Advertising Policy

The First Click — a division of Agency of Strategy Inc. · Effective date: August 13, 2026 · Last updated: August 13, 2026

Advertising helps keep The First Click's Free tier open to everyone. This policy explains how advertising works on our platform, what advertisers can and cannot do, and — most importantly — the wall between advertising and our journalism.

1. The wall between advertising and editorial

Editorial decisions are never influenced by advertising or advertisers. This is the founding rule of the publication, and it works in both directions:

Advertisers have no visibility into, or influence over, what we cover, how we cover it, how stories are ranked or recommended, or what our editors and analysts conclude.
Our editorial team does not participate in ad sales, and our advertising operations have no access to editorial systems or plans.
We do not offer favourable coverage, softened coverage, or advance notice of coverage in exchange for advertising spend — at any price.
An advertiser's status never protects it from coverage. We report on our advertisers the same way we report on everyone else.

If you ever believe a piece of our content was influenced by an advertiser, tell us at editor@the-first-click.com and we will investigate and respond.

2. Where ads appear

Advertising appears on the Free and Premium tiers. Premium is a paid tier and is still ad-supported — paying for Premium buys research access, not an ad-free experience. Readers are not shown advertising in exactly two cases: they hold Black, or they hold Ad-Free status earned through active referrals.

3. Ad labelling

Every piece of paid content is clearly and unambiguously labelled. Display ads are visually distinct from editorial content. Any sponsored or partner content — if we ever run it — is labelled "Sponsored" or "Paid partnership" at the top of the piece, identifies the sponsor by name, and is never written by, bylined by, or edited by our editorial staff. We do not use formats designed to make advertising look like our journalism.

4. What we accept — and what we don't

We accept advertising that is legal, honest, and substantiated. We do not accept advertising for or containing:

misleading, unsubstantiated, or deceptive claims, including health and financial claims that cannot be supported;
weapons, tobacco, or illegal products and services;
predatory financial products, get-rich-quick schemes, or unregistered securities;
political attack advertising or content designed to mislead voters;
hate, harassment, or discrimination targeting any group;
malware, deceptive download buttons, or ads that impersonate system messages or editorial content;
content that would embarrass our readers' trust in us.

We may decline or remove any advertisement at our sole discretion, at any time, without liability beyond refunding unused prepaid amounts.

5. Data and targeting

We do not give advertisers our member lists, member emails, or editorial analytics. Ad delivery and measurement on the ad-supported tiers use aggregate or pseudonymous data only, as described in our Privacy Policy. In the UK, the European Economic Area and Switzerland, advertising is non-personalised unless a reader allows advertising cookies; elsewhere readers can decline personalised advertising in their browser settings or through Google's own ad settings. Either way readers still see ads on the ad-supported tiers, but non-personalised ones.

6. AI-generated ad content

Advertisers must disclose to us if creative is materially AI-generated where that fact would mislead readers (for example, synthetic testimonials or fabricated imagery presented as real). We do not accept ads containing deepfakes of real people or synthetic "evidence" of product claims. Our own use of AI is covered in our AI Use Declaration.

7. Advertiser conduct

Advertisers may not attempt to influence editorial coverage, request advance notice of coverage, or condition spend on coverage decisions. Attempts to do so are grounds for ending the relationship.

8. Advertise with us

For rates, formats, and availability, contact editor@the-first-click.com with the subject line "Advertising enquiry". Please note that contacting us about advertising has no bearing — positive or negative — on how we cover your organisation.