Help animals with one short ad
The Help Animals page lets you watch one short ad whenever you feel like it. The ads on that page help pay for the free pet-recovery and rescue tools United Pet Club runs, such as free pet registration, microchip lookup and lost-pet recovery. You do not need an account, and nothing else on the site depends on it.
Where to find it
Section titled “Where to find it”You can reach the page from any of these:
| Where | What you see |
|---|---|
| The top of the home page | A big white Watch an ad to help animals button under Get Started and Learn More, on the first screen |
| The home page, further down | A card, Help animals in need with one short ad, with a big orange Watch an ad button |
| The footer of every page | A panel with a big orange Watch an ad to help animals button (left out on the Help Animals page itself), and Help Animals in the About Us column |
| The About page | Under Donations: Prefer not to give money? |
| After a microchip lookup or a pet-recovery search that finds a pet | Did United Pet Club help? with Donate and Watch an ad |
| The lookup and lifetime-recovery pages | The same two choices, after the page’s content |
| Your dashboard (signed in) | Your Helper points and a link to the page |
Nobody is asked anything before they have what they came for: on the lost-pet and lookup pages the two choices come after the result, never in front of it.
Watch an ad
Section titled “Watch an ad”- Open the page (
/help-animals). The card at the top says what you will watch and what you get for it: Watch one short ad (about 30 seconds). You earn 1 Helper point toward your badges. Close it early and no point is added. If you are not signed in it says It adds 1 to this browser’s count instead. - Press Watch ad, or No thanks to leave it. Nothing plays by itself, and No thanks changes nothing.
- If the site has not asked about cookies yet, the card first asks you to choose your cookie settings. Ads follow your choice, so the option to watch appears once you have chosen.
- The ad loads and plays. You only need to watch it, never click it. Closing it at any time is fine: use the ad’s own close button.
- When the ad finishes, the page thanks you, for example Thank you! That was your 3rd ad., and the line under the card shows how many ads you have watched: You have watched 3 ads. when you are signed in, On this browser you have watched 3 ads. when you are not.
The page only ever shows your own count. There is no community total or member / visitor split on the page or on the home card; the line under the card appears once you have watched your first ad.
Watch more, or try again
Section titled “Watch more, or try again”- Watch more. After an ad is counted the same card comes back with a Watch another ad button. Press it for another one, as many as you like up to the daily limit. Each ad is a fresh choice: the card tells you what it gives you again before every ad.
- Try again. If an ad could not be shown or could not be counted, the card says so calmly and the button becomes Try again. Press it to ask for another ad; nothing is lost.
- Closed an ad early? No point is added, the card says so, and Watch ad is there again if you want another.
- Daily limit. There is a limit on how many ads count in a day. At the limit the card says That is the limit for today. The option will be back tomorrow. and comes back the next day.
What you earn
Section titled “What you earn”| Signed in | Not signed in | |
|---|---|---|
| Each finished ad | 1 Helper point, and 1 on your own count | 1 on this browser’s count |
| Badges | Yes, see below | No. The page shows your count for this browser and invites you to sign in |
Points add up to badges. Badges are recognition only: they have no cash value and cannot be sold or transferred.
| Badge | Finished ads |
|---|---|
| First Helper | 1 |
| Helper | 10 |
| Champion | 50 |
| Guardian | 250 |
| Legend | 1,000 |
Only you see your badges; nothing about you is shown to other visitors. If you sign in after watching as a visitor, the ads you watched before still count but are not moved onto your account: your points start from when you were signed in.
Where the ad comes from, and your cookie choices
Section titled “Where the ad comes from, and your cookie choices”The ad comes from Google or one of our advertising partners; when neither has one ready, we show one of our own. Ads follow the cookie choices you make on this site:
- If you allow advertising cookies, the ad networks may personalize the ad you see.
- If you decline them, you can still watch, but the ad comes from us or a partner rather than Google and is not personalized.
Change your choice at any time with Cookie Preferences in the footer. See also Privacy.
What we count, and what we keep
Section titled “What we count, and what we keep”A finished ad is counted against your profile if you are signed in, or against a random identifier kept in a cookie in your browser if you are not. We keep that identifier only in scrambled form, and only so that your count, your badges and the daily limit work.
When no ad shows
Section titled “When no ad shows”| What you see | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| No ad is available right now. Please try again in a moment. | The ad network had nothing for you just then, or an ad blocker or browser setting stopped it | Press Try again, or come back a little later |
| That ad could not be counted. Nothing else changes. | The ad played but we could not record it | Press Try again |
| Too many ads were requested from this connection recently | Many people on the same network (an office or school) asked recently | Wait a while, or sign in |
| That is the limit for today | You reached the daily limit | Come back tomorrow |
| Ads like this are not available right now | We switched the feature off for the moment | Nothing to do; try later |
Related
Section titled “Related”- Giving to an appeal: giving money instead.
- Microchips and tags: registering and looking up a microchip.