Footprints Maps advertising model

Footprints Maps planned to launch with a seven-tier advertising model for local businesses. Our team of three didn't think we could deliver all seven in the timeframe, or ask businesses to choose between them, for an app with no users yet. I researched how other apps handle ads, then took a simpler model and a prototype to the founder. Together we landed on two products. I then designed the portal where businesses choose and set them up, and built its front end in code with AI-assisted tools. The model is live.

Footprints Maps is a gamified travel app that helps people explore regional Australia through challenges you discover on the map and complete. Local businesses pay to appear in it, so the advertising model decides how the app earns its money and how a business first meets the product.

I was the product designer on this 0-1 product, working from the first concept. Our team was three people: me, a developer and our managing director. The founder came to us with a bold idea for how businesses could advertise.

The businesses we expected to reach were regional operators, many with no formal marketing experience, few digital assets and little time. Whatever we offered needed to feel closer to creating a simple profile than setting up an advertising product.

The founder's model had seven tiers: a banner ad, a business on the map, a custom map pin, a Sponsored Challenge, a Sponsor-created challenge, custom map skins and sponsored regions. It showed real creative ambition, and some of those ideas may suit the product later.

For a first version with no users, though, it was a lot to take on. Our team had agreed internally that we couldn't design, build and support seven advertising products in the time we had. Two of the ideas show why. Custom map skins would have needed a large amount of design work, and Mapbox limits how far a map can be customised. Sponsored regions would have needed new screens that we didn't want to spend time designing for the first version. I also wanted to keep things simple for businesses, who would need to understand their options quickly and focus on one clear choice.

I compared two ways of showing ads across several apps, and two of them show the difference clearly. On IMDb, banner ads sit apart from the content around them. On Pinterest, ads blend in with the content around them.

Footprints Maps is built around a map and a sense of discovery, so I recommended the native approach, the way Pinterest does it. Ads would sit inside the experience and keep the feel of the app.

I presented the research and a prototype to the founder. The prototype was a mockup of businesses appearing in the app. My first proposal was a single product: a business gets a pin on the map and is featured in one nearby challenge. It was simple and it was something our team could deliver.

The founder was open to starting smaller. Then they raised a good point. My version had no place for online-only businesses, and they were already talking to one. That was a real prospect, so I took it seriously.

I went back to the design and worked out how an online business could appear in the app. The answer was a native banner on a challenge. That gave us two products: a pin on the map for businesses with a location, and a native banner for online-only businesses. Seven became two, and both could be delivered in our timeframe.

The founder wanted the two tiers to be called Koala and Quokka. The names are fun, and they were a must-have for the founder. A business reading them can't tell what it's buying.

I kept both names and added two plain terms for the features inside them. A Destination is the pin on the map for a business with a physical location. A Spotlight is the native banner featured on an existing challenge. Koala includes a Destination and a Spotlight. Quokka includes a Spotlight only.

On the pricing page, each card says who it suits ("Best for Online Businesses" and "Best for Brick & Mortar Businesses") and uses an icon for what it includes, so the names are explained at the point of choice. I also added a set of illustrations across the landing page and the portal showing what a Destination and a Spotlight are, so a business understands each option before it starts setup. The founder set the price points.

With the two products settled, I designed the portal where businesses set them up. I mapped the user flows, defined the information architecture and refined wireframes, working backwards from what travellers see in the app.

The home screen opens with a setup checklist that breaks onboarding into small steps. Some are already ticked off when an account is created, so a business starts with momentum. A profile strength indicator shows how complete a listing is and what to add next. As a business builds its Spotlight, a live preview shows how it will look in the app before it publishes.

This project marked a shift in how I work. I started with the user flows and wireframes, then designed the portal homepage and a few key components in Figma to set the visual direction. After that I moved into Cursor, set up a Next.js project and defined the design system as tokens for colour, spacing, typography and radii. Those tokens became the single source of truth for the interface.

From there I designed components directly in code using AI-assisted development, so design and build happened side by side. I built the entire front end myself, which meant I could refine micro-interactions, animations, responsive behaviour and edge cases in context as the portal took shape.

I worked in a View and View-Model structure, building the components and views, while our developer handled the model layer, including the connection to the database. After each view was built, I refactored it to simplify the code and made sure I understood it myself before moving on. That way I could stand behind every part of it.

The two-product model is live in Footprints Maps for Business, and the pricing is public. The simpler model also leaves room to bring the other ideas back later.

My first pitch missed the online-only businesses the founder was already speaking to. Next time I would ask early who the client is talking to, so the first version of an idea fits the people who will actually buy it.

The consumer app moved from internal testing on prototypes to external testing on the beta. The advertising model and the business portal were tested internally only, because resources for research on that side weren't available. Next time I would run research with real businesses, and test the tier names and the two-product structure before launch.