Sponsored is always labelled.
Paid placements affect visibility. They never override the relevance of your search. And they're always clearly labelled.
What "Sponsored" means here
A small set of venues pay for a featured slot. Those venues are eligible to appear in the "Sponsored" section at the top of relevant search results, with an explicit "Sponsored" badge in the same colour and font weight as "Verified" or "Demo listing". There is no smaller, lighter, harder-to-see version.
Sponsored placements never appear:
- Inside the organic results, disguised as relevance-ranked.
- Without the "Sponsored" badge.
- When the venue isn't a genuine match for the user's search (e.g. a NSW venue cannot pay to appear in a VIC search).
- Above shortlisted or distance-filtered results when the user has explicitly opted out of sponsored views.
What we won't do
- Accept payment to delete or hide negative reviews of competing venues.
- Accept payment to demote competitors.
- Run "featured listings" without the Sponsored label, no matter what the venue calls the package.
- Override search relevance for a paid placement (e.g. sponsored cannot rank above non-sponsored within a results page beyond the dedicated sponsored slot).
- Treat "preferred suppliers" or partner programmes as if they're organic.
Opting out
A signed-in user with Pro Planner can toggle "hide sponsored" in their preferences. The toggle is sticky across sessions and applies to all search surfaces.
How sponsorship fits our pricing
Sponsored is a small part of revenue — most of our income is flat monthly listing fees for upgraded features. Sponsored exists so a venue with limited organic reach (e.g. a brand-new venue) can buy initial visibility, with the same labelling and the same relevance constraints as everyone else.