You can add Banners and Ads to your community to customize and brand your community and link to content and events within Gradual, or any external URL or website.
Banners appear at the top of the home page, while Ads appear on the right-hand side of your Content, Forum and Club overview pages. Add up to 20 banners or ads, and they’ll rotate automatically to catch your members’ attention and drive traffic and engagement.
Banners
They are now added and managed from the Customization tab of the dashboard → Pages → Home Page after sign-in. You can also now add video banners in addition to images.
These banners promote and link to other parts of the community or external sites and can be fully customized to match your branding. Banners can be JPG images, moving GIF graphics, or mp4 videos. If more than one is uploaded and visible, they will carousel and change every few seconds. There is a limit of 20 banners that can be visible and enabled at one time.
Dashboard settings
Adding, editing, and managing the banners is done in the Customization tab of the dashboard → Pages → Edit
Adding banners to your community home page
Log into your dashboard.
Select Customization from the main menu → Pages → Edit the Homepage before sign in
Select +New Banner button in the upper right.
Upload an image, gif or video and enter the URL where you’d like the banner to link to. Toggle the visibility status 'on' if you’d like the banner to be visible, or 'off' if you’d like it to be hidden.
Save your work.
Once saved, this banner will appear in the Banners list and can be toggled on or off, and also sorted to prioritize which banner you’d like to populate first, second, etc.
Video banners
Video banners allow you to display motion content on your community Home page.
Video requirements:
When adding a video banner, the video must meet the following requirements:
Use a direct video file URL ending in
.mp4or.m3u8.For MP4 files, the file size must be under 20 MB.
We recommend using a wide aspect ratio (12:5) for the best viewing experience.
Use a horizontal or landscape video to minimize cropping, as section backgrounds automatically resize based on the visitor's browser window.
Obtaining a direct video URL:
The banner requires a direct video file URL, not a standard sharing link.
Your video should be hosted on a platform that provides direct access to the video file. Depending on your hosting provider, this may be labeled as:
Video File URL
Direct File Link
Asset URL
Important: Share links (such as standard YouTube URLs) are not supported. YouTube does not provide direct video file URLs that meet the banner requirements.
Supported hosting options include:
Vimeo
Wistia
Your own website or CDN
Cloudinary
Using Cloudinary (Free Plan):
If you don't already have a hosting platform that provides direct video file URLs, you can use Cloudinary's free plan.
Create a free Cloudinary account.
Upload your video to your Media Library.
Open the uploaded video and copy its Delivery URL.
Ensure the URL ends with
.mp4(or use an.m3u8delivery URL if available).Paste the URL into the Video URL field when creating your banner.
Cloudinary-hosted videos satisfy the direct file URL requirement, making them a simple option for hosting banner videos.
First Frame Image
To avoid an empty banner before the video loads, and to enable seamless playback after loading, you are also asked to upload a screenshot of the video's first frame.
All details can be found in the dashboard when adding a banner, and selecting the 'Video' banner type:
Video banner example
Ads
Adding ads to your Content and Forum pages
Log into your dashboard.
Select Customization from the main menu, and Ads.
Select +New Ad button in the upper right.
Upload an image, enter the URL where you’d like the ad to link to and toggle the visibility status on if you’d like the ad to be visible, or off if you’d like it to be hidden.
Save your work.
Once saved, this ad will appear in the Ads list and can be toggled on or off, and also sorted to prioritize which ads you’d like to populate first, second, etc.
💡 Pro Tip: These are great tools to drive users to register for upcoming events, engage in content, or link to your website.
Here's a related video guide: