Tools

How HostAd Works: From the Map to a Screen Ad

July 5, 20267 min

Picture the usual way you order out-of-home advertising: you call an agency, wait for a proposal, approve a layout over email, get an invoice with a vague "agency" markup — and maybe, two weeks later, your banner is hanging somewhere. You never actually saw what the placement itself costs or who sees your ad.

HostAd removes those middlemen. It's a map of screens in Kyiv coffee shops and bars where you choose the venue yourself, see the owner's price before you book, and go live within hours. Here's how it works, step by step.

What HostAd is in one sentence

The network currently has 20+ digital screens in craft coffee shops and small bars across Kyiv: CAVA HOUSE, Coffee Gang, PEOPLE КАВА, Beer&Cool, Zhnyva and others. Locations are spread across districts — Solomianka, Pechersk, Podil, Borshchahivka. Each screen runs a loop of short clips (10–20 seconds), with a QR code next to it that links to your site or offer.

This is indoor advertising: not a billboard along a highway that a person passes in two seconds, but a screen inside a venue where the visitor sits with a coffee for 15–40 minutes. The audience is students, freelancers, young professionals and local residents within walking distance of the venue.

Step by step: from sign-up to on-air

Step 1. Open the map

Instead of calls and email threads, you open the map of screens. It shows every available venue with real geolocation. That's the key difference: you don't ask "what do you have?" — you see the full offering right away.

Step 2. Pick a venue

Click a pin and you see the venue card: name, address, district, estimated reach and the surface owner's price. The price is visible before you book, with no hidden markups. You can compare several locations by district and traffic and choose the one closest to your customer.

Step 3. Book a month

No quarterly or annual contract required. The minimum period is one month. That's ideal for a test: take one or two locations, run a month, look at the result, then scale. Monthly booking removes the main barrier for a small business — "what if it doesn't work?"

Step 4. Upload your creative

Prepare a 10–20 second clip or a static banner. You can even shoot it on a phone — what matters is that the message reads in the first 3 seconds and has a clear call to action. You upload the file right in your dashboard.

Step 5. Pay directly

Payment goes through the owner's transparent price — without the 15–30% agency commission a middleman usually eats. You see the exact amount and pay for precisely what you ordered.

Step 6. Moderation and on-air

After payment the creative passes a quick moderation, and the system "bakes" your QR code into the content. The clip goes on-air — a matter of hours, not weeks. You don't wait for a manager to "put you in the queue."

Step 7. Watch the QR analytics

On every screen your ad carries a unique QR code. Scans flow into your dashboard — you see how many people scanned the code and followed the link. It's a direct, measurable bridge between a screen in a coffee shop and an action online.

The old way vs HostAd

Stage	Via an agency	Via HostAd
Learn the placement price	Request a proposal, wait	Visible on the map at once
Minimum period	Quarter / year	1 month
Middleman markup	15–30%	None
Choosing a location	From a manager's words	Yourself, on the map
Time to on-air	Weeks	Hours
Measuring the result	Often none	QR analytics in the dashboard

Why this works for a small business

HostAd's main advantage is transparency and speed. You don't pay for fog: the owner's price is visible before booking, there's no middleman, and the one-month minimum lets you test the channel without the risk of a big budget. According to VRK, Ukraine's digital out-of-home (DOOH) segment is growing faster than traditional out-of-home — but for a local business, what matters isn't the size of the market, it's the ability to enter it with a small step. That's exactly what monthly self-service booking gives you.

If your customer is someone who lives or works nearby and stops in for coffee now and then, a screen in their favourite spot reaches them precisely when they're relaxed and paying attention.

Where to start

Open the map of screens and see which venues are in your district.
Pick one or two closest to your audience and compare price and reach.
Book a month, upload a 15-second clip and go live.