Links that pay for themselves. Or none at all.
Scale answers three questions before it spends a dollar: why this page, why these placements, and why this budget. You see the answers, and the maths behind them, before anything is bought.
Why this page
Links go to pages that are ready for them. Most aren't, yet.
Every page gets a verdict, and most months most pages don't get links. That's the point: link money only goes where it can earn back.
- Content first: a page whose own fixes are worth a meaningful share of its upside gets Ship's work before any link money
- A buying search: pages that mainly win searches from people learning get better content, not links
- Real demand: no links for a page whose main search has fewer than 100 searches a month
- Room to climb: pages already in the top 3 with nobody above worth chasing are held, not paid for
/corporate-card
“startup credit card”
27 links for $24,760 pay back in 4 months.
Buy links/expense-management
“expense management software”
Its own content fixes are worth most of its upside. Ship goes first; no link money yet.
Fix content first/virtual-cards
“virtual cards for business”
$9,800 of links would take 26 months to pay back.
Not worth it/blog/corporate-card-vs-business-credit-card
“corporate card vs business credit card”
The marketplace can close about half the gap. The rest needs PR or a linkable asset, and we say so.
Partial/blog/what-is-a-virtual-card
“what is a virtual card”
18,100 searches a month, but people learning, not buying. Content only.
Hold/blog/expense-policy-template
“expense policy template”
Already #3 with nobody above worth chasing. Protect it, don't pay for it.
Hold
- Link to the pages above you, not to yours80
The page-level gap
- Available in PlacementAPI's marketplace41
Of 605,948 placements
- Verified, DR 50+, under your $2,500 cap30
Suspect domains never pass
- Not already bought for this site27
$24,760 in total, price held 4 hours
- Bought this month9
A third of the need, within your natural pace
Why these placements
Your page against the pages beating it. Not your domain against theirs.
Scale looks at the pages ranking above yours for the search that matters, finds the domains that link to them and not to you, and prices closing that gap from PlacementAPI's marketplace.
- Domains that link to several of the pages above you come first: they do the most work
- Named, verified domains, filtered by your quality floor and price cap
- Prices come from the marketplace and are held while you decide
- When the marketplace can only close part of the gap, the verdict says Partial, and names what else it would take
Why this budget
Payback on the most realistic step up. Not a jump to #1.
The revenue a page would add is modelled from its own Search Console data, then discounted by how confident you are it will happen. Links are bought only when that risk-adjusted revenue pays for them within a year.
- Payback under 12 months: bought, within your budget
- 12 to 18 months: shown to you, never bought automatically
- Over 18 months: not recommended
- With more pages qualifying than budget allows, the budget goes where each dollar buys the most revenue
- Extra revenue at the next rung (#6)
- $12,400/mo
- Modelled from your clicks, CTR curve and value per click
- × confidence it happens
- 50%
- Your setting; the default is deliberately cautious
- = risk-adjusted
- $6,200/mo
- What the plan counts on
- Cost to close the gap
- $24,760
- 27 links at marketplace prices, no markup
- Payback
- 4 months
- Under 12: bought. 12 to 18: shown, never bought automatically. Over 18: not recommended.
One page, start to finish
Everything behind a purchase, on one screen.
Each page's case shows its position, its link gap, what moving up would be worth, and the payback, before you approve anything.
Primary search
“startup credit card”
- Your position
- 9
- bottom of page 1
- Referring domains
- 160 vs 240
- you vs. median above you
- Links needed
- 28
- shared by rivals above
- Price, held 4h
- $24,760
- PlacementAPI inventory
If you move up
| Next rung (#6) | +$12,400/mo |
|---|---|
| Top 3 | +$31,900/mo |
| #1 | +$58,400/mo |
Payback
4 months
12-month ROI
+200%
Payback and ROI use the next rung only, risk-adjusted at 50% confidence.
Plan: 10 links this month, 10 next month and 8 after, inside your site's natural link pace. Anchor mix led by your brand name and plain URLs.
Limits it keeps
Spend you can sleep on.
These are enforced by the product, not left to judgement.
Your budget, never exceeded
A monthly link budget and a maximum price per link. Unspent budget doesn't roll over, and nothing is bought past either.
A natural pace
No more new linking domains a month than 1.5 times your site's own average over the last year. A page's gap is closed over at least three months.
A brand-led anchor mix
Anchors lead with your brand and plain URLs. Exact-match anchors stay under 5% of the mix.
Verified domains only
PlacementAPI checks every domain for a real organic footprint. Anything flagged as suspect is never bought, and no domain is bought twice for your site.
Approve or autopilot
Each month's plan waits for your approval unless you've switched the site to autopilot. You see every domain, price and reason first.
Stop any time
Pause the plan and nothing more is bought. Lower the budget and this month's pending plan is redone at once.
When it buys
Your credits, marketplace prices. No markup.
- Orders are placed through PlacementAPI with your own account's credits, at the marketplace price
- Each purchase is placed once, even if it's approved twice at the same moment
- Every order is logged with its price, the page, the anchor and the reason it was chosen
- Delivery is handled by PlacementAPI under its marketplace terms
Afterwards
Observed, not assumed. And budget follows results.
- Each month's links are measured against the 28 days before, at 7, 14, 30, 60 and 90 days
- Projected revenue and observed results are shown side by side, never merged
- Every month the plan is redone with fresh data: pages that reach the top 3 are held, pages whose links aren't paying back stop getting budget
Buying links carries real risk under Google's spam policies. We say so plainly, and explain how Scale reduces it, in the FAQ on buying links. You can set the link budget to zero and use Ship on its own.
On both plans, links are bought at PlacementAPI marketplace prices, from your own budget and within your caps. No markup on your own purchases.
See your link plan before you spend a cent. Free.
Connect your site and Search Console. Scale shows every page's verdict, the domains it would buy and the payback, and waits for your approval.
Free forever with your own keys, or $99/month on ours. No contract.