How publisher verification works
Every advertising placement on LinkBourse carries one of five verification tiers, and the tier says who checked the numbers rather than how good they are. Self-reported means the publisher typed them in. Ownership verified means we confirmed who controls the property. Analytics verified means we pulled the figures from the analytics provider ourselves. Independently verified means an outside source agreed. Delivery verified — the top tier — means LinkBourse has already counted real impressions and clicks on this property, and it is the only tier that cannot be applied for.
- 1
Self-reported
Checked by: Nobody
The publisher typed the numbers in. They may be exactly right; nothing on the platform confirms it. Listings at this tier carry no badge and are ranked below verified inventory in every sorted view, because an unchecked claim should not outrank a checked one.
- 2
Ownership verified
Checked by: LinkBourse, automatically
The seller proves they control the property, and how depends on what it is. A website: a DNS TXT record, a meta tag, an ads.txt line or a file at a path we name. A Telegram channel, YouTube channel, newsletter, podcast, app or social account: a code we issue, placed in a public field only the account holder can edit — the channel description, the feed, the store listing, the bio — which we then read ourselves. CTV feeds and physical screens have no such page, so those are proven with paperwork a person reads. Every route reads something only the owner can change. None of it confirms the traffic — it confirms who is selling it, which is the difference between a bad campaign and a stolen one.
- 3
Analytics verified
Not issued yetChecked by: The analytics provider
Read-only access to GA4, Search Console, Cloudflare, the ESP or the platform’s own analytics. LinkBourse pulls the numbers; the seller does not type them. A dashboard screenshot is not accepted here and never will be — an image is an assertion, and images are trivial to edit.
No property holds this tier today — the integrations behind it are not live. It is described here because it is what the tier will require, not what any listing currently claims.
- 4
Independently verified
Not issued yetChecked by: A third party that has no stake
Reported figures are cross-checked against outside estimates within a stated tolerance. The tier is granted when the two agree, and a large gap is shown rather than hidden — a publisher whose own analytics say triple what every outside source sees is a fact a buyer is entitled to.
No property holds this tier today — the integrations behind it are not live. It is described here because it is what the tier will require, not what any listing currently claims.
- 5
Delivery verified
Checked by: LinkBourse’s tracker, on past campaigns
The strongest tier, and the only one that cannot be obtained in advance: real campaigns have run on this property and LinkBourse counted the impressions and clicks itself, alongside a daily check that the ad was live on the page. Escrow releases against this measurement. A property earns this tier by delivering, not by filling in a form.
Verifying your own property
Add the property, pick a method, and LinkBourse runs the check while you wait. For a website, DNS is the most durable and the slowest to propagate, while a meta tag is instant and disappears the next time someone rebuilds the theme. For a channel, feed or account it is a code in your own description, which takes a minute and can come out once the check passes. Everything is re-checked over time, so pick the one you will not accidentally remove.
Add a propertyQuestions
Can a publisher buy a verification badge?
No. Every tier is granted by a check that passes or fails; there is no paid tier and no manual override for sellers who ask. The top tier cannot be granted at all until real campaigns have run and been measured.
Why is a screenshot of an analytics dashboard not enough?
Because an image proves nothing about the account it came from. Read-only OAuth costs the publisher one click more and produces numbers the seller never touched, which is the whole point of the tier.
What happens if a verified property stops matching its numbers?
Verification is re-checked, not granted once. A DNS record that disappears drops the property back to self-reported, and the listing loses its badge until the check passes again.
Does a high tier mean the ad will perform?
No, and the platform does not claim it. A tier describes how much of the listing has been checked, not whether a campaign will work. Performance is what the tracker measures after the fact, and it is what escrow pays against.
What does the ownership check actually read?
A challenge string unique to the property — the same value every time it is shown, so a half-finished setup survives a page reload. For a website we resolve the DNS record, fetch the homepage, read ads.txt or request the named file. For a channel, feed, app or account we fetch the public page and look for that string in the field the owner controls. Either way the string is what cannot be guessed.
Can a Telegram channel or a newsletter be verified, or is this only for websites?
All of them can. Eleven of the fourteen property types have no domain to check, so they are verified by a code in a field only the account holder can edit: the Telegram channel description, the YouTube About tab, the RSS feed, the store listing, the profile bio. Some platforms block automated requests, and when that happens the failure says so rather than blaming the publisher — those properties can ask for a reviewed check instead.
What stops someone listing a channel they do not own?
The ownership check, once they want a badge — they cannot place our code in a description they cannot edit. Until then the listing is labelled self-reported and ranks below verified inventory everywhere it appears, which is the honest position: we have not confirmed anything about it, including who is selling it.
Related: how escrow releases against delivery · browse verified placements