---
title: "Set up your ad inventory"
description: "How the supply side fits together — sites, zones, placements and ad tags — and the fastest path from an empty account to a serving ad slot."
type: "howto"
audience: [network-manager, publisher, admin]
keywords: [inventory, supply side, site, zone, placement, publishers, setup]
ui_path: "Account → Publishers"
---

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/llms.txt. Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. Append .md to any documentation page URL to get its markdown version.

# Set up your ad inventory

Everything you sell — a banner slot on a website, a video slot in a player, a native feed in
an app — lives under the **Publishers** tab as a three-level tree: **Site → Zone → Placement**.
This page explains what each level is for and walks the shortest path from an empty account to
a placement that returns ads.

![Publishers tab showing the site, zone and placement tree](https://epom.com/docs-images/ad-server/guides-inventory-index/publishers-tree.webp)

## Who this is for

Network managers, publishers and admins who manage supply. A publisher builds and runs the tree; a
network manager does the same and sets the money and traffic rules on top of it — see
[Per-role notes](#per-role-notes).

## Prerequisites

- An account whose role holds the **Inventory** *Create* permission — the stock Publisher role does; the
  rights of a network-manager role are whatever your network administrator set in **Roles**.
- For serving real traffic later: at least one advertiser with a campaign and a banner on the
  demand side, linked to your placement directly or through Rules.

## What each level does

| Level | What it represents | What you configure there |
|---|---|---|
| **Site** | One website or app property | Domain/bundle, categories, approval state, revenue share, pricing, limits, CPM threshold, RTB, payments, shares |
| **Zone** | A logical group of placements inside a site (e.g. "Homepage", "Article pages") | Name, pre-targeting, RTB, zone rules |
| **Placement** | The actual ad slot — the only level that produces an ad tag | Type (display / video / native / …), size where the type has one, ad tags, pricing, capping, linked banners, everything serving-related |

Ads never serve from a site or a zone directly; they serve from placements. The upper levels
exist for organization, reporting and settings that cascade over many placements (pre-targeting
set on a site filters traffic for every placement under it).

## Steps: from empty account to a serving slot

1. Go to **Account → Publishers** and click **New site** in the tree's action rail. Fill in the
   name and URL (or app bundle) and save — see [Create and edit a site](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/guides/inventory/sites.md).
2. On the saved site, click **Add new zone**, name it and save — see
   [Work with zones](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/guides/inventory/zones.md).
3. On the zone, open **Add new placement…** and pick the placement type that matches the slot
   you are selling — the type list and a decision table are in
   [Create a placement](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/guides/inventory/placements-create.md).
   ![Zone page with the Add new placement menu open, the tree rail's New site button and the site in the breadcrumb numbered](https://epom.com/docs-images/ad-server/guides-inventory-index/empty-to-serving.webp)
4. Fill in the basic info and save. The page reloads as the full placement editor, and — on the
   types that have tags — gains the **Ad tags & API** card. Only **Site** and **Email** placements
   require a size; four of the eight types have no size field at all.
5. Copy the tag from **Ad tags & API** (which tag tabs you see depends on your role) and put it on
   your page — see
   [Ad tags, invocation codes and the API](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/guides/inventory/ad-tags-and-api.md).
6. Make sure demand can reach the placement: link banners on the **Linked Banners** card, or
   enable **Matching Rules** so eligible banners link automatically.

> **Note:** the product nudges you along this chain. A site with zero zones and a zone with
> zero placements show a setup banner with a one-click "create" action; a placement with no
> linked banners and Rules off shows a serving-status warning in its header.

## Corner cases and gotchas

> **Corner case:** creating entities does not make ads appear. A placement serves only when at
> least one active, size-compatible banner is linked to it (directly or via Rules) and no
> targeting/capping/limit blocks the request. If the tag is on the page but nothing renders,
> start with [Ads are not serving](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/troubleshooting/ad-not-serving.md).

> **Corner case:** the placement type is chosen at creation time and can never be changed.
> If you picked the wrong type, create a new placement and delete the old one.

> **Corner case:** a placement switched **off** shows no tag. Turning **Active** off hides the
> **Placement key** and the whole **Ad tags & API** card straight away — before you save — because a
> paused placement serves nothing to install. Turn it back on to get them back.

## Per-role notes

- **Publisher** — builds the whole tree and edits basic info, linked banners and sharing; the money
  and traffic-rule cards (pricing, revenue share, limits, RTB, matching rules) appear only if your
  network administrator grants them.
- **Network manager** — the same tree plus those cards: pre-targeting, OpenRTB, revenue share,
  pricing, limits and matching rules.
- **Administrator** — has no inventory tree; switch into a network user to work on sites, zones and
  placements.
- **Can View share** — every card is read-only; ask the owner for **Can Edit**.

Exact grants: see [User roles](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/guides/admin/users-and-roles.md).

## Related

- [Create and edit a site](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/guides/inventory/sites.md)
- [Work with zones](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/guides/inventory/zones.md)
- [Create a placement](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/guides/inventory/placements-create.md)
- [Display placements](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/guides/inventory/placement-display.md)
- [Pop-under, tab-under and direct-link placements](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/guides/inventory/pop-under-direct-link.md)
- [Native placements](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/guides/inventory/placement-native.md)
- [Video placements](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/guides/inventory/placement-video.md)
- [Set a placement's OpenRTB settings](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/guides/inventory/placement-openrtb.md)
- [Application, email and click-through placements](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/guides/inventory/placement-mobile-email-other.md)
- [Ad tags, invocation codes and the API](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/guides/inventory/ad-tags-and-api.md)
  - [Copy and preview an ad tag](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/guides/inventory/ad-tags-preview.md)
  - [API tab, VAST tags and the JavaScript API](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/guides/inventory/ad-tags-api-and-vast.md)
  - [Ad tag FAQ](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/guides/inventory/ad-tags-faq.md)
- [Rewrite served markup with Content replacement](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/guides/inventory/content-replacement.md)
- [Header bidding on a publisher page](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/guides/inventory/header-bidding.md)
  - [Header bidding tag settings and slots](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/guides/inventory/header-bidding-settings.md)
  - [Header bidding with Google Ad Manager](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/guides/inventory/header-bidding-gam.md)
  - [Header bidding on a site that runs its own Prebid.js](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/guides/inventory/header-bidding-own-prebid-js.md)
  - [Header bidding through a Prebid Server](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/guides/inventory/header-bidding-prebid-server.md)
  - [Header bidding in an app with Prebid Mobile](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/guides/inventory/header-bidding-prebid-mobile.md)
  - [Header bidding reports and targeting](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/guides/inventory/header-bidding-reporting.md)
- [Header bidding: what a publisher installs](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/guides/inventory/header-bidding-for-publishers.md)
- [Email ad codes on a site](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/guides/inventory/site-email-codes.md)
- [Hierarchy and linking](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/concepts/hierarchy-and-linking.md)