How We Source Every Number
The rules behind our benchmarks pages: named sources, publication dates on every figure, quarterly re-verification, and what we refuse to publish.
Free · no signup · last reviewed August 29, 2026
Benchmarks pages exist to answer “is my number normal?” — and they are the easiest place on the internet to lie with statistics. These are our rules; every benchmarks page on this site follows them.
- Named source, in the sentence. Every figure names its publisher and publication date next to the number, not in a footnote. If we can’t re-find a source, the number comes down.
- Publishers, not hearsay. We cite organizations that publish methodology (platform data aggregators, industry surveys) — never “studies show”, never other people’s roundups of roundups.
- Dates are load-bearing. Ad costs drift constantly. Each page shows when we last re-verified, and our build system forces a review every 90 days — the page literally cannot ship stale past its interval.
- Averages get caveats. A national average blends industries and geographies that differ by 10x. We say so, every time, and point you to computing your own numbers instead of adopting anyone’s average as a target.
- What we refuse: unsourced figures, our own client data (client work product is never published — house rule), and precision theater (a “$4.37 average” from a methodology that can’t support cents).
Corrections, when needed, are visible on the page (“Corrected [date]”) — never silent. If you find a number that fails these rules, we want to know.
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