Advertising and Sponsored Content Policy
The Advertising and Sponsored Content Policy page for WhatIsBlackfriday explains how advertising works on this site, what kinds of paid placements we accept, and how sponsored material is kept separate from our Black Friday deal coverage, Cyber Monday sales guides, and product buying advice. Readers deserve to know what is editorial and what is paid, and this page draws that line in plain terms.
The short version is as follows: advertising may appear on the site, sponsored content may exist in clearly labeled form, and neither one buys its way into editorial recommendations. A deal guide, a buying guide, or a product ranking is never for sale, and no retailer or brand can pay to change what our coverage says.
The rest of this page explains the types of advertising we accept, the rules for sponsored material, how disclosures work, and what happens when a placement crosses the line. This policy serves as the reference point for every commercial relationship on this site, except for affiliate commissions, which we cover separately in our Affiliate Disclosure.
Why This Policy Exists
A deals site earns trust by being clear about money. Readers use our pages to decide where to spend their budget, and that decision is only as effective as the information behind it. If a reader cannot tell the difference between a recommendation and an advertisement, the site has failed at its basic job.
This policy exists to prevent that failure before it happens. It sets the rules for what advertising is allowed, how sponsored content must be labeled, and where the boundary sits between commercial material and editorial judgment. The rules apply to every page, every placement, and every partnership.
The policy is also a commitment to readers. It says in writing that our deal pages are owned, our rankings are earned, and our coverage is guaranteed. That commitment is the reason this page exists rather than a single line of fine print buried in a footer.
What Counts as Advertising
Advertising on this site means any paid placement from a brand, retailer, or agency that is not part of our regular editorial coverage. That includes display banners, sidebar units, newsletter sponsorships, and any other format where a company pays to appear in front of our readers.
Advertising is different from affiliate commissions. An affiliate commission is paid after a reader makes a purchase through a tracked link, and it does not influence what we cover. Before the reader arrives, advertising is paid, and its purpose is to put a brand in front of an audience. The two are kept separate in both money and placement.
This page governs the second type. Affiliate relationships have their own rules, their own disclosure, and their own separation from editorial decisions. When this policy mentions advertising, it means paid placements, not commissions earned after a reader buys something.
What Advertising We Accept
We accept advertising from retailers, brands, and service companies whose products or services are relevant to the readers of this site. That includes electronics retailers, home goods brands, and companies in categories our readers already shop in during Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Amazon Prime Day.
Ads must be accurate. A banner claiming a discount must reflect a real, current offer, and a product claim must be supportable. We do not run advertising for products we would not mention editorially, and we do not run ads that make claims our own coverage would contradict.
We also accept advertising from companies with no affiliate relationship to us. A retailer that pays for a banner is not automatically a retailer we recommend, and a retailer we recommend is not automatically an advertiser. The two relationships are independent, and mixing them is not allowed.
What Advertising We Do Not Accept
We do not accept advertising from companies whose products we would not recommend to a family member. That includes products with known safety issues, companies with a pattern of deceptive pricing, and brands whose claims do not hold up under basic scrutiny.
We do not accept advertising that targets vulnerable readers, makes health claims without evidence, or promotes financial products with hidden terms. A deals site’s audience is already navigating a season full of pressure to spend, and we are not going to add to that pressure with ads that make it worse.
We also do not accept advertising that mimics editorial content. A banner that looks like a deal roundup, a sidebar unit styled like a buying guide, or any format designed to make a reader think they are reading our recommendation rather than someone’s advertisement is off the table.
What Sponsored Content Is
Sponsored content is material created in partnership with a brand or retailer, where the partner pays for the placement and has input into the topic. It is different from advertising because it takes the form of an article, a guide, or a feature rather than a banner or a sidebar unit.
Sponsored content is allowed on this site, but only under strict conditions. It must be labeled clearly as sponsored, it must be visually distinct from editorial coverage, and it must never appear in a format that could be mistaken for a deal roundup or a buying guide.
The topic of a sponsored piece is agreed with the partner in advance, but the facts in it are not. A sponsored article still has to be accurate, and a claim that does not hold up gets cut regardless of who is paying. Accuracy is not negotiable, even when the check has cleared.
How Sponsored Content Is Labeled
Every sponsored piece carries a clear label at the top of the page. The label says “Sponsored” or “Paid Partnership” in plain language, and it appears before the reader reaches the body of the article. There is no fine print, no ambiguous phrasing, and no label hidden below the fold.
The label is also consistent across formats. A sponsored newsletter section, a sponsored social post, and a sponsored article all carry the same disclosure, adjusted for the format. A reader should never have to guess whether they are reading our judgment or someone’s paid message.
We do not use vague labels like “Partner Content” or “Presented By” without the word “sponsored” attached. Those phrases exist to blur the line, and blurring the line is the opposite of what this policy is for. If a partner insists on a vaguer label, the placement does not run.
How Sponsored Content Is Kept Separate From Editorial
Sponsored content is produced by a separate process from editorial coverage. The editorial team does not write sponsored pieces, does not choose their placement next to editorial pages, and does not treat them as part of the site’s recommendation library.
A sponsored article never appears inside a deal roundup, a buying guide, or a product ranking. It lives in its own section, with its own navigation, so a reader looking for our editorial judgment is never handed a paid message by accident.
The separation also works in the other direction. Editorial writers do not take direction from advertisers, and advertisers do not get to see editorial coverage before it is published. The wall between the two sides is not a formality. It is the whole point of the policy.
How Advertising Placement Works
Advertising appears in designated slots, not inside editorial text. A banner sits above or beside a deal guide, not in the middle of a product recommendation. A newsletter sponsorship sits in its own section, clearly marked, not woven into the body of the email.
We do not sell placement inside our deal roundups. A retailer cannot pay to have its offer appear at the top of a Black Friday TV deals page, and a brand cannot pay to be named in a buying guide. Placement in editorial coverage is earned through research and pricing, not through a payment.
Ad slots are also limited. We would rather run fewer ads than fill every margin with banners, because a page buried in advertising is harder to read and harder to trust. The reader’s experience is part of the standard, and clutter works against it.
How Pricing and Claims in Ads Are Handled
An advertisement that mentions a price must reflect a real, current offer. We do not run ads with inflated list prices, expired discounts, or claims that our own price history data would contradict. If a price in an ad does not match what the retailer is actually charging, the ad comes down.
Product claims are held to the same standard. A TV advertised as having a feature it does not have, or a laptop advertised with a specification it does not meet, does not run on this site. We check the claim against the product’s actual specifications before the placement goes live.
We also do not run ads that use urgency tactics our editorial coverage would warn against. A countdown timer on a fake deadline, a “only 3 left” claim with no basis, or a discount framed as ending today when it runs for weeks is not the kind of advertising we accept.
How Review Units Differ From Sponsorship
Review units are products provided to us for evaluation, and they are covered in our Review Methodology page. A review unit is not a sponsorship. The brand provides the product so we can test it, and the coverage that follows is entirely our own judgment.
A sponsorship is a payment for placement, and it comes with an agreement about what will appear. The two arrangements are different in kind, and we keep them separate. A brand that lends us a product for review does not earn a sponsored placement, and a brand that buys a sponsored placement does not earn a review.
We also do not accept review units as a condition of advertising. If a brand wants to advertise and also lend us a product, the two arrangements are documented separately, and the review is not influenced by the ad relationship. Mixing them is how editorial independence erodes.
How We Handle Native Advertising
Native advertising is advertising designed to match the look and feel of editorial content. It is a common format across the web, and it is also the format most likely to confuse a reader about what they are looking at. For that reason, our rules for native ads are stricter than for standard banners.
Native ads on this site are labeled at the top, styled with a visible distinction from editorial pages, and kept out of the editorial navigation. A reader should be able to tell within seconds whether they are on one of our deal guides or on a paid placement.
We also limit the topics native ads can cover. A native ad about a product category we actively cover editorially is more likely to confuse than a native ad about an unrelated service, so we weigh that overlap before accepting the placement. Confusion is the cost, and clarity is the standard.
How Disclosures Meet the Standard
The United States Federal Trade Commission requires clear disclosure of material connections between publishers and advertisers. Sponsored content, paid placements, and any arrangement where a brand pays to appear in front of readers all count as material connections.
We treat that requirement as a floor, not a ceiling. The FTC standard asks for disclosure that a reasonable reader would notice, and our policy asks for disclosure a reader cannot miss. The label goes at the top, in plain language, before the content begins.
Readers in other countries may have similar rules under their own consumer protection laws. The principle is the same everywhere: when money changes hands for placement, the reader deserves to know before they read a word.
How We Handle Advertiser Relationships Over Time
A relationship with an advertiser does not create an obligation. A retailer that buys a banner this month has earned nothing from us next month, and a brand that sponsored a newsletter last quarter has no claim on this quarter’s coverage.
We also do not let an advertising relationship silence criticism. If a brand that advertises with us releases a product with a problem, our coverage says so. An advertiser that expects soft coverage in exchange for its budget has misunderstood the arrangement, and the arrangement ends.
The reverse is also true. A brand we criticize editorially can still advertise with us, as long as the ad meets the standards in this policy. Editorial judgment and commercial relationships are separate tracks, and neither one dictates the other.
How We Handle Reader Complaints About Ads
If a reader reports an ad that is misleading, broken, or inappropriate, we treat it as a priority. The ad is reviewed against this policy, and if it fails, it comes down. A reader complaint about an ad is handled with the same urgency as a correction report on a deal page.
We also track patterns. If the same advertiser generates repeated complaints, that is a signal about the relationship, not just the individual ad. A pattern of problems ends a partnership faster than a single bad placement ever would.
Reader complaints are part of the enforcement of this policy. A policy that only the staff can enforce is not much of a policy, and the people who use the site are the ones best positioned to notice when a placement crosses the line.
How We Handle Changes to This Policy
Advertising formats change, and so do the rules around them. When a new format appears, whether it is a new ad unit, a new sponsorship type, or a new platform, we evaluate it against this policy before accepting it. If the policy does not cover it, the policy gets updated first.
Changes to this policy are published on this page, and material changes are noted so readers can see what shifted. A policy that changes silently is not a policy; it is a moving target, and we do not operate that way.
If a change would affect how readers experience the site, for example, a new ad format that sits closer to editorial content, the change is described in plain terms rather than buried in legal language. The reader’s ability to understand the rules is part of the rules.
What This Policy Does Not Cover
This policy governs advertising and sponsored content. It does not replace the Affiliate Disclosure, which explains how the site earns money through purchase commissions, or the Review Methodology, which explains how products are evaluated for our buying guides and deal coverage.
It also does not cover legal disputes between readers and advertisers. If a reader has a problem with a product they bought through an ad, that dispute is with the advertiser, and our pages point readers toward the advertiser’s own terms rather than trying to speak for them.
If a question falls outside this policy, the contact page is the place to ask. We answer questions about advertising standards, sponsorship rules, and the separation between commercial and editorial material directly, because a policy you cannot question is not much of a policy.
Thank you for reading this far. A shopper who understands what is paid and what is earned is harder to mislead, and that is the outcome this policy is built for.