Why we label sponsored gifts — and how Giftory ranks results
Some products on Giftory are paid for by shops. Here’s how we keep them clearly labelled, why relevance always comes first, and what that means for you as a gift-giver or a shop owner.
By the Giftory team4 min read
When you ask Giftory for gift ideas, you’re trusting us with something personal: a description of someone you love. That trust is the whole business. So we want to explain plainly how results are chosen, why some of them carry a “Sponsored” label, and why that label will never quietly disappear.
Two kinds of results#
Most of what you see is organic: products our AI assistant finds by searching small European shops for things that fit the situation you described. Nobody can pay to appear in the organic results or to move up in them.
Some results are sponsored: products from shops that pay to be shown more prominently when they’re genuinely relevant. Sponsored listings help keep Giftory free to use without selling your data or filling the page with tracking. They’re advertising — so we treat them like advertising.
How organic results are ranked#
Organic results are ordered by how well a product fits what you told us. The main factors are:
- Fit with the situation — the person, the occasion, their interests and style, and the details you shared. This is the most important factor by far.
- Delivery — products should be deliverable to the country you chose.
- Budget — products should fall within your price range.
- Small makers first — we prefer independent shops and makers to large marketplaces.
- Real product pages — we check that links lead to an actual product, not a dead end.
Commercial relationships never change the order of organic results.
How sponsored listings work#
Paid placement could easily ruin a gift finder. A beautiful but irrelevant product pushed to the top is worse than no suggestion at all. That’s why our rules for sponsored listings are strict:
- Always labelled. Every paid listing carries a clear “Sponsored” label, in every language.
- Relevance comes first. Our AI rates sponsored products as strictly as organic ones. A product that doesn’t fit your search is never shown, however much a shop is willing to pay.
- Only a few per page. There’s a small limit on sponsored listings per results page, and they’re never placed next to each other.
- Boost changes position, not eligibility. Shops can pay for a higher boost, but it only affects products that have already passed the relevance check.
- “Why am I seeing this?” The info button next to the label shows who the advertiser is, who paid for the ad and the main reasons it was shown.
The exact numbers — thresholds, limits and boost levels — are published on our page about how ranking and ads work.
Good to know
No profiling, ever
Sponsored products are matched to your search, not to you as a person. We don’t build advertising profiles, we don’t track you across websites and we never use sensitive data for ads. If you’d like different suggestions, change the search — there’s no hidden profile to escape.
Why labelling matters#
European rules such as the Digital Services Act and consumer protection law require online platforms to make advertising recognisable and to explain the main parameters behind their rankings. We’d label sponsored products even without those rules. A gift recommendation is only useful if you can trust it, and you can only trust it if you know when someone has paid to be there.
If we ever had to choose between a paid placement and a good recommendation, the recommendation would win. Our rules are designed so that we never have to choose.
What you can do as a gift-giver#
- Look for the “Sponsored” label — it’s always in the same place on a product card.
- Tap the info button to see who is behind an ad and why it matched your search.
- Treat sponsored products like any other suggestion: if it fits, great; if not, scroll on.
- If an ad looks wrong or misleading, report it. The ranking page explains how.
What this means for shops#
If you run a small shop, this approach is good news. Sponsored listings on Giftory reach people at the exact moment they’re looking for a meaningful gift — and only when your product genuinely fits. You pay per click from a prepaid balance, every advertiser is reviewed before their ads run, and every shop plays by the same published rules. Nobody can buy their way past relevance, which means the people who click are the people who actually want what you make.
You can read more in our guide for shop owners on how to reach thoughtful gift buyers.
For shop owners
Want your products in front of thoughtful gift buyers?
Find out how sponsored listings work for small shops: a prepaid balance, pay per click, a review before anything runs and a clear label every time.
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Your shop, in front of thoughtful gift buyers
Sponsored listings on Giftory are prepaid, pay per click, reviewed before they run and always clearly labelled.