Advertiser Inquiry Evaluation Criteria for Publishers

When the first ad request lands in your inbox, the temptation is either to say yes at once or to let it sit. Anyone working on finding advertisers for a website soon learns that collecting requests is the easy part; weighing each one is the work. This article walks through advertiser inquiry evaluation criteria from the publisher's chair: the order in which to read a request, when to counter and when to decline politely. It says nothing about earnings, rates or payment timing. The sample requests, people and dates are invented for illustration.

Advertiser Inquiry Evaluation Criteria: When the First Request Arrives

Put every request through the same form

Instead of replying straight from your inbox, copy the request into a form or table first. When the same questions are asked of every inquiry, you can compare them. When each is judged by gut feeling, last month's decision and this month's will not match. The fields of the form appear in the template section near the end.

This step comes before the contract

Evaluation precedes any talk of terms. The clauses to examine later are collected in the ad space contract checklist; here the only question is whether the inquiry deserves a place at the contract table at all.

Fast screening versus close review

Not every request needs a close review. If the first read does not say who is asking, what they want and which placement they have in mind, the screening result is simply "ask for more". A close review begins only after those three answers exist.

Picture a week with five inquiries: two answer all three questions, one only asks for a price, and two attach ad copy but give no dates. Screening sorts them in ten minutes into review, ask and hold. The two that pass deserve the remaining time, and treating all five with the same care would be both rushed and wasteful.

Request Clarity: What Do They Want, When and Where?

Placement, period and creative

A clear request names the page and the part of the page, the dates it should run and the creative it will show. Whenever any of these is absent, answer with a question rather than a rate. Publishers who defined their sellable placements in advance find requests map onto that list; if you have not, selling ad space on your website explains how to build the inventory first.

The first question for a vague request

"We would like to advertise on your site" is interest, not a request. The most useful reply is a three-line message: which page, which dates, what creative? If nothing comes back, close the file. That is not a refusal, only missing information, and the record should say so.

Timing collisions

As a hypothetical, a request asks for a slot during a busy season when you know the slot is reserved for a fixed piece of your own content. Rather than declining outright, offer another date or another placement. The counter-offer door should open before the refusal door.

Advertiser Identity and Contact Verification

Who is speaking, and for whom?

Check which company or brand the sender writes for, whether the email address is a business one and whether a website address is given. A free-mail address alone is not a reason to refuse; but a request that offers no company name, no site and no contact person together is thin on identity.

What you can reasonably ask for

You may ask for the legal company name, the website, a second reply from a company address or a contact phone number. Do not ask for more personal data than needed, such as personal ID documents. The point is to see that the asker is real and reachable. Keep what you collect together with a retention period.

When doubt remains

If the verification reply is weak, mark the request "on hold" and write a date by which you will ask again. When the date passes, close it. Proceeding on weak verification leaves later questions unanswered: whose content is it, who approved it and whom do you contact when something goes wrong? For obligations on personal data, consult a qualified adviser.

Verification runs both ways. The advertiser also wants to know who you are and who your readers are. If your site has an introduction page or a website media kit, linking it in your first reply speeds up mutual trust and puts both sides' information in writing.

Ad Content and the Site's Policy

Does the creative fit your line?

Lift the ad copy and image out of the email and set them against your content principles. Topics you treat as sensitive, product types you do not accept and the tone you expect should be written down in advance. The structure you use to set rules for contributed articles helps here: a guest post policy page builds that logic for non-ad content.

Scanning for misleading claims

If the copy contains a claim nobody can prove, a fake discount or a layout meant to mislead users, the request belongs in refuse or counter-with-conditions. State the condition in writing: which sentence must change for the content to be accepted?

No policy yet? The first request is a prompt

If your acceptance principles are not written down when the first request arrives, the request shows you the gap. Draft an "acceptable ad content" note that same day and use it for later requests, so each one is measured against the same bar and decisions stop depending on instinct.

A hypothetical acceptance note might read: ads for gambling, adult content and unprovable health claims are not accepted; content unrelated to the page subject needs a counter-offer. A note that short is enough, provided it exists before the request does. A rule written after a request arrives looks arbitrary to the advertiser.

Audience Fit and User Experience

The reader may not expect this ad

Acceptable content is not automatically suitable for your audience. A blog about children's products will not want adult service ads, and a technical publication's readers treat an unrelated campaign as noise. Read the request through the eyes of a regular visitor.

What placement does to the page

Ask about the size, the position and whether the creative moves. Placements that interrupt reading, overlap content or shift while the page loads damage the experience. More on that is in ad placements that do not hurt user experience.

Do not forget the phone

The advertiser may have pictured the desktop view. Ask them or show them how the slot looks on a phone. As a hypothetical, a sidebar image can drop into the middle of the text on mobile and split the reading flow. Suggesting a different slot is more productive than refusing.

When judging audience fit, use your own visitor data, and mention only measurements you actually hold. Saying "we do not know" beats an invented estimate. Ask the advertiser to describe their target audience and compare it with your subjects; if the overlap is thin, proposing another page as a counter-offer solves the problem without forcing anyone.

Labeling Expectations in Requests That Contain Links

Qualifying an advertising link

If the request includes a link, state at the outset that an advertising link will be marked. Google's outbound links documentation suggests the sponsored value wherever a link is an advertisement or a paid placement, and says nofollow remains acceptable. Tell the advertiser this by email and ask for a confirmation.

Requests that hint at ranking

Google's spam policies say paid links are not a violation when qualified with nofollow or sponsored. If an advertiser wants the link left unmarked, that request leaves the accept pile. Write the reason plainly: "link attributes follow our site principles."

Link attribute versus visible label

The attribute on a link and the label readers see are two separate matters: one speaks to search engines, the other to people. The reader-facing side is covered in sponsored content disclosure; keep the two as separate rows on your form. For a legal reading, ask a qualified professional.

As a hypothetical, an advertiser asks for the link to look "natural". That can mean unlabelled, but not always, so ask: "Do you mean unlabelled, or fitting the flow of the text?" The second reading is fully acceptable. The first conflicts with your principles and should be settled in the counter-offer.

Accept, Counter and Reject Notes

Three doors: accept, counter, reject

Every evaluation ends in one of three outcomes. Accept when all criteria are met. Counter when the gap can be fixed: another slot, another date or amended copy. Reject when the mismatch cannot be repaired: content against site principles, a misleading claim or an identity that cannot be verified.

How a reject note reads

A reject note is short and aimed at the criterion, not the person: "This content type is outside our ad principles." Sentences that judge the advertiser's motives do not belong in the record. Tying the reason to a criterion leaves a note that is both honest and defensible.

Write the accept note too

For accepted requests, record in one line which criteria were met. When someone later asks why it was accepted, the answer comes from the record, not from memory. For a counter-offer, keep the advertiser's reply and its date in separate columns.

When several criteria fail, deal with the heaviest first. A request with an unverifiable identity is handled before any copy edits, since fixing the content of an unknown sender is pointless. If the gaps are only format and placement, a counter is likelier; if identity and content fail together, rejection is. This ordering is a hint for consistency, not a rule.

Building a Reply Template Without Writing Numbers

The backbone of the reply

A reply template has four parts: a line confirming you received the request, questions about missing details, a link to your acceptance principles and one next step. A rate is not required in it. Quoting a number in the first reply sets up a bargaining position before the request is even clear.

Postponing the price conversation

Numbers come after acceptance, once placement, period and creative are settled. For how pricing can be structured, ad pricing models offers a framework; this article contains no amounts or rates at all.

Tone and length

Keep the reply short with a single next step: three questions, one link, one date. Long explanations overwhelm the sender and blur what you have committed to. A hypothetical template: "Thank you for your inquiry. To assess it we need three details: target page, date range and the ad creative."

Prepare the template in three versions, one asking for information, one countering and one declining. The greeting and closing stay the same and only the middle paragraph changes. Add a note under each version naming the criterion it rests on, so a colleague answers the same way for the same reason.

The Written Agreement and Date Record

Putting acceptance in writing

An accepted request should not live only in a chain of emails. Send the advertiser one written summary of the placement, the date range, the creative, the link attribute and the cancellation condition, and ask for confirmation. Contract clauses are a separate topic; the aim here is to record what the acceptance rested on.

Keeping date fields apart

Store the date received, the date evaluated, the date replied and the date the ad goes live in separate fields. That separation shows why a reply was slow and lets you fix delays. When two dates share a cell, the timeline cannot be read.

Versioning change requests

If the advertiser wants to edit the copy after acceptance, open a new evaluation. The old note is not deleted; the new one is added beneath it with a date. In a hypothetical, one sentence changes after approval, and the new sentence should pass the criteria before going live.

Both sides date the written summary. The advertiser's approval may be a bare "OK", yet the summary should show which text that "OK" applied to. If a disagreement appears, you discuss a dated document, not a memory.

Logging Rejected Requests

Why keep them at all

A rejected request becomes valuable the day the same advertiser writes again months later. If the earlier reason is on file, the evaluation does not start from zero. Rejection records also show which topics keep arriving, which tells you when your principles need an update.

Which data, for how long

Keep only what the evaluation needed: request date, company name, a summary, the decision and the reason. Do not store excess personal data, and set the retention period in advance. For firm guidance on retention, rely on the applicable rules and professional advice.

Turning the log into policy

If three rejections in a quarter carry the same reason, that reason belongs on your principles page. A repeating note signals a policy gap. Advertisers then see what is not accepted before they write, and both sides save time.

A hypothetical log line: "Topic: unprovable health claim; decision: reject; reason: principle 3; reapply: considered if the copy changes." The reapply note matters, because a rejection is often not permanent, and an advertiser who knows the condition does not need to write about the same thing again.

Example Template: An Advertiser Evaluation Form (Hypothetical)

The form and every entry in it are invented. They show no real advertiser, request or decision. Adapt them to your own site's principles.

Fill in the form in this order:

1. Read the request and answer the three clarity questions.
2. Check identity and contact details.
3. Judge the content, audience and link rows separately.
4. Write the outcome as accept, counter or reject and tie the reason to a criterion.

Each record should keep these fields:

• Dates received, evaluated and answered.
• Company name and contact person.
• The decision, the reason and the content of any counter-offer.
• The advertiser's reply and its date.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you evaluate an advertiser inquiry?

Read the request against five criteria: clarity, identity, content fit, audience fit and link labeling. Write accept, counter or reject for each and record the reason in one sentence. Talk about price only after this evaluation, since the first decision is whether the request suits your site at all.

When should an ad request be rejected?

Reject when the mismatch cannot be repaired: content against your principles, a misleading claim, an identity that cannot be verified or a link the advertiser refuses to have labelled. Repairable gaps are better met with a counter-offer. Tie the reason to a criterion, not to the person, and record it.

What can be asked for identity verification?

You may ask for the legal company name, a website, a second reply from a company address or a contact number. Avoid requesting more personal data than you need. The goal is to confirm the sender is real and reachable; keep what you collect limited and set a retention period.

How is a request that contains a link handled?

State at the start that an ad link will be marked. Google's outbound links documentation prefers sponsored on advertising links and tolerates nofollow. Put this expectation to the advertiser in writing and ask for confirmation. A request for an unmarked link can be declined on the strength of your principles.

Should the first reply include a price?

It does not have to, and it is often too early. Clarity, identity and content checks come first. A first reply can be a short message asking for missing details and linking your acceptance principles. Price is discussed after acceptance, once the placement, the period and the creative are agreed.

Why log rejected requests?

If the same advertiser writes again, the earlier reasoning is ready and the evaluation need not restart. Repeated reasons also reveal gaps in your principles and prompt updates to your policy page. Record only the information you need and set a retention period beforehand.

Conclusion and Next Step

The first ad request is the moment your site's principles get tested. Read clarity, identity, content, audience fit and link labeling in turn, write the outcome as accept, counter or reject, and your decisions stay consistent. Delay the price, tie every refusal to a criterion and log each request. Nothing here predicts any advertiser's arrival, revenue or outcome, and Akua does not find advertisers for publishers.

If you stand on the other side as someone looking for a placement, the ad spaces listing is where to browse. As a buyer you choose the space, pay for your basket, wait for the seller to accept the job, check the delivery message when it arrives and open a dispute if the result does not match. Read each seller's terms on the listing itself, since the criteria in this article can vary from one publisher to another.