Ask Stacy — I Should Be Able to Trust Your Ads, Shouldn’t I?

Advertising Disclosure: When you buy something by clicking links on our site, we may earn a small commission, but it never affects the products or services we recommend.

Woman Selling
Everett Collection / Shutterstock.com

Today I’m going to once again address a concern I’ve talked about before — namely, the advertising you see and hear on websites, television, newspapers and virtually every form of mass communication.

To get started, here are two reader comments. I get something similar nearly every day.

You run articles warning us about rip-offs and then you post one on your website. … Explain why you allow this scam on your website. Thank you. — David

This one is about a different company, but the theme is the same.

I just want you to know that a company you sponsor on your website for cost-saving purposes is not reputable. I have reported [them] to Discover Card fraud services, the New York State BBB and Utah BBB. I am also unsubscribing from your newsletter.

I thought you vetted your affiliations better than that. It’s a shame since people rely on you to save money and not get scammed. I hope you do a better job vetting in the future. — Joe

These emails are painful. I’ve spent nearly three decades building credibility as a journalist. Without it, I’m out of business. So when I read things like “Explain why you allow this scam on your website” and “I thought you vetted your affiliations better than that,” it really makes me cringe.

Here’s the deal, guys: We can’t vet the advertisers on this website because we rarely know who they are.

To understand why, here’s a quick lesson in how online advertising works.

How websites make money

Websites are inexpensive to build and maintain relative to brick-and-mortar businesses, but they’re far from free. Depending on the traffic they get, the computers that keep them available 24/7 cost thousands monthly. Then there’s the people. Tech experts to maintain the site. Writers to write articles. Editors to review their work.

If the site sells a product, that’s obviously where the money comes from. But for sites like this one, where the “product” is information, there are only three ways to pay the bills:

  1. Charge readers a subscription fee. This is how The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and a few other sites bring in some revenue, although it’s not the only way they make money.
  2. Sell advertising. It’s no surprise to anyone who’s ever watched TV, read a newspaper or seen a website that advertising keeps the lights on at many media companies, both online and off.
  3. Sell leads. If you’ve done much web surfing, you’re aware that many websites — including this one — offer lists and searches for everything from coupons to credit cards. This is called lead generation. The sponsoring site gets paid for sending potential customers to a product or service.

Money Talks News, as well as the vast majority of companies in the business of online news, doesn’t charge a subscription fee. Instead we use a combination of advertising and lead generation to keep the lights on.

How Google changed the game

You’re probably aware that Google changed the world of search by making it easy to find what you’re looking for online. But you may not know that they also changed the world of advertising.

Before Google came along, there was only one way to find advertisers: Approach them directly. Not a problem for companies like The New York Times or CNN. Because of the size of their web audiences, advertisers would come to them. But what about the thousands of smaller websites that don’t generate that kind of traffic?

Enter Google. Google allows smaller publishers to include ad spaces on their websites, then Google finds the advertisers to fill them.

Obviously, Google’s service, called AdSense, isn’t free. After we place Google ad spaces on our site, Google sells ads, puts them on our site, collects the money, and keeps part of it for themselves.

Something interesting about ads

You’d assume the ads you see around this article right now are the same that anyone else would see viewing the same article from a different computer. Wrong. Google, as well as other ad networks, serves ads it thinks you want to see, based on your personal online behavior.

In other words, if you shopped for shoes just before you started reading this, you could be seeing a shoe ad next to this article. If you were just reading an article on another site about new cars, you could be seeing car ads.

Ad networks also try to show you ads that might relate to the story content. So if the article you’re reading on this site is about free credit scores, odds are higher you’ll see ads from companies offering credit scores.

If you trust the website, can you trust the ad?

Now we get to what the readers above were actually suggesting: If you’re trustworthy, the ads on your website should be as well. Or, put another way, if readers can’t trust the people advertising on this website, maybe they shouldn’t trust us either.

I hope now you understand why our editorial content and advertisers aren’t related. I write some of the articles on this website, see most and all are approved by our extremely experienced editors, Kari Huus and Chris Kissell. Between the three of us, we have more than 60 years of journalism experience. You can trust us.

But we don’t supervise Google, and they pick both the ads and advertisers you see.

Theoretically, ads should be truthful. That’s the law of the land. And Google says they do their best to weed out bad apples. But you should always treat ads as what they are: ads. Whether it’s an ad on TV, online or on a bus bench, you should check into the product before pulling out your credit card.

How to vet ads

I hesitated to write this post for a simple reason. If anything I say could be construed as a warning against clicking on our ads, that could put this site in peril, along with everyone who works here and their families.

So click away! But before you actually send money to any company that advertising anywhere, do the following first.

  • Proceed with caution, especially in certain circumstances: If you see an ad promising you something that sounds too good to be true, be cautious. Expect a catch, and read the fine print.
  • See what others say: Before entering your credit card information, go to your favorite search engine and put in these words: “(company name) complaints.” This will tell you if the offer you’re about to respond to has made other consumers unhappy.
  • If you see something, say something: As I explained, Google picks our advertisers. But that doesn’t mean we’re helpless. If you feel you’ve been misled, send two emails — one to us here and one to Google here. Because while we can’t vet our advertisers, we can individually ban them, and we will if enough of you tell us a company isn’t playing fair.

But please, before accusing me of “sponsoring” a company you don’t like, remember: The news anchor you’re watching on TV isn’t responsible for the ads during the commercial breaks. The newspaper reporter didn’t sell the ad sharing the page with their story. And if a bad apple advertises on this website, it’s not because we invited them.

Got a question you’d like answered?

You can ask a question simply by hitting “reply” to our email newsletter. If you’re not subscribed, fix that right now by clicking here.

The questions I’m likeliest to answer are those that will interest other readers. In other words, don’t ask for super-specific advice that applies only to you. And if I don’t get to your question, promise not to hate me. I do my best, but I get a lot more questions than I have time to answer.

About me

I founded Money Talks News in 1991. I’m a CPA, and have also earned licenses in stocks, commodities, options principal, mutual funds, life insurance, securities supervisor and real estate.

Got any words of wisdom you can offer for this week’s question? Share your knowledge and experiences on our Facebook page.

Got more money questions? Browse lots more Ask Stacy answers here.

Get smarter with your money!

Want the best money-news and tips to help you make more and spend less? Then sign up for the free Money Talks Newsletter to receive daily updates of personal finance news and advice, delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for our free newsletter today.