity for serving relevant ads! I've always wanted to use this approach and now I have the opportunity to use it

• 

heads down, building!

 

[Godzillion]

Oh, I also made some assets for opengraph and brand image, thanks chatgpt for the illustrations
PS: I'm blurring brand and images because I don't know if this would be considered promotion or anything like that. Not including links or brand name

 

[Godzillion]

Oh, I forgot to mention that there will be live stats! I added a realtime sync layer on top of the database (websockets + redis) so updates will be streamed to the user as they come. No more refreshing or waiting to check campaign performance! There will be realtime view of where ads are being displayed

 

[zocx]

I like the telegram ads idea, i have a few small telegram channels, but giving admin to a random bot i don't want personally ... hope you can make it in a way so we can use our own telegram bots if we want

 

[Godzillion]

Sounds like an ambitious and bold move! I’m all for disrupting the status quo. Wishing you the best of luck with the build—looking forward to the updates!

Thanks a lot! Definitely trying to shake things up a bit
Appreciate the support

 

[Godzillion]

I like the telegram ads idea, i have a few small telegram channels, but giving admin to a random bot i don't want personally ... hope you can make it in a way so we can use our own telegram bots if we want

Totally get it, giving admin access isn’t ideal for most people but that's the first thought that came to mind
But letting people use their own bots would make it hard to handle key stuff like tracking, deleting posts, and reporting properly, or posting when the system demands.

Plus, most folks aren’t devs, so having a plug-and-play bot makes things way easier.

That said, I’ll make sure the bot only needs write/delete permissions, not full admin. Appreciate the feedback! Really useful at this stage

 

[lightshinesagain]

you are doing awesome work. This is complex business. But, if you build ad network for such niches. You will definitely make lot of money. I will be following your thread closely.

 

[beverlie]

I was interested in this sort of venture myself a long time ago. Never completed the project due to financial challenges.
Can I ask a rough estimate of how much did you invested so far in this ? And how much are you willing to keep pumping to turn this network into a success.

 

[RichMedusa]

Wish you the best for your journey, so far you're doing great, keep it updated

 

[Spicy Chromosomes]

Very interesting, good to see your development, great journey so far, good luck!

 

[Pixeldrift]

It's nice to see something different for a change. I hope you keep this thread updated regularly—best of luck moving forward.