Tide-Weave
A drop-in ad server that adds sponsored listings to any Meilisearch-powered site
Monetize Your Marketplace
If your marketplace or directory runs on Meilisearch, Tide-Weave lets you add sponsored listings in minutes. Swap your Meilisearch search URL for Tide-Weave's and your search results now include promoted items — placed in configurable positions, charged per click, powered by a real-time auction.
No catalog ingestion required. No separate data pipeline. Meilisearch is already your catalog — Tide-Weave reads from it directly. Advertisers bid on your inventory through a management API, and the auction engine handles the rest.
How It Works
Point your frontend at Tide-Weave
Replace your Meilisearch URL with the Tide-Weave proxy. Same API, same response format. Your frontend code barely changes.
The proxy runs an auction in real-time
Each search request is forwarded to Meilisearch while the auction engine simultaneously evaluates bids. Winners are injected at configurable slot positions in the response.
Advertisers only pay when users click
The second-price auction ensures fair CPC pricing. Impression beacons and click tracking are built in. Every click is recorded and charged; impressions are free.
Why Second-Price Auctions
In a marketplace, the advertisers bidding for promoted placement are often the same sellers listing products on your platform. They need a pricing model that feels fair — one where they're never paying more than they need to win.
A second-price auction (also called a Generalized Second Price or GSP auction) solves this. The highest bidder wins the top slot, but pays only slightly more than the second-highest bid. This means advertisers can bid their true value without fear of overpaying — the auction mechanism itself keeps prices efficient.
This matters for marketplaces because it encourages honest participation. Sellers don't need to play games with bid amounts or constantly monitor competitors. They set what a click is worth to them, and the auction guarantees they pay the market rate, not their maximum willingness to pay.
Example
Three sellers bid for the top sponsored slot: $5.00, $3.00, and $1.00. The $5.00 bidder wins position 1 but pays approximately $3.01 — just enough to beat the runner-up. The $3.00 bidder gets position 2 and pays approximately $1.01. Everyone pays less than they bid, and the slots go to whoever values them most.
Architecture
Auction Proxy
Drop-in Meilisearch replacement. Forwards searches, runs the GSP auction, merges sponsored results into the response in under 50ms.
Tracker
Records impressions via pixel beacons, handles click redirects with CPC charging, and accepts conversion postbacks from your backend.
Bid Manager
REST API for managing tenants, advertisers, bids, and budgets. Syncs bid data to Redis for sub-millisecond auction lookups.
Key Features
Three-Level Targeting
Advertisers bid at the collection level (categories), product level (specific items), or search context level (keywords, filters). You define what each level means for your domain.
Configurable Ad Slots
Choose exactly which result positions show sponsored listings. Positions 0, 3, and 7 by default — fully configurable per tenant through the publisher dashboard.
Multi-Tenant SaaS
Each marketplace is a separate tenant with its own Meilisearch instance, targeting config, encryption keys, and advertiser ecosystem. Fully isolated.
Publisher Dashboard
Web interface for managing tenants, configuring targeting, viewing API keys, monitoring advertiser performance, and tracking revenue.
CPC Billing
Impressions are free. Advertisers pay only on click, with fair second-price auction pricing. Budget caps prevent overspend.
Encrypted Tracking
All tracking data is AES-256 encrypted with per-tenant keys. Click and impression URLs are tamper-proof.
Built For
Product Marketplaces
Sellers pay to promote their products in search results and collection pages.
Job Boards
Employers bid on sponsored job placements in search results by department, title, or salary range.
Real Estate Listings
Agents and landlords promote listings at the top of search results for target neighborhoods.
Directory Sites
Restaurants, service providers, or venues pay for featured placement in category and search results.
Technology
Go
Auction engine
Redis
Hot bid cache
PostgreSQL
Durable storage
Meilisearch
Search & catalog
Availability
One-Time Purchase
Buy the full source code and deploy on your own infrastructure. Includes all components: auction proxy, tracker, bid manager, publisher dashboard, and CLI tools. Self-hosted, no recurring fees.
Contact Sales →Enterprise License
License Tide-Weave for integration into your platform or product. Includes source access, priority support, and custom feature development. Volume and white-label options available.
Contact Sales →Available for one-time purchase or enterprise licensing