Free WiFi should not just cost a venue money. It should be able to earn.
We have just shipped Advertiser Self-Serve on ISN Free WiFi.
Here is how it works. A guest connects to your WiFi and watches a short ad to get online. Until now, getting a local business's ad onto that screen meant emails, back and forth, and manual setup.
Now the advertiser does it themselves, straight from your captive portal:
- They pick a plan and the venues they want to reach
- They upload a picture or a video
- They set an age range, so an alcohol brand never reaches under-18s
- They pay by card before anything goes live
- You choose whether requests need your review, or go live instantly
The venue stays in control. Nothing runs without your say-so unless you switch on instant approval.
And the money side is handled properly:
- A declined or abandoned payment means no ad goes live, and the uploaded files are cleaned up
- Every payment gets a numbered, VAT-aware invoice
- If an ad is taken down early, the refund is worked out from the views it actually got, with a credit note
Card payments run through Paystack, PayFast, Yoco or DPO, depending on your country and what you have connected.
For a taxi rank, a clinic, a municipality hotspot or a shopping centre, it means your WiFi can bring in advertising income without a sales team chasing every small advertiser.
The full guide is on our docs page: https://isnfreewifi.co.za/docs/advertiser-self-serve
If you run guest WiFi and want it to pay for itself, I would like to hear how you handle advertisers today.