FAQ

Frequently asked questions about the FXAdverts service.
Why sell advertising space?

With the exception of a few well-known EAs such as Fapturbo, traders are simply not prepared to pay for MT4/5 code. The vast majority of MT4/5 code is currently distributed for free, and the developers see no financial return despite having hundreds or thousands of users.

Adding advertising to your indicators and EAs means that everybody wins. You finally have a way of being paid for the popularity of your code, and traders get higher-quality products because developers have an incentive to keep improving them in order to attract new users and retain existing ones.

If you do currently charge for your indicator/EA, then there is still a benefit from using FXAdverts to earn extra money from your code's popularity.

Can I control the advertising?

No, you cannot choose which adverts are displayed by your indicator/EA. In effect you are selling advertising space, and brokers can then display any adverts they want in that space.

The maximum advert size is currently 1000 pixels wide or 1000 pixels high, with a maximum surface area of 100000 pixels (e.g. 1000x100).

Can I choose where the adverts are displayed?

Yes. The standard position for the advertising is the bottom left corner of the MT4/5 chart, but you can put the advert anywhere you want on the chart.

Is it difficult to put the advertising in my MQ4/MQ5 code?

No, it is very easy. You simply need to copy and paste our code into your indicator/EA, add one line of code to start() and one line of code to deinit(), and fill in one variable. We provide full instructions, and the whole process will take less than 5 minutes.

How do I get people to download my indicator/EA?

There is very widespread distribution of EAs and indicators via forums such as Forex Factory and Forex TSD, and via MetaQuotes's own forums for MT4 and MT5. If you post your code in these places, thousands of people will download it if they find it useful.

Do I get paid for every click?

No. If brokers paid for every click, then it would lead to massive "click fraud" - people deliberately clicking on the adverts over and over again in order to make money. We don't count "duplicate" clicks from the same computer within 7 days. Please note that we may immediately terminate any developer accounts where there is evidence of attempted click-fraud.

How do I get my money?

You simply request a withdrawal. You need a PayPal account in order to receive payment, but we will be offering additional options in future. All credits and payments are in US dollars.

There is a minimum withdrawal amount, currently $50. This is similar to programs such as Google Adsense, and is applied for the same reasons: as a further protection against click-fraud. Please note that the minimum withdrawal may increase in future if the average payment per click from brokers increases (in order to ensure that it remains a sufficiently large number of clicks to provide protection).

How many clicks am I likely to get?

The number of clicks obviously depends on the popularity of your indicator/EA: the more users you have, and the more time they spend using your code, the more clicks there will be on the advertising. Click rates will typically be a double-digit percentage of users, e.g. 10%-20% (i.e. a click-through rate many times higher than on typical website banner adverts).

How do I track the number of clicks I am getting?

Once you log in, the admin area shows you a real-time count of the clicks on your adverts.

What is "click fraud"?

"Click fraud" refers to you clicking on adverts only in order to earn fees, or encouraging other people to do so for you, without any intention of engaging with the advertiser's services.

Click fraud is easy for us to detect. We may withhold payment or terminate accounts if any of the following appear to be unusual:

  • Low conversion rate, i.e. few of the people clicking on your adverts go on to sign up for the advertiser's services
  • Short length of visit on the advertiser's website following a click
  • High clicks per computer, i.e. a higher percentage than usual of people viewing your adverts are clicking on them
  • High clicks per advert, i.e. a higher percentage than usual of the number of adverts displayed are leading to clicks
  • Low number of "duplicate" clicks, i.e. a high percentage of people are only clicking on one advert, or are only clicking once within each 7 day period