Terms of business

These terms apply when a business buys sponsored placements through 3rd Unicorn Marketplace (marketplace.3rdunicorn.com), operated by 3RD UNICORN LTD ("we", "us"). By creating an account or placing an order you agree to them on behalf of your business. Our editorial policy and refund policy form part of these terms.

1. Who can buy

The marketplace is for businesses only. When you create an account you confirm you are acting for a business, and you give its legal name and country. A VAT ID is optional. You are responsible for keeping your sign-in secure; we recommend two-factor authentication.

2. Your balance and the top-up fee

• You pay for orders from a prepaid balance in US dollars. You add funds by card (processed by Stripe), USDT or USDC (processed by NOWPayments), or bank transfer to our Wise account.
• A top-up fee of 8% is added to the amount you add: add $1,000 and you pay $1,080. The fee is shown before you pay and is the only fee we charge buyers. We issue an invoice for every top-up ("Advertising services – prepayment").
• Your balance doesn't expire and isn't interest-bearing. We record where each part of it came from (card, crypto or bank), so refunds return to the same kind of balance. We may restrict which funding source can pay for some niches.
• We don't accept top-ups from sanctioned countries, and we may refuse or return a payment we can't verify.
• If you close your account, we return any unused balance to the method you paid with, less the top-up fee already charged on it.

3. Prices

Prices are per publication and service, in US dollars, shown before you order. A price you add to your cart is held for 7 days. 3rd Unicorn network rates are locked until 31 December 2026, and any order placed at those rates is honoured at that rate. Volume discounts apply to network titles ordered in one checkout: 5% at 3 titles, 10% at 5, 15% at 10 and 20% at 20. Sensitive-niche pricing is explained on our pricing page.

4. Placing an order

• For each placement you give the link, anchor text, any sensitive niche the content relates to, the markets you're targeting, and notes for our editors. You confirm the information is accurate.
• When you confirm, the order price is held from your balance. It is not spent until the placement is live.
• An editor then reviews the order for availability, editorial fit and compliance. We may decline any order; a declined order is refunded in full to your balance.
• UK-targeted iGaming, crypto, forex/trading and lending orders require a licence or authorisation we have verified. Our titles accept iGaming and financial brands only where they are licensed for the markets the title serves.

5. Content and approval

• Each article is written for the title it appears on and is not reused. Supplied copy must be original and unpublished and must follow our content guidelines; we edit it for accuracy, length and house style.
• You see the draft before publication and can correct facts about your product. Two revision rounds are included. For a sponsored review, the rating, criticisms and conclusion stay with the desk.
• If you don't respond to a draft within 72 hours, it is approved automatically.
• Every placement is disclosed as sponsored, and links to your site carry rel="sponsored". We don't sell undisclosed paid links.
• You confirm that you have the rights to anything you supply (text, images, trade marks) and that your offer is lawful in the markets you target.

6. Delivery

Network titles publish within 48–72 hours of approved content. The live URL appears in your account; the held payment is then released and we issue an invoice ("Advertising services – sponsored content placement, order #ID"). Factual corrections are free within 14 days of publication. Published placements are not removed; if a link target stops working we will update or remove the link on request.

7. Guarantee

The guarantee terms are fixed on each order when you place it and are never shortened afterwards. On 3rd Unicorn network titles: the placement stays live for 12 months from publication and is indexed within 14 days. Managed sites show their own terms on each listing. If a placement fails its guarantee, we restore it, replace it on a comparable title, or refund you to your balance, as set out in the refund policy.

What we don't guarantee: rankings, traffic, changes to domain authority scores or any particular SEO outcome. No publisher honestly can. We guarantee a real placement, on a real publication, published to a stated standard, with a live URL.

8. Cancellations and disputes

You can cancel an order free of charge until writing starts. After that, contact us through the order. If something is wrong with a draft or a live placement, open a dispute from the order page; we give a written decision with reasons, usually within 5 business days, and you may appeal once within 7 days to a different reviewer.

9. What you mustn't do

Don't use the marketplace to promote anything unlawful, misleading or aimed at minors; to buy placements for operators without the licences their markets require; to scrape or copy the catalogue; or to contact our publications to buy around the marketplace. We may suspend an account that breaks these terms, after telling you why and giving you a reasonable chance to put it right where the law allows.

10. Liability

We provide the marketplace with reasonable skill and care. Nothing in these terms limits liability that can't be limited by law. Otherwise, we are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, or for loss of profit, revenue or rankings, and our total liability for any claim is limited to the greater of the amounts you paid us in the 12 months before the claim and US$1,000.

11. Changes and law

We give at least 15 days' notice of changes to these terms by email and on this page; changes never affect orders already placed. These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have jurisdiction.

Contact

support@3rdunicorn.com · 3RD UNICORN LTD, 128 City Road, London EC1V 2NX, United Kingdom.