How to Choose a Solo Ads Vendor in 2026

Choosing a solo ads vendor is the part everybody gets wrong, because it is easy to pick on price and then act surprised when the clicks act cheap. I have been selling solo ads for 12 years to more than 4,000 customers, and the single thing that separates a good buying decision from a bad one is how much you can verify before your card gets charged.

Here is what I would check if I were on your side of the transaction.

What a Solo Ads Vendor Actually Sells You

Not clicks. Attention.

A vendor sends an email to their list. Some of those people click. Those clicks land on your page. What you are really buying is a slice of someone else's relationship with their subscribers, borrowed for one send.

That matters, because the quality of that relationship decides everything downstream. A list that gets mailed good offers by someone who knows what they are doing produces people who read and click and buy. A list that has been hammered produces people who click out of habit and nothing else.

You cannot see the relationship. You can see the evidence of it. That is what you are shopping for.

Can You See Real Stats?

This is the first filter, and it is the fastest one.

Ask for a live stats page. Not a screenshot, not a number in a message after the fact. A page you can open while the campaign is running, that shows unique clicks and geography.

If you can see it while it happens, the vendor cannot rewrite the story later. If the only number you ever get is the number they tell you at the end, you are not buying traffic. You are buying a claim.

Every order I run gets a stats page. That is not a feature, that is the baseline. Anyone who will not show you the numbers has a reason.

Who Writes the Email?

This one gets skipped constantly and it decides your opt in rate.

The email that goes to the list is the thing that qualifies the click. Written well, the person who clicks already knows roughly what they are walking into, and they opt in because the page matches the promise. Written lazily, you get curiosity clicks from people who have no idea what your offer is.

I write the email for every single order myself. Not a template, not something the buyer pastes in. I know how my subscribers read, what they respond to, and what gets them to click for the right reason. You send me your offer and what you want people to know, and I write the ad that fits both my list and your page.

If a vendor asks you to supply the copy and sends it untouched, understand what that means: nobody with knowledge of that list is standing between your words and their subscribers.

Track Record You Can Check

Twelve years and 4,000 customers is a number I can say because it is true. The number I care about more is the 85% reorder rate.

Reorders say more than any review. Nobody buys traffic twice out of politeness. They buy again because the first order paid for itself or got close enough that the second one made sense.

When you look at a vendor, look for evidence of repeat buyers, not testimonial volume. Anybody can collect praise. Getting the same people to come back with their own money is harder.

Tier Options and What They Cost

A real vendor should be able to tell you exactly what mix you are getting.

My standard option is Mixed Tier, which runs 90% or more Tier 1. There are also 100% Tier 1 and 100% USA options, and both cost more. There is a full breakdown in Tier 1 vs Mixed Tier Solo Ads, but the short version is that Mixed Tier is where I tell people to start, because the tier premium rarely moves the needle as much as expected.

What matters here is that the options are named and priced plainly. Vague answers about traffic quality are a tell.

Price That Makes Sense

Cheap traffic is cheap for a reason and the reason is almost always intent. I went deep on this in Cheap Solo Ads, so I will not repeat the whole argument, but here is the compressed version: a low click price usually means low intent traffic, and low intent traffic produces opt ins that never open anything again.

My pricing is public and it drops with volume. 100 clicks is $55. 250 is $112.50. 500 is $225. 1,000 is $450. 2,500 is $1,125. 5,000 is $2,000. Custom orders run up to 10,000. Monthly autopilot plans bill at the same per click price.

You should be able to find any vendor's pricing without asking three times.

Start Size

Here is where a good vendor will actually talk you out of spending less.

I recommend a first order of 500 clicks. Not because it is a bigger sale, but because it is the minimum that gives you viable data on both your opt in rate and your sales. A hundred clicks gives you a handful of leads and a percentage that means nothing. You cannot make a decision off it, so you end up buying again anyway just to find out what you should have found out the first time.

Seth Johnson is a good illustration of this. He had been running solo ad traffic since 2007 and tested me small on purpose before scaling, then made $965 in commissions off a single 500 click run. The full breakdown is here. He could read a small test because he had years of his own numbers to compare against. If you do not have that, 500 is the honest starting point.

What Happens After You Pay

Ask this before you pay, not after.

You want to know when the traffic starts, how you watch it, and what happens if something looks wrong. On my orders, clicks start arriving within 24 hours, you get a stats page from the beginning, and you can reach me.

Silence after payment is avoidable by asking one question up front.

The Checklist

Run any solo ads vendor through this before you buy:

1. Can you see a live stats page with unique clicks and geography?
2. Does the vendor write the email, or are you supplying it?
3. Is there evidence of repeat buyers, not just testimonials?
4. Are tier options named and priced clearly?
5. Is the pricing public?
6. Does the vendor tell you what a viable test size is, even when a smaller one would be an easier sale?
7. Do you know when traffic starts and how you will watch it?

If a vendor clears all seven, you are buying traffic. If they miss three or more, you are buying a story.

Where to Start

Have your squeeze page ready, one field, one promise. Have your follow up sequence built before the traffic runs, and plan to mail new leads twice a day for the first 30 days. Then order 500 clicks and count the opt ins yourself.

Seth's results are his own. Your results depend on your offer, your page, and your follow up.

Place your first order here and watch the numbers as they land.