Startups
A small budget that needs to start today, not after a sales call — the self-serve channels, what a card payment actually buys, and real self-serve listings with a published rate.
Which channels usually fit
A startup budget wants to go live without a call: pay by card, set a small amount, watch what happens, stop if it does not work. That rules out nothing about WHERE you advertise, only HOW — so the channels below are not the only ones that fit, they are the ones most likely to have a self-serve door at all.
Web
Display and native ad spots bought straight through a publisher's own console or a self-serve ad network — no minimum conversation, no insertion order.
Social
Boosted or sponsored posts, set up and paid for in the platform itself, with the targeting narrow enough to reach one niche instead of everyone.
Search
Bid on the terms someone types when they are already looking for what you sell — the closest a small budget gets to paying only for interest.
App
Where self-serve exists here it is usually a network account, not a single publisher — still worth checking before you assume you need a media buyer.
How you'll actually buy
Self-serve: open an account, add a card, set a spend, go live the same day. That is the door this page's list is filtered to — every seller below has a recorded self-serve buying method, not a sales team you have to reach first. It is not the only door on a small budget: a niche site with no self-serve console will still take an email, and that is worth sending if the audience fits well enough to be worth a slower start.
What you'll be asked for
A card, not a contract
Self-serve means the account itself is the agreement — there is no insertion order to sign, and usually no local entity requirement.
A minimum spend, where one is stated
Some self-serve consoles set a floor and some do not. Where a seller has stated one, it is recorded on the listing as a typed minimum, not buried in a paragraph — check it before you commit a budget.
A finished ad, fast
Self-serve tools do not commission creative for you. Have an image, a line of copy, or a short video ready before you open the account, not after.
What to check first on a listing
The buying method
"Self-serve" on the listing means a card and a console. Anything else — a form, a sales team — is a slower start than a startup budget usually wants.
The published rate
A real number, read from the seller's own page, with the date it was checked. No number published is a stated gap, not a hidden price.
Who it actually reaches
Traffic rank and market tell you the size and the geography before you spend a dollar finding out yourself.
Self-serve sellers with a published rate
Sellers who sell on a channel above, whose buying method is recorded as self-serve, and who publish a real number for at least one ad spot — ordered by audience, biggest tracked first.
Questions
Do I need a big budget to start?
Not to open a self-serve account — most take a card and no minimum conversation. Some do state a minimum spend or an order size, and where one has been read it sits on the listing as a typed fact, not a guess; check it before you commit.
How do I find a genuinely niche audience, not just a small one?
Start from a category or a channel guide rather than the biggest names you already know — a niche publisher's own audience numbers, read on its listing, tell you more than its traffic rank does.
What if the seller I want does not publish a rate?
The listing says so plainly and links to the seller's own advertising page or media kit. An unpublished rate means nobody has read one yet, never that the ad spot is free.