How brands are ranked

Last updated: 15 October 2026 · Version 4.1

Changes in version 4.1: the home hero and Runway Ad cards are described as they are now built. A hero is booked per week for a country, worldwide or for a style; a style booking is shown every second time you open Home, and where nothing is booked for you, you see our own hero. Runway: we bid for each brand's campaign inside our own price limits, and a brand already on the page has its organic card replaced by its Runway Ad card, so it is never shown twice.

Changes in version 4 (12 October 2026): a brand with an active discount code gets a small, labelled lift that ends with the code; "More like this" on a brand page shows only brands on a paid FBF plan, and says so; "Popular" counts people, not openings, and lists brands that run their own page first; the paid places are described as they are built (one label word, "Ad"), and none of them is on sale yet; what we record, and for how long, is complete; the brand directory on our website has its own, simpler order.

This page explains, in plain words, what decides the order of brands you see in the Fashion Brand Finder app and in the brand directory on our website, and which cards are paid for. EU consumer law asks us to state the main parameters and their relative importance; we would say it anyway.

What decides the order

Before anything else, whether the brand runs its own page. In the app and on the website's main list, brands that have claimed and verified their profile always come before unclaimed listings (the website's country, value and style pages are simply A to Z, see "On the website"). Verification is free and is not a payment; it means the brand itself stands behind what its page says.

Then, whether a brand matches you. When you tell the app how you dress, what a brand should stand for, what you shop, which sports you do and what you like to spend, every brand is compared with those answers. A brand that shares nothing with them is not shown on your home page at all. The match is the largest factor by far. Everything below only scales what the match gives: a brand that matches nothing you told us gains nothing from it.

Then, what you do. Opening a brand, following it, saving it, revealing one of its codes or visiting its shop tells the app more than a questionnaire can. Those signals fade over weeks, so what you liked last year does not decide what you see today. Following and saving fade slower than looking. "Not interested" removes a brand for three months.

Then, how people react to the brand. Among brands that match you, the ones people follow, save and visit after seeing them rank a little higher, and brands people hide rank lower. The count is smoothed, so five reactions from six people prove nothing yet.

Brands new on FBF get a lift. For the first 30 days after a brand's page goes public on FBF, it ranks higher than it otherwise would: most on the first day, a little less each day, and not at all after the 30 days. At its strongest it can put a new brand above an older one that matches you up to about a fifth better; half way through the month, about a tenth. It never puts a new brand above one that matches you clearly better, and it does not change the rule that brands running their own page come first.

Then, a few smaller things. How many people follow the brand (with older follows counting less), and whether it ships to your country. A brand that does not ship to you is shown far lower, not hidden, because you may still want to know it. A brand with an active discount code gets a small lift, and its card carries the label "Has a code". Only a live code that everyone can see counts. When the code ends, the lift ends and the brand goes back to where it would otherwise be. The lift never puts a brand above one that matches you clearly better.

A few slots are for discovery. Three cards on your first home page go to brands with few showings so far, drawn at random among brands that match you. Every new brand deserves a first look.

One style cannot fill the page. At most three brands of the same primary style appear among the first twelve.

Search and Discover use the same rule over the brands that match your filters.

"More like this" on a brand page shows only brands on a paid FBF plan, and the row says so: "Brands on FBF plans. Only brands with a paid FBF plan appear here." A place in it is one of the things a paid plan includes. Among those brands, the order is decided by what the two brands share: style first, then values, certificates, categories and price. No brand can pay for a better position inside the row, and nobody pays per click on it. One Runway Ad card, labelled "Ad", may also be added to the row (see below); that card is paid per click and does not need a plan.

"Popular" shows the brands that the most different people opened in the last 30 days. Brands that run their own page come first, ordered by those views; then every other brand, ordered the same way. Each person counts once per brand per day. Opening a brand page from a paid card or from the paid home hero does not count. Brands we feature ourselves, without payment, are marked "FBF pick" and take their place by the same rule.

New on FBF, if you choose it. On Discover you can switch the order from the usual one to New on FBF. Brands that run their own page still come first. Then the brands whose page went public on FBF in the last 30 days, ordered by the usual rule above (so the best match for you comes first, not simply the newest). Then every other brand, newest first. The limit of three brands per style does not apply in this order, because you asked for what is new.

Signed out

Without an account, Home and Discover are ordered the same way for everyone: the rules above without your answers and your activity, except that a brand you marked Not interested on this phone stays out. Whether a brand ships to your country is read from your phone's region setting. The answers you give the welcome questions stay on your device; they are used only inside those questions, to choose the brand cards they show you, and the server forgets them once it has answered. There is no account and no profile.

On the website

The brand directory on fashionbrandfinder.com does not know you, so it has no "for you" order. On the main list (fashionbrandfinder.com/brands), brands that run their own page come first, then every other brand from A to Z; a search or a filter narrows the list but keeps that order. The pages that collect brands from one country, with one value or with one style list their brands from A to Z. Nobody can pay for a position on any of these lists, and there are no paid cards on them. The brand directory on the website is not open yet; this is the order it uses when it opens.

What can be paid for, and how you can tell

None of these is on sale yet. Paid placements open together with the app's launch. This is how they work once they do.

Money never changes the order of the lists above. There is one place where a paid plan matters, and it is said openly: "More like this" shows only brands on a paid FBF plan (see above). Apart from that, what a brand can buy is a separate, labelled placement:

• Runway Ad cards. One card as the third card of "Picked for you" on Home, which you see only when you are signed in and have set your picks. In search, on the first page, a card after the first and after the sixth result, in the same places whichever order you chose. In "More like this", one card at the third place, only when the row has at least three other brands. A Runway Ad card is added to the page; it never pushes another brand's organic result out. If the brand is already on the page, its organic card leaves, so it is never shown twice. It is filled only with a brand that would qualify for you anyway, never with a brand you hid or already follow, and never with a brand that does not ship to you. The brand pays per click. When brands compete, the card goes to the highest result of our bid for the brand's campaign (set inside our own price limits for that place), times how often people tap its Runway Ad cards, times how well it matches you. The winner pays the second price: the least it needed to beat the next brand. A brand may limit its card to chosen countries; elsewhere it is simply listed like every other brand.
• The home hero. A booked time slot, labelled "Ad" with the name of who booked it, or "Editorial" when it is our own. A booking is for one week and covers one country, every country still free (worldwide), or one style. Your phone picks the hero: the booking for the country you set in your account (your phone's region setting if you have not set one), or a worldwide one that includes it; a booking for a style you picked is shown every second time you open Home (every time when nothing is booked for your country). When nothing is booked for you, you see our own hero. Nothing about which hero your phone showed is sent to us. Tap the label to see why you see it, and how to change your styles or your country.
• Booked Ad slots. A separate block headed "Ads", below "Popular", with the line "Booked by the brands for a fixed time. Shown to everyone." It holds at most two brands. Each is a booked time slot, shown to everyone.

How you can tell. Every paid placement is labelled "Ad". On a card, the label is a solid tag right before the brand name; where someone other than the shown brand paid, and on the hero, it reads "Ad · {advertiser}". Screen readers read it as "Ad by {advertiser}". Tap the label to see "Why you see this card" (or "Why you see this" on the hero): who paid, whether it is a booked slot shown to everyone or a card paid per click, and the main reasons you see it.

How we keep money out of the order. Opening a brand page from the hero, a booked Ad slot or a Runway Ad card does not count toward "Popular". Showings and taps of paid cards are left out of the scores that order the lists. A subscription plan does not change a brand's position on Home, in search or in Discover: between July and September 2026 a small capped boost for paid plans existed; it does not any more, and no other paid boost exists. The things that move the order without being an ad are named above: brands that run their own page come first, brands new on FBF get a fading lift, and a brand with an active discount code gets a small, labelled lift.

What we record to do this

Which brands were shown to you in which order, which cards reached your screen, and what you did with them. Signed out, these records carry only a random id your device made up; signed in, your account id. Never your IP address or device details. Lists shown are deleted after 60 days, showings after 90 days, what you did after 400 days. To count each person once a day for "Popular", we also keep a record for the same day of which brand pages were opened and by which id; it is deleted once the day is over. A brand that pays for a Runway Ad card sees its clicks in a ledger without names, never who saw or clicked it. In that ledger, the id is removed after 400 days.

Questions: hello@fashionbrandfinder.com.