Overview
Freestar Recovered is an intuitive, self-configuration tool designed to help publishers like yourself manage and optimize ad revenue. Our solution empowers you to control the conversation with adblock users, all at no cost to you. For more information and FAQs about Freestar Recovered, please visit our product page.
The below instructions will guide you through setting up Freestar Recovered on your site(s).
How does Freestar Recovered work?
When Freestar Recovered detects an active ad blocker on the user's browser, it displays a prompt asking the user to turn off their ad blocker with instructions on how to do so. You control the conversations with these users utilizing Freestar Recovered.
Guide
- Manage & Install
- Configuring Your Prompt
- Publishing Changes
- Using a Custom Analytics Domain
- Installing the Script
- Maintaining Optimal Performance
- Analytics & Reporting
-
DNS Blocking Tools
Manage & Install
When you first land on the Site Configuration - Freestar Recovered page, you will see a list of your sites under your account. All sites will have a status:
- Published: A Freestar Recovered prompt has been successfully created and ready to be used on your site
- Draft Created: Draft created and saved for Freestar Recovered Prompt
- Inactive: No activity has been recorded to configure Freestar Recovered
You can create, view, or edit your Config for each site.
Configuring Your Prompt
Several configuration options are available in the Manage & Install tab, allowing you to tailor the behavior, content, and branding. The configuration options include:
| Field Name | Description | Default Value | Minimum Required Version |
|---|---|---|---|
| Disable Scrolling | This disables scrolling on the page while the prompt is visible | Yes | 1.0.0 |
| Allow user to Close Prompt | This allows the user to dismiss the prompt with or without viewing the disable instructions | Yes | 1.0.0 |
| Dismiss Duration | After the user closes/dismisses the prompt, it will not show again based on this setting. Options: browser session duration, number of hours, and number of pageviews | Browser Session | 1.0.0 |
| Use Custom Analytics Subdomain | Select yes or no if you want to utilize a custom analytics subdomain. This requires setting up a subdomain on your site. See the section titled "Using a Custom Analytics Subdomain." below. | No | 1.0.0 |
| Logo | Include your self-hosted logo URL to display the logo at the top of the prompt. You can leave it blank and not include a logo. | 1.0.0 | |
| Content Languages | Select languages to display localized text content based on the user's preferred language(s). All text content can be customized for each of the selected languages. At least one language must be enabled, and the fallback language is English. Language options include Arabic, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Czech, Dutch, English, French, German, Hebrew, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Malay, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Turkish, and Vietnamese. Ad blocker instructions are available in all languages (when the language has been enabled) but are not user-configurable. |
English | 1.0.0 |
| Customize Prompt Messaging | Under step 2, click the \< to enter the language and begin customizing prompt messaging for each language. | English | 1.0.0 |
| Show Freestar Branding | Choose to include a Freestar Recovered logo at the bottom right of the prompt. | Yes | 1.0.0 |
| Header | The header text displayed in the prompt | Looks like your ad blocker is on. | 1.0.0 |
| Paragraph One | The first paragraph of body text displayed in the prompt | We rely on ads to keep creating quality content for you to enjoy for free. | 1.0.0 |
| Paragraph Two | The second paragraph of body text displayed in the prompt | Please support our site by disabling your ad blocker. | 1.0.0 |
| Paragraph Three | The third paragraph of body text displayed in the prompt | 1.0.0 | |
| Disable Button Text | This button will direct users to a list of instructions for how to disable popular ad blockers | Disable | 1.0.0 |
| Close Text | The close text will be centered at the bottom of the prompt. Leave blank to hide the close text. | Continue without supporting us | 1.0.0 |
| Link Text | The link will be centered between the paragraphs and the disable button. Leave blank to hide the link text. | 1.3.0 | |
| Link URL | The link will be centered between the paragraphs and the disable button. Leave blank for non-English languages to default to the Link URL provided for English. | 1.3.0 | |
| Font | Enter the name of the font desired for the prompt | sans-serif | 1.0.0 |
| Text Color | Select the primary color for text content in the prompt | # 000000 | 1.0.0 |
| Background Color | Select the primary background color for the prompt | # FFFFFF | 1.0.0 |
| Header Text Color | Select the color of the header text. If none is selected, it will fallback to the base text color. | 1.0.0 | |
| Header Background Color | Select the background color of the header section, which contains the logo image and header text. If none is selected, the section will fallback to the base background color. | 1.0.0 | |
| Button Text Color | Select the color of the button text. If none is selected, it will fallback to the base text color. | 1.0.0 | |
| Button Background Color | Select the background color of the disable button. If none is selected, it will fallback to the base background color. | # 40C28A | 1.0.0 |
| Close Button/Icon Color | Select the color of the close icon displayed in the top-right corner of the prompt | 1.0.0 | |
| Close Text Color | Select the color of the close text centered at the bottom of the prompt. If none is selected, it will fallback to the base text color. | 1.0.0 | |
| Link Text Color | Select the color of the link text. If none is selected, the color will inherit your existing site styles. | 1.3.0 | |
| Link Text Decoration | Select the text-decoration style of the link text. Text decoration should be written as a CSS property, e.g. 'underline', 'underline black', or 'none'. If none is selected, the text-decoration will inherit your existing site styles. | 1.3.0 | |
| Link Text Color (Visited) | Select the color of the link text when it has been visited. If none is selected, the color will inherit your existing site styles. | 1.3.0 | |
| Border Color | Select the color of the border around your prompt. | 1.0.0 | |
| Border Width | Select the width of the border in pixels. If this field is left blank, no border will be displayed. | 1.0.0 | |
| Border Radius | Select the amount of rounding to apply to the prompt's border. Leave blank for default rounded corners, set to 0 for square corners, or any pixel value for custom rounded corners. | 1.0.0 |
Publishing Changes
When configuring the behavior of your ad block recovery prompt, you can save your changes either as a draft or publish them.
- Save and Publish will immediately overwrite your production config - what visitors will encounter on your live site (assuming the script has already been installed)
- Save as Draft can be used to safely save changes that aren't ready to be released to your production site.
Your script tag cannot be used until your configuration settings have been published for the first time.
Using a Custom Analytics Domain
Ad blockers will block our analytics data to defeat our recovery solution.
We recommend setting up a CNAME record with your DNS provider to reduce this vulnerability. By doing this, you can instead send analytics events to a subdomain of your site, which we will forward to our event collector service. We've included instructions for common DNS providers below. If you need help with your provider, contact your customer success manager.
If you choose to use a custom analytics domain, Freestar will provision an SSL certificate for your chosen subdomain.
Please submit your subdomain in Step 1 "Behavior" - "Use Custom Analytics Domain" when configuring your prompt. You will receive a confirmation email from Freestar when your SSL certificate is available to use.
If you add a custom domain after Freestar Recovered is live on your site, do not publish your configuration settings before your certificate has been provisioned, or analytics requests will be flagged as insecure and blocked by browsers.
Go Daddy
- Sign in to your GoDaddy Domain Portfolio
- Select an individual domain to access the Domain Settings page
- Select DNS to view your DNS records
- Select Add New Record
- Select CNAME from the Type menu
- Set the Name to the subdomain you'd like to use
- Set the Value to
site-config.com - Select Save
-
Go to the Site Configuration > Freestar Recovered > Manage & Install tab in the
Freestar Dashboard - Set Use Custom Analytics Domain to Yes
- Enter the subdomain you selected in the text box that appears
- Click Save as Draft
- An automated email will be sent to your address, confirming we've been notified of your custom domain selection.
- A second email will be sent when we have verified your CNAME record and provisioned an SSL certificate for your custom domain. DNS changes can take up to 72 hours to propagate worldwide, but in most cases this will not take more than one business day.
- Return to the Manage & Install tab, and click Save and Publish.
Namecheap
- Sign into your Namecheap account
- Select Domain List from the left side menu and click the Manage button next to your domain
- Navigate to the Advanced DNS tab and click the Add New Record button in the Host Records section
- Select CNAME Record from the drop-down menu for Type
- Input the subdomain you'd like to choose in the Host input
- Set the Target to
site-config.com - Click on the Save All Changes button
-
Go to the Site Configuration > Freestar Recovered > Manage & Install tab in the
Freestar Dashboard - Set Use Custom Analytics Domain to Yes
- Enter the subdomain you selected in the text box that appears
- Click Save as Draft
- An automated email will be sent to your address, confirming we've been notified of your custom domain selection.
- A second email will be sent when we have verified your CNAME record and provisioned an SSL certificate for your custom domain. DNS changes can take up to 72 hours to propagate worldwide, but in most cases this will not take more than one business day.
- Return to the Manage & Install tab, and click Save and Publish.
Cloudflare
- Navigate to DNS > Records in your Cloudflare account
- Click Add Record
- Set the Type to CNAME
- Set the Name to the subdomain you'd like to use
- Set the Target to
site-config.com - Make sure the Proxied option is unchecked.
- Click Save
-
Go to the Site Configuration > Freestar Recovered > Manage & Install tab in the
Freestar Dashboard - Set Use Custom Analytics Domain to Yes
- Enter the subdomain you selected in the text box that appears
- Click Save as Draft
- An automated email will be sent to your address, confirming we've been notified of your custom domain selection.
- A second email will be sent when we have verified your CNAME record and provisioned an SSL certificate for your custom domain. DNS changes can take up to 72 hours to propagate worldwide, but in most cases this will not take more than one business day.
- Return to the Manage & Install tab, and click Save and Publish.
Installing the Script
- Copy your site's ad block recovery script tag from the Manage & Install tab
- The script tag is unique per site
- Paste the script tag in the
<head>section of every page on your site. For best performance, please place the tag above Pubfig on your site.- We recommend including this as an inline script rather than an external script file to avoid ad blockers, which can more easily block external scripts.
Maintaining Optimal Performance
Ad blockers are frequently updated, which means they will add blocking rules to defeat recovery solutions over time. We have implemented several measures, allowing us to respond to ad blocker updates without requiring script updates. Still, to ensure our recovery solutions perform at their best, we recommend you periodically update your script with the latest version from the Manage & Install tab. If we detect that your site uses an out-of-date version, we may send you upgrade reminders as dashboard notifications.
Analytics & Reporting
Once the script is live on your site(s), you can expect to see data in the Ad Block Recovery report within 4 hours.
To access performance, go to Advanced Reporting and select Inventory Type = Web; Types of Reports = Freestar Recovered
Available Dimensions & Metrics
| Field Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Date | Date the impression was served. Date appears in DD/MM/YYYY format |
| Site Name | Name of the site where the impression was served |
| Site Domain | Domain of the site where the impression was served |
| Site Type | Type of site where the impression was served |
| Device Type | Type of device where the impression was served |
| Device OS | Operating System of the device where the impression was served |
| Detected Pageviews | Page views where active ad blockers were detected |
| Detected Users | Users with an active ad blocker detected during interactions |
| Recovered Pageviews | Total pageviews where users disabled ad blockers after previous detection |
| Recovered Users | Users who disabled an ad blocker after previous detection |
| Estimated Recovered Revenue | Recovered PV * Revenue per PV |
| Estimated Recovered Impressions | Recovered PV * (Current Impressions per page view (IPP)) |
| Pageview Recovery Percentage | (Recovered PV / (Recovered PV + Detected PV)) * 100 |
DNS Blocking Tools
In addition to ad-blocking extensions, some users may employ DNS-level tools or services that block requests related to advertisements and analytics. Freestar Recovered will detect these blocked requests and display your prompt, even if no ad-blocking browser extensions are enabled.
Unlike browser extensions, DNS blocking tools don’t have the context of which site a request was made from, so allow-listing all requests originating from a specific site is not possible. Users with DNS blocking tools will have to disable any blocklists related to advertising to prevent your prompt from being displayed.
The process for removing blocklists varies depending on the provider, but users can typically find the necessary options within their DNS service’s dashboard. Some common examples include:
- NextDNS: You can add or remove blocklists by navigating to the PRIVACY tab in your NextDNS dashboard.
- AdGuardDNS: Blocklist management can be accessed in the DEFAULT panel of your AdGuardDNS settings.
Questions?
For additional support, please visit the product page FAQ section or submit an inquiry if you require further assistance.