Advertise on Board Game Beat

Board Game Beat LLC is led by W. Eric Martin, formerly of BoardGameGeek, and focuses on the craft, culture, and business of tabletop games.

Alongside up-to-the-minute news, Board Game Beat offers convention coverage, deep-dive articles and interviews, member polls, and occasional audio and video features.

We run a small number of premium, direct-sold ad placements with no ad networks, no rotations, and no tracking scripts. That means your brand stands out in a clean editorial environment that’s welcoming to people who make, market, play, and love board games.

Why advertise here?

An audience that buys, plays, and builds games.
Board Game Beat reaches engaged hobbyists, designers, publishers, retailers, reviewers, media folks, and others who actively follow the tabletop industry.

A focused niche audience.
As of June 2026, Board Game Beat has roughly 25,000 unique visitors per month, 1,960 members, close to 300 paid members, and more than 180 posts published since launch.

Credibility that transfers to you.
Eric has spent two decades earning trust in the board game industry through hard work, consistency, and deep knowledge of the field. When you advertise here, your brand appears in a publication readers already trust.

Scarcity = attention.
We offer only one homepage billboard, one leaderboard above posts, and one leaderboard before comments, with no rotations. Fewer ads means more focus on yours.

How booking works

The booking system is now fully automated. You can check available dates, choose your placement, upload your ad if it’s ready, and get an automatically generated invoice in one step.

If your ad isn’t ready yet, you can still reserve your dates and upload the creative later through your personal advertiser portal.

Rates and availability are shown in the booking calendar. Rates adjust automatically based on how far in advance you book, so publishers who already know their release, crowdfunding, or announcement windows can reserve dates earlier and get the best available rate.

Display Ad Placements

Weeks run Monday–Sunday, with each ad week beginning Monday at 06:00 UTC.

Home Billboard

Our largest, most prominent display placement: the only ad in the homepage masthead. Ideal for launches, crowdfunding campaigns, major announcements, and brand awareness.

Blog Top Leaderboard

A high-visibility placement above the article title on every blog post. Great for reach and repeated exposure to engaged readers.

Blog Bottom Leaderboard

A supporting placement before the comments. Ideal for additional frequency, reminders, pre-orders, late-pledge campaigns, and secondary messaging.

Specs & Creative Requirements

You can upload creative during booking or later through your advertiser portal. Please supply static image ads for the following slots. All measurements are in pixels.

Homepage Billboard

• Desktop: 1940×500 px
  Renders at 970×250
• Tablet: 936×120 px
  Renders at 468×60
• Mobile: 640×200 px
  Renders at 320×100

Blog Post Leaderboard

Top or Bottom

• Desktop: 1456×180 px
  Renders at 728×90
• Tablet: 936×120 px
  Renders at 468×60
• Mobile: 640×200 px
  Renders at 320×100

Additional specs

• File format: PNG, JPG, or WebP
• Static images only; no animation, third-party tags, or embedded scripts
• File size: 500 KB or smaller preferred per asset
• Click URL: Please provide one click URL per placement
• UTM parameters are optional
• Alt text: Please provide a short description of what is visually in the ad so a screen reader user gets the same essential information. Good alt text usually includes the brand, the key message, and any essential details shown in the ad, such as game title, product type, date, or price. Example:

Adjective Animal Games Inc. Making Plans for Nigel board game. Preorder open. Box cover with tuxedo cat on orange planet.

UTM/Tracking Guidance

We don’t track our visitors or ad clicks. If you’d like basic click data in your own analytics, you can add UTM parameters to your link.

Suggested format:

• utm_source=wericmartin
• utm_medium= one of: billboard, leaderboard_top, leaderboard_bottom
• utm_campaign=YYYYMM_campaign-name
• utm_content= creative variant, optional

Example of a UTM-tagged link for a Top Leaderboard ad:

https://publisher.com/new-game?utm_source=wericmartin&utm_medium=leaderboard_top&utm_campaign=202606_new-title&utm_content=v1

Deadlines & Scheduling

Booking

Display ad availability and current rates are shown in the booking calendar. When you begin booking, your selected placement and dates are temporarily reserved for 15 minutes while you complete checkout. If the booking is not completed within that window, the dates automatically return to the calendar.

Your placement is confirmed once payment is received.

Creative deadline

If your creative is not ready when you book, please upload it through your advertiser portal at least 3 business days before your start date.

For placements booked fewer than 3 business days before the start date, creative should be uploaded as soon as possible during booking or immediately afterward.

If creative is uploaded late, we cannot guarantee that the ad will begin on the scheduled start date. The placement will still end on the originally booked end date, and missed days due to late creative are not eligible for refunds, credits, or make-goods.

Changes

Before the start of your ad run, you can use your advertiser portal to upload creative, update ad details, or replace images. If you need help with a change, email us.

Policies

Privacy & Tech

• We do not run tracking pixels, third-party ad tags, or fingerprinting scripts.
• Display ads are static image links.
• You may use your own UTM-tagged links for your first-party analytics.
• We do not provide click-tracking reports or behavioral targeting.

Acceptable Creative

• Ads should be family-friendly and relevant to tabletop games or adjacent creative, cultural, or educational tools.
• No crypto, gambling, adult content, or unverifiable claims.
• We reserve the right to decline ads or request changes at our editorial discretion.

Make-Goods

We stand behind delivery by placement and dates, not clicks or impressions.

Make-goods apply only when Board Game Beat materially fails to deliver a confirmed placement due to an issue on our end. They do not apply to delays caused by late, missing, incorrect, or unusable advertiser creative.

If we materially fail to deliver the promised placement due to an issue on our end, such as a site outage or publication issue, we will provide equivalent bonus days within 60 days. Make-goods are our default remedy.

Booking & Payment

Payment is due on booking. Your placement is confirmed when paid.

Cancellations

• 10+ business days before start: Cancel for a credit equal to the booking, valid for 6 months.
• 3–9 business days before start: 50% kill fee. We credit the other 50% for 6 months.
• Fewer than 3 business days before start: 100% non-refundable. We’ll try to reschedule once within 60 days, subject to availability, with a $150 change fee.

Questions?

Have a question, need help with a placement, or want to talk through a larger campaign?

Email media@wericmartin.com.