How we work: transparent, human-led, built for regulated finance
Financial brands can’t afford surprises. Here is exactly how we plan, create, place and report your coverage, including how we use AI and how we label every placement.
Four principles we don't compromise on
1. Transparency
You always know whether a placement is earned, contributed or sponsored.
2. Human judgment
AI makes us faster, but people write, edit and approve everything.
3. Compliance first
Your compliance team approves every piece before it goes out.
4. Measurable outcomes
Every live URL is reported, with its impact on links, rankings, traffic and AI visibility.
Our process, step by step
Step 1: Visibility Snapshot (free)
We benchmark your brand against 3 competitors across Google rankings, AI answers (ChatGPT, AI Overviews, Perplexity), press coverage and links. Free, delivered within 2 business days.
Step 2: Your brief and our proposal
Send us your brief and we reply by email within 1 business day. We agree goals, markets, languages, services and KPIs, and send a written proposal with scope, timelines and price. For larger engagements we arrange a live meeting when it helps, case by case.
Step 3: Onboarding and compliance brief
We collect your brand guidelines, approved claims, required risk warnings and approval workflow, and set up reporting access.
Step 4: Stories, targets and content
We build a target list of outlets by tier and market (showing the placement type for each) and develop story angles. Content is researched and drafted with AI assistance, then written, edited and fact-checked by our team.
Step 5: Your approval
Nothing is pitched or published without your sign-off (and your compliance team's, where needed).
Step 6: Outreach and placement
Pitching to journalists and editors, contributed articles and, where agreed, sponsored placements.
Step 7: Reporting and review
Monthly report with every URL, outlet, tier, market, placement type and link attribute, plus rankings, organic traffic and AI mentions. Links are tagged with UTMs so referral traffic and conversions show up in Google Analytics, and we monitor every link after it goes live. Quarterly strategy review.
Typical timings (from our 2025 fintech campaign): article preparation 1-3 days; Tier-2/3 placements live in 1-10 days; Tier-1 placements live in 7-38 days.
Our link building method, in 3 steps
The same three steps sit behind our long-running work for a global multi-asset investing platform, whose monthly organic traffic grew from 2.2 million to 4.7 million between March 2021 and January 2022 (+113% year on year) as it added $21 million in revenue in 8 months.
1. Analyse your most profitable markets
We start from your most profitable customers and markets, then use tools such as Semrush, Ahrefs and Majestic to see where competitors publish and which sites can support your keywords, checking metrics like DA, TF, DR, keywords and traffic.
2. Plan content around keywords, URLs and markets
We build a content calendar around your target keywords, landing pages and focus markets, timed to economic events and trending stories. We write for people, not for keywords.
3. Publish on hand-picked sites and track every link
Content goes live on relevant sites your audience reads, with strong visuals, clean formatting and internal links. We track referral traffic with UTMs and Google Analytics and monitor every link so it stays live.
AI-assisted, human-approved
We use AI tools to research topics, analyse data, draft first versions and check consistency. That lets us produce more high-quality content, faster: in our 2025 fintech campaign, production time for a batch of 30-50 articles fell from about 7 days to about 2, roughly 70% faster.
What AI never does:
- publish anything without human review;
- make up statistics, quotes or sources (every fact is checked);
- replace your experts’ voice or your compliance team’s judgment.
Our disclosure policy
Earned coverage
Editors or journalists choose to feature your story, data or commentary. We can't and don't guarantee it.
Contributed articles
Bylined articles by your experts, accepted by an outlet's editors under their own guidelines. Acceptance isn't guaranteed.
Sponsored placements
Paid content on a named publication. We only use publishers that label sponsored content in line with their own policies, and links are marked rel="sponsored" in line with Google's guidelines. Sponsored placements are the only placements we can guarantee.
Our commitments
- We tell you the placement type of every target before you approve it.
- We never present sponsored content as earned.
- We don’t use private blog networks, link farms or hidden paid links.
- We keep a record of every placement for your compliance files.
Working with your compliance team
We plan around the rules that apply to you, which may include FCA financial promotion rules and finfluencer guidance (FG24/1), ESMA/CySEC CFD requirements, or MiCA for crypto-asset services. We agree a compliance brief at the start, build approval time into the plan and keep an audit trail. We’re a marketing agency, not a law firm; your compliance team has the final say.
How engagements work
Monthly retainer
Ongoing PR, links and/or SEO, typically $3,000-$15,000 per month (bundles up to $25,000). Minimum term 3 months for links, SEO, AI search and PPC; 6 months for digital PR; then rolling with 30 days' notice.
Campaign
A defined project, such as a data story or market launch, typically $6,000-$15,000.
Deep Visibility Audit
An optional paid audit beyond the free Snapshot, $2,500-$5,000 one-off, credited against your first month if you start a retainer within 30 days.
Sponsored placements
Quoted per outlet; publisher fees passed through at cost plus a stated management fee.
Frequently asked questions
Do you guarantee placements?
Only sponsored placements can be guaranteed, because the space is paid for. They are labelled by the publisher and their links are marked rel="sponsored". Earned coverage can’t be guaranteed by anyone, because editors decide what to publish. We tell you which type each placement is before you commit.
What is a Tier-1 link?
A link from a major national or international publication with a large, trusted audience, typically a top finance, business or news title. Tier-2 links come from established sector sites, and Tier-3 from niche or local-language sites.
Are sponsored links allowed by Google?
Yes, if they’re disclosed. Google asks for paid links to carry rel="sponsored" (or nofollow). What breaks its policies is buying links to manipulate rankings without disclosure.
What do your reports include?
Every URL, outlet, tier, market, placement type and link attribute, plus rankings, organic traffic and AI mentions, monthly.
See where you stand first
We reply by email within 1 business day.