Advertising terms and ad policies

1. How ads are chosen and priced

Each ad slot runs an auction among the eligible ads (approved, within budget and schedule, matching the page, the search and the visitor's device and approximate location). Ads are ranked by expected value: the cost-per-click bid times the expected click rate, or the bid per 1,000 viewable impressions. The winner pays the least it needed to beat the next ad, plus ₹0.01, and never more than its bid. Without competition the price is the floor price: ₹3.00 per click for search ads, ₹2.00 per click or ₹30.00 per 1,000 viewable impressions for feed & content ads. Floor prices can change; a bid below a new floor stops serving until it is raised.

2. What counts

Impression: the ad was on the page. Viewable impression: at least half of the ad was on screen for at least one second. Click: a click on the ad that reached your landing page. You are charged per valid click (cost-per-click bidding) or per 1,000 viewable impressions (viewable CPM), as your campaign says.

3. Invalid traffic

XPARO doesn't charge for clicks and views it believes are not genuine interest: automated traffic, repeated clicks by the same person on the same ad within 30 minutes, clicks faster than a person can make, clicks from an ad that was never on screen, unusual numbers of clicks from one network, and clicks or views by you, your team, XPARO staff or a project website's own members. These show in your reports as invalid clicks. If invalid traffic is found after you were charged, the amount is added back to your ad balance.

4. Payments and balance

Ads are prepaid. Money added to your ad balance through Cashfree is non-refundable and can only be spent on XPARO ads. Your daily and total budgets are hard limits: a campaign never spends more than its daily budget in a day (India time). When the balance runs out, ads stop. Each payment gets a numbered receipt. XPARO is not registered for GST, so receipts are not tax invoices. XPARO may suspend an account that breaks these terms; while suspended, its ads don't show and its balance can't be spent.

5. Ad policies

Every ad, and every edit of an ad, is reviewed before it runs (an approved version keeps running while its edit is reviewed). Ads are not approved for:

• Prohibited product or service (betting, adult content, weapons, tobacco or alcohol and their surrogates, unlicensed financial schemes, prescription drugs).
• Misleading or unrealistic claims.
• The landing page doesn't work, doesn't match the ad, or asks for personal data without a reason.
• Image or text quality (blurry, unreadable, ALL CAPS, excessive punctuation or emoji).
• Uses a brand or trademark you don't own.
• Text that is hard to understand or not in plain language.

Ads must also follow Indian law, including the ASCI Code for Self-Regulation of Advertising Content. Landing pages must use https, open, belong to the advertiser or be allowed by its owner, and not use link shorteners. XPARO may remove an ad that people report, or that breaks these policies, at any time.

6. For people who see the ads

Every ad is labelled "Sponsored". Its "⋯" menu says who paid for it and why you see it, and lets you report it. XPARO chooses ads from what is on the page, what you searched on XPARO and your approximate location (country or Indian state, from your IP address using IP geolocation by DB-IP). It doesn't build a profile of you or follow you to other websites. A cookie named xpv holds a random number, used only to limit how often you see the same ad and to filter repeated clicks. A click goes through XPARO first and adds an xpclid code to the advertiser's address, so the advertiser can count what happened after the click. More in the privacy policy.

7. Project websites

Owners of public project websites on XPARO can choose to show one XPARO ad slot on their site. They earn 50% of what advertisers pay for ads on their site, paid into the project as XPARO credits a few days after each month ends, once invalid traffic has been removed. Credits can't be exchanged for money. Views and clicks by the project's own members never count. XPARO may hold or not pay a month where the traffic looks invalid, and says why. Advertisers can leave project websites out of a campaign, or exclude single sites.

8. Changes

XPARO may change these terms and the floor prices; changes apply from when they are published here. Questions: contact XPARO.