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Last updated: August 5, 2026

Editorial Policy: Sourcing, Verification and Commercial Disclosure

This site publishes prices, deposit minimums and platform parameters that readers spend real money against, which puts it in the category where a wrong number does measurable damage. The policy below governs where figures come from, what happens when sources disagree, how the commercial relationship behind the sign-up buttons is kept out of editorial decisions, and how corrections are handled. It applies to every page, including the Cheap Website Traffic page that generates the revenue. If any published page contradicts what is written here, the policy wins and the page gets fixed.

Four principles

Accuracy against primary sources. A figure exists when the operator publishes it on its own domain. A figure repeated across affiliate directories without an operator page behind it is a lead to verify, not a fact to publish. Most of the differences between this site and other coverage of the category trace back to that one rule.

Independence from the commercial relationship. Sign-up buttons on this site lead to AdsCompass and generate revenue when a reader registers. That relationship pays for research time and buys nothing else. Platform limitations, unconfirmed figures and competitor advantages are published as found, and the current home page names four limitations of the platform it recommends.

Transparency about uncertainty. Every category has figures that cannot be confirmed from outside. They are labelled in the sentence where they appear, not in a footnote. A reader planning a budget needs to know which numbers carry weight and which are provisional.

Currency. Deposit minimums, bid floors and format lists change without announcement. Every page carries the date of its last full verification pass instead of a publication date. A publication date says nothing about whether the numbers still hold.

How a page gets made

Step 1: topic selection. Pages are built around a commercial question a buyer actually has, such as what a given budget buys or which seller category a price belongs to. Questions that cannot be answered with checkable figures stay off the site.

Step 2: primary-source collection. Terms and conditions, help centre articles, published rate pages and FAQs are read directly on operator domains. Standards bodies cover the definitions: the IAB and MRC invalid traffic standards for what counts as invalid, IAB Tech Lab OpenRTB for the auction protocol, and Google's publisher documentation for policy questions.

Step 3: arithmetic checks. Prices are tested against each other before publication. A cost per thousand impressions is compared with what a publisher is paid per thousand visits in the same country, and reported volume figures are converted into ratios, so plausibility can be judged instead of assumed. The full routine is on how figures are checked.

Step 4: writing. Pages are written by the person who did the checking, under a real name, with the reasoning visible in the text instead of compressed into a verdict. Recommendations are allowed and are made explicitly; what is not allowed is a recommendation whose supporting figures are not shown.

Step 5: contradiction handling. When two sources disagree, both go into the text with attribution, and the more conservative figure is used for any planning statement. Two live examples: one platform is listed at $50 across affiliate catalogues while its own help centre says $100, and another is listed at $200 in some 2026 coverage while its own terms say $100. Both discrepancies are published with their sources named, and the conservative figure is the one used in any budget statement on the site.

Step 6: publication and review. Each page carries a verification date and the author's name. Pages are re-checked quarterly, and immediately when a reader reports a change, a platform announces new terms, or a figure used in a calculation elsewhere on the site moves.

Source hierarchy

Commercial disclosure

The operator of this site earns a commission when a reader creates an AdsCompass account through a sign-up button. That is the entire monetisation model: no display advertising, no paid placements, no sponsored sections, no paid links. Comparison tables list published, factual parameters only, with no scores, ratings or rankings, and every competitor figure in them comes from that competitor's own documentation. No platform receives copy approval, no platform can buy a position in a table, and a negative fact about a commercial partner is published on the same terms as a negative fact about anyone else.

Corrections

Reported errors are checked against the operator's own page within 48 hours. Confirmed errors are corrected on the page, and where the correction changes a figure a reader might have acted on, a dated note is added so the change is visible. Pages whose figures can no longer be verified are marked or removed rather than left standing. Corrections go to [email protected] or through the contact page, and the fastest route to a fix is a link to the operator page that contradicts the text. Correspondence about a correction is retained for twelve months under the privacy policy.

Author standards

Every page is signed by a named author with a public profile; anonymous pages are not published here. Invented personal measurements are prohibited, and so are invented credentials, which is why the author page describes working method and areas of expertise rather than degrees and institutions. Any conflict of interest beyond the disclosed AdsCompass relationship would be stated on the page where it applies. Questions about this policy: [email protected].