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Customer ads
On this page
Ledger Desk can play your own offers (a phone plan, screen protectors, a sale on chargers, anything you sell) full screen on the customer screen while nobody is being served. A customer who looks can swipe back to an offer, read it and ask you about it. As soon as you need the screen for a customer (their details, a signature, the bill, a card payment), the ads stop at once.
Ads are part of the Premium edition. The Ads page is under Marketing → Ads for people who may manage customer ads (the built-in Admin and Developer roles).
How it works
- You make one or more ad profiles (playlists), for example Front counter or Summer offers. Each holds pictures and videos in the order you choose and says how they play.
- Profiles are kept on the server: every computer of the shop sees the same ones.
- Each computer chooses which profile its customer screen plays, so two counters can show different ads.
- The second monitor and the tablet play ads the same way.
Make a profile
Open Marketing → Ads and press New.
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Name | How you recognise it | |
| Description | A note for the people who manage it; customers never see it | |
| Start after | Seconds the welcome stays untouched before the ads start (10 to 1800) | 90 |
| Seconds per picture | How long a picture stays when the ad itself says nothing (3 to 120) | 8 |
| Transition | Fade, Slide, Slow zoom, Push, None or Mixed | Fade |
| Shuffle | A random order, never the same ad twice in a row | Off |
| Play on after | Seconds without a touch after which ads a customer browsed play on (5 to 120) | 20 |
| Sound | Plays videos with their sound | Off |
| Switched on | Off keeps the profile but plays nothing | On |
A profile holds up to 60 ads. Duplicate makes a copy to change without touching the original.
Add pictures and videos
- Pictures: PNG or JPEG, best at 1920 x 1080 for a monitor or a tablet held sideways.
- Videos: MP4 with H.264 pictures, the usual MP4 of phones and video editors. H.265 (HEVC) videos are refused because some computers can not play them. Up to 300 MB per video by default. 1080p at 5 to 8 Mbit/s looks sharp and keeps files small.
- Change the order with the arrows on each ad.
Each ad has its own settings: Fit (fill the screen, or show all of it), Seconds (for a video: at most this long), Transition, and Show from / Show until, so an offer that ends disappears by itself.
The glass layer
Any ad can carry a glass panel with text over the picture or video:
- Where: top, bottom, a side, the center or a corner.
- Look: light glass, dark glass or your accent color.
- Texts in English and Spanish: a title, a few lines and a short badge such as $29.99 or NEW.
- QR code: an https address the customer can scan with their phone, with a short caption.
The preview on the Ads page shows the ad as it will look.
Choose what a screen plays
On each computer open Settings → Customer screen, choose the Ad profile, or No ads. A different start time can be set for this computer only. The Ads page tells you whether the customer screen of the computer you are on plays the profile you opened.
What the customer sees
- After the start time without a touch, the ads fade in over the welcome.
- Swipe left or right to move between ads; a tap shows arrows, Pause and Back to welcome.
- While a customer browses, nothing moves by itself; after the resume time the ads play on.
- The ads stop at once when you ask the customer for anything and during the night hours of the tablet.
The tablet
The tablet keeps the pictures and videos of its profile on its own storage (up to 6 GB), so they play smoothly even on a busy network. They arrive in the background and never slow down serving a customer. The tablet's admin screen shows how much space they take and has Clear ad files. A tablet with an older Ledger Desk Screen keeps its plain welcome: update it to play ads.
If something does not work
| What you see | What to do |
|---|---|
| This file can not be used as an ad (LDK-9030) | Use a PNG or JPEG picture, or export the video again as MP4, H.264. |
| File too large (LDK-9002) | Make the file smaller, or ask a Developer to raise the limit on the Security page. |
| This ad profile already holds 60 ads (LDK-9031) | Remove ads or make a second profile. |
| Ads never start | Check that the computer the screen is connected to chose a profile, the profile is switched on, its ads are inside their days and your edition is Premium. |
| A video is skipped | The computer could not play it; export it again as MP4, H.264, AAC at 1080p or less. |
| A video shows only its still picture on the tablet | It is still arriving; large videos take a few minutes on a slow network. |
Last updated October 31, 2026