Like most websites, Pickr relies on advertising to keep the site running, covering web and maintenance costs, and the occasional coffee for its founder and editor, Leigh Stark.
We try to keep advertising on the website low, simply because we believe the research matters, and wasting your time with an ad block every couple of paragraphs isn’t just frustrating to deal with, but impacts the research experience. In short, we believe you’re less likely to trust us if we shove ads in your face every chance we get.
As such, advertising on Pickr aims to be minimal where needed. It’s true that you’ll find at least one ad on each article on the site, though we try to deliver a configuration that isn’t in your, avoiding ads like interstitials (the annoying ones that stop you from reading the site while you see an ad) and anchor ads (the also-annoying ads that sit at the very top and bottom of the site while you read).
In short, we’ll try to keep our ads the least annoying kind as possible. We need ads to keep the site going, but we don’t want to bug you too much with them.
Ads on Pickr
As of the end of 2023, the ad spots you find on Pickr are supplied by Google AdSense and connected with both your browsing history and what you’re viewing on the site, which is how AdSense works.
With a current move by Google to calculate publisher ad costs by how many impressions they receive (CPI), you may see as many as 4 or 5 ads per page on Pickr, though this will be based on how many words and paragraphs are found in the text. Smaller articles will see a smaller number of ads, in line with our aim to keep Pickr’s ad impact minimal.
Affiliate links
One method review websites are known to use to help recoup costs is with affiliate links. Simply put, it’s a link that when you purchase something through it, the website makes a portion of the sale through it.
As of the end of 2023, only a handful of the thousands of news, reviews, and buyers guides use affiliate links on Pickr. Whenever that happens, you’ll find a little note at the top of the article alerting you to that page using affiliate links.
Outside of those, not a single story, article, news, review, or buyers guide has been paid for. Pickr is fiercely independent, and is very much about being as honest and direct with readers as possible.
Sponsorship & advertising opportunities
While advertising on Pickr aims to be minimal, we’ll happily work with brands to build out sponsored articles and content aimed at being impactful beyond the basic ad block.
We believe content can deliver an outcome of learning that helps the reader know the benefits and what to buy, and that can be made through advertised content, as well.
When advertised content is used on Pickr, it will be noted with a “Sponsored” tag on the page to let you know that the content you’re looking at has been paid for.