Fees, placements and wins

Publishers often answer a pitch with a price. This article follows the money from the first figure to a verified win: where a fee shows up, how the fee policy shapes the reply the AI drafts for you, what a flagged draft means, and how a yes becomes a live placement that counts in your report.

You meet these screens in the Inbox when a reply quotes a price, in project settings when you set a client's standing answer to paid placements, and on Outcomes in Reports when a page goes live. Nothing here agrees to a price or records a win on its own: you send every reply, and a page counts as a win only once you confirm it or a live check you asked for finds your mention.

Where a fee shows up

When a publisher names a price, the AI reads it from their email as written and shows it where you work.

• The Inbox. The composer's lead line says what they asked and what the draft will do: "They asked £350: the draft negotiates within your fee policy." The rail's "Sequence" section carries the deal line: "They asked for $100 · link insertion" (with a "Fee asked" explainer) or, once settled, "Agreed at $100" (with a "Price agreed" explainer) and what followed: "payment link sent", "invoice sent", "payment details sent" or "paid".
• Sequences. A row that needs you names the fee and what it is for, such as "Asks for a fee: GBP 200, placement fee." The window shows the figure under their reply ("They asked for £200 · placement fee") with "Their words", the sentence it was read from.
• All replies. The table has a "Fee asks" count, a "Quoted a price" filter and the columns "Fee asked" (sortable, grouped by currency), "Fee for" (placement fee, link insertion, review fee, sponsored post, membership or other), "Their words" and "Asked before": a price this publisher has quoted before to any customer on the platform, for this page, this contact or the whole domain. Amounts and domains are shared as commercial facts; no email address is ever shared with another account.

A blank fee means no charge was mentioned, not that the placement is free. "payment, no amount given" means they charge but named no figure. Fees stay in their own currency everywhere and are never converted.

The fee policy

The fee policy is a client's standing answer when a publisher asks to be paid. Open project settings, find the "Fee policy" card, check "Set a fee policy for this client" and pick a stance.

The two paying stances take a ceiling and a currency, "the most this client will pay for one placement". The note is used verbatim in the draft, so write it the way you would say it: where a counter should open ("start with £100"), or what to offer instead of a fee. A line in it can also set a lower ceiling for pages in a priority range you name. Asked what you would pay, a paying draft names one figure inside your fee policy, or asks their price when it has none to name.

The policy shapes the draft that lands in your reply box. It agrees to nothing, sends nothing and changes nothing about a running sequence. With no policy set, the draft declines politely and says no policy is set. Changing the policy needs admin or owner access.

Negotiate down or agree

While a price is open, the composer's toolbar offers two drafts. "A · Negotiate down" is a counter below their ask, inside your fee limits, with a reason drawn from what is known about the page. "B · Agree" accepts their figure and moves on to payment. Neither goes above their ask or your ceiling, and neither changes currency. They appear only while your policy pays, and "Agree" only when their ask is within the ceiling. Once both are written, the buttons switch between them at no cost. Once a price is agreed they are not offered: the next draft confirms the agreed figure, names no other and moves on to payment.

Two controls sit beside them. "Guide the draft" takes one instruction for the next draft, such as "accept $100, ask for the invoice" or "don't name a figure, ask their price". It outranks the fee policy but never the hard limits, and "Regenerate" repeats it. "What you usually pay" reads this project's other priced threads and shows the median, the range and how many agreed prices, per currency.

"Where the price stands" is read from every message on the thread, mail you sent from your own inbox included: what they asked, what you offered, what was agreed and whether an invoice or payment link has arrived. When the same person writes from several addresses at the publisher, the price is read across all of them.

Flagged drafts

A draft is flagged when it names a figure outside your limits or still uses a word from your never-say list. The lead line says which, in warning ink, and "Details" shows the number of flags (for example "2 flags") when there is more than the lead says. A flagged draft never lands in the reply box on its own. "Read the draft" shows it, and the button beside "Send reply" becomes "Use anyway", drawn as an outline: it puts the draft in the box, and you fix what the warning names before you press "Send reply".

From a yes to a live placement

A publisher's yes is an agreement, not a win. It counts for nothing in the report until the page is live.

1. In the Inbox rail, triage the reply as "Agreed". Its hint says it: "They said yes. It becomes a win once the page is confirmed live, by a placement check or by you."
2. Open Outcomes in Reports. "Agreed placements: confirm which are live" lists every agreed page, with "N awaiting confirmation".
3. Choose "It is live: record it now" or "Queue a live check".
4. On each row, check the "Live date" (a suggested date is shown, with "Check it against the page.") and pick the "Primary topic". A row reading "Cannot be confirmed yet" names what is missing: a linked prompt, a primary topic or a live date. Link a prompt to the page in Opportunities, or pick the topic on the row, then come back.
5. Press "Confirm live" or "Queue check", or "Confirm N as live" (or "Queue N checks") for every ready row. "Dismiss" moves a page that will never be placed to lost.

Confirming a placement is what creates the win. Until then an agreed page is not in the wins total, not on the charts and not in any topic movement.

Marking a win from the thread

When the reply itself says the page is live, you can record the win without leaving the Inbox.

1. On a thread they answered, read the reply confirming the page carries your mention.
2. Press "Mark as win" at the end of the composer's lead line. One press records the live page as your win, it counts in your report at once, and the placement checks keep re-reading the page.
3. The toast reads "Marked as a win", with "See the win" opening Outcomes. The row wears a trophy, the chip at the end of the lead now reads "Live placement", and a reply nobody had decided is closed ("Triaged · Live placement.").

The live date is your own calendar day, and a page already in your wins is not added twice. Two refusals point you to the wins screen instead: the toast says "Nothing was recorded." and offers "Open wins". A page with no topic yet: mark it "Agreed to place", then confirm it on the wins screen and pick its topic. A page not linked to a tracked prompt yet: add it with "Add manual win", where you choose the prompts it was meant for.

The same press sits on the deck's reply cards in Autopilot. Posts you publish yourself count differently: a reply or new post marked posted with its link is a win from that day when it names the brand. See Posts, replies and listings.

What a verified win is

A win is a live placement: a published page confirmed to carry your mention. A placement check or you can confirm it. Agreements, visibility lifts and pitches are not wins. On Outcomes, every win is a proof card with one status chip.

A placement recorded with a live check queued is not a win yet. It waits under "Awaiting a live check" ("N not in the report") and counts in no report number until a check confirms the mention. There you can press "Confirm live" if you can see the mention, or "Discard" if it never went live.

Every live placement is checked weekly. A placement the checks stop finding, or whose page is gone, is marked removed; pages that cannot be read automatically, such as Quora and Facebook groups, keep their last status. "Verify placements" on Outcomes re-checks every pending and live placement now; it is a manual action, counted for the account like every press (no plan limits presses today).

Movement in AI answers after a win is reported as association, never as cause. The before-and-after reading of each win is covered in Wins and verification and Impact and outcomes.

Limits

• The fee policy note takes up to 600 characters; "Guide the draft" takes up to 400.
• AI drafts, the A and B drafts, "Regenerate" and nudges use the account's AI allowance. No plan limits that allowance today: the work is counted for the account, not capped. Showing a draft already written uses none of it.
• A reply monitoring rule written in plain words, such as "They ask to be paid for the placement", flags matching replies in Sequences so you look before anything else happens. See Auto-promotion and reply rules.