📋 Overview
If you are a publisher who has completed a placement through the Search Atlas Publisher Exchange and are waiting on a remittance payout, this article explains how the payout process works, what may cause a delay, and the steps to take if your remittance remains unpaid.
🔍 How Publisher Exchange Payouts Work
When a placement is fulfilled through the Publisher Exchange, a remittance is calculated based on the cost locked in at the time of checkout. Payouts are processed after the placement is confirmed as live and all conditions of the agreement are met. The remittance amount is tied to the specific article and publication linked to the order.
- Remittance ID: A unique reference number assigned to each payout request.
- Payout amount: Set at the checkout price at the time the placement was purchased — this amount does not change after the order is confirmed.
- Eligibility: The article must be live and meet the agreed placement terms before a payout can be processed.
⚠️ Common Reasons a Payout May Be Delayed
If your remittance is showing as unpaid, one or more of the following may apply:
- The article is not yet confirmed as live on the publisher's site.
- The remittance amount was not correctly calculated due to articles being linked to the order after the initial calculation was run — this is a known issue that has been resolved in recent platform updates.
- There is a discrepancy between the payout amount and the checkout-time cost, which may require a manual review by the Search Atlas team.
- The payout is pending a dual-control approval step currently being rolled out to improve payment security.
✅ Steps to Take If Your Remittance Is Unpaid
- Confirm your article is live. Ensure the placed article is publicly accessible at the agreed URL. Payouts cannot be processed for placements that are not yet live.
- Locate your Remittance ID. Have your Remittance ID ready (for example, Remittance ID 42293). You will need this when contacting support.
- Check your publication's Publisher Exchange account. Log in to the Search Atlas platform, go to the top-right corner avatar → App Ecosystem → Publisher Exchange tab to review the status of your placement and payout.
- Contact the Search Atlas support team. If the payout remains unpaid after confirming the above, reach out via live chat for a manual review — see the section below for details.
🛠️ What the Support Team Can Do
The Search Atlas team has the ability to manually review and action unpaid remittances. When you contact support, they can:
- Verify the remittance amount against the original checkout-time cost.
- Confirm whether the placement meets all payout conditions.
- Trigger or escalate a manual payout for eligible remittances.
- Correct any recalculation errors if new articles were linked to your order after the initial remittance was calculated.
📌 Important Notes for Publishers
- Do not remove or take down a placed article while a remittance dispute is open — article availability is a condition of payout eligibility.
- Payout amounts are anchored to the cost at the time of purchase and will not be adjusted upward after checkout.
- If you believe your remittance amount is incorrect, the support team can investigate discrepancies on your behalf.
- Processing times may vary. If you have already submitted a request and have not received a response, contacting support with your Remittance ID will help expedite the review.
💬 Contact Support
If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be connected with a member of our team. Please have your Remittance ID, publication name, and the live URL of the placed article ready to help the team resolve your request as quickly as possible.