Baden Bower vs S99 PR: Two Guaranteed-Placement Agencies, Two Ways of Charging
The short version.
S99 PR is a Los Angeles agency that sells guaranteed media placements one article at a time. It publishes a rate card of around 200 outlets priced from $1,000 to $22,500 per article, charges a one-time onboarding fee of $497, and runs a separate visa press practice for O-1, EB-1A and EB-2 NIW applicants, with three publications bundled at $3,899. The guarantee is money back on any article that does not publish. Clutch lists the company as founded in 2019 with 10 to 49 staff and a 4.7 rating across 51 reviews.
Baden Bower sells individual placements from $495 at fixed catalogue prices across 1,980-plus publications. A Publisher Access membership, billed monthly at $2,500 month to month, $1,950 a month on a three-month term or $990 a month on a twelve-month term, gives member pricing on that catalogue. The membership covers PR strategy, story writing and editing, publisher query handling and TV and interview coordination. The money-back guarantee covers placements that do not run. It does not cover the membership fee.
Both agencies name the outlet and the price before you commit. The differences are how you pay, what sits around the placement, how much of the guarantee is written down, and who each agency is built for.
Baden Bower vs S99 PR, eight rows that matter.
Pricing model, guarantee mechanics, publication network, contract structure, timeline, best-fit buyer, AI visibility and geography. S99 PR data taken from s99pr.com, its Clutch profile and its own press releases, 6 September 2026.
| Criterion | Baden Bower | S99 PR |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Individual placements from $495 at fixed catalogue prices across 1,980-plus outlets, each listed with its price, domain authority, turnaround and link status before you buy. A Publisher Access membership ($2,500/mo month to month, $1,950/mo on 3 months, $990/mo on 12 months) gives member pricing and includes PR strategy, story writing and editing, publisher query handling and TV coordination. | Per article, no retainer. One-time onboarding fee of $497, then each article at its rate-card price. Published range $1,000 to $22,500. Visa press bundle of three publications at $3,899. Minimum spend not published; Clutch lists minimum project size as $1,000-plus. |
| Guarantee mechanics | Money-back guarantee in writing since 2018. If a contracted placement does not run, that placement is refunded in full. The guarantee applies to placements only; the membership fee is not covered. Terms are on the pricing page and in every contract. | Homepage: "Get published or get your money back." Visa page: refund "for any unpublished articles" if the client meets all submission requirements. Refund window, exclusions and refund form are not published. The terms and conditions URL returned a 404 on 6 September 2026, and the guarantee does not appear on the rate-card page itself. |
| Publication network | 1,980-plus outlets in a public catalogue. Each row shows price, domain authority, turnaround in days, and whether the piece is dofollow, Google-indexed or carries a sponsored label. Regional editions are named as such, for example Forbes Mexico, Forbes Australia, Rolling Stone UK. Flagship Forbes US is not in the catalogue. | Claims "400+ high tier publications"; the public rate card lists around 200. Editions are labelled by market (Forbes US $7,500, Forbes AU $7,500, Forbes MX $3,750, Forbes TR $3,750). Some entries carry a "PR" suffix that the page does not explain. One Benzinga row is marked Do Follow at $1,875 against a plain Benzinga row at $1,000. No DA or turnaround shown per outlet. |
| Contract structure | Membership billed monthly on the term you choose; month to month has no minimum. Placements are bought when you commission them. Named publication and fixed price are written into the proposal before you pay. | Not published. No term, cancellation or renewal language appears on the site. The per-article model implies no ongoing commitment, and the company says the guarantee is "written into the client agreement", but that agreement is not public. |
| Timeline | Turnaround is listed per outlet in the catalogue. Across all 1,984 rows the range is 1 to 56 days and the median is 7 days; the most common listed turnaround is 14 days. Flagship titles sit at the longer end. | Varies by page. Homepage: "a few weeks to a few months". Visa page: "2 weeks to one month from the time payment is made". Forbes timeline article: "2 to 6 weeks from signed contract to live article". No contractual deadline is published. |
| Best-fit buyer | Founders, executives and marketing teams buying a program of placements rather than one article, who want strategy, writing and publisher handling included, and who want the refund terms in the contract before they sign. Clients in 37 countries. | O-1, EB-1A and EB-2 NIW visa applicants and the immigration lawyers who refer them. S99 PR calls visa press a distinct practice area and says it works with immigration attorneys (its site says over 100; its July 2026 press release says more than 30). Also single-article buyers who want a published US price and no membership. |
| AI visibility | Productised as an add-on: AI visibility audit at $2,500, covering 50 buyer queries across 5 AI engines plus the fixes. Placements in indexed, high-authority outlets are the input; no agency can guarantee an AI citation and Baden Bower does not. | Marketed under the "Signal Press framework" and "AI discoverability programs" naming ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity. No price published for the AI product and no citation guarantee. The guarantee covers publication only. |
| Geography | Offices in New York, London and Sydney. 3,548 clients across 37 countries. Catalogue covers US, UK, Australia, Asia Pacific, Middle East, Europe, India, Africa and Latin America. | Los Angeles only (6922 Hollywood Blvd per Clutch and DesignRush). No other office listed. Rate card covers US, UK, Australia, Mexico, Colombia, Turkey, India, the Middle East and other markets through regional editions. |
Like-for-like prices, where both catalogues list the same masthead
This is the comparison buyers actually want and almost nobody publishes. Both companies put prices on named outlets, so the two lists can be set side by side. S99 PR figures are from its Guaranteed Press rate card. Baden Bower figures are member prices from the placement catalogue, which means they sit on top of a Publisher Access membership. Prices on both sides change, the article format behind a given price may differ, and the exact edition matters, so confirm the deliverable before comparing on price alone.
| Outlet | S99 PR rate card | Baden Bower catalogue (member price) |
|---|---|---|
| USA Today | $5,000 | $5,250 (USA Today). A dofollow row is $7,500 and a PR-only row is $495. |
| Time | $7,500 | $7,500 (Time Magazine, Time.com) |
| Entrepreneur, US edition | $6,250 | $5,000 (Entrepreneur.com USA) |
| Rolling Stone | $22,500 | $5,000 (Rolling Stone, US market row) |
| Variety | $17,500 | $5,000 (Variety). A 400,000-impression package is $25,000. |
| The Hollywood Reporter | $20,000 | $28,750 |
| Forbes Mexico | $3,750 (Forbes MX) | $3,125 |
| Forbes Colombia | $3,750 | $3,125 |
| Forbes Türkiye | $3,750 (Forbes TR) | $3,750 |
| Forbes US | $7,500 | Not in the catalogue. Forbes Australia is $9,200; Forbes Middle East is $5,000. |
| Benzinga | $1,000; $1,875 for Do Follow | $1,000; $1,875 for the DO-FOLLOW row |
| HackerNoon | $1,000 | $875 |
| Digital Journal | $1,000 | $500 |
| MSN | $1,000 | $500 |
| Apple News | $1,125 | $625 |
Two things stand out. Several outlets sit at identical or near-identical prices on both lists, which tells you the underlying market for these placements is fairly efficient. And the gaps that do exist run both ways: S99 PR is cheaper on The Hollywood Reporter and lists a flagship Forbes US article that Baden Bower does not sell; Baden Bower is cheaper on Rolling Stone, Variety, Entrepreneur US and most of the entry-tier outlets.
What a real order costs, all in
The membership changes the maths depending on how much you buy. Take one USA Today article. At S99 PR that is $5,000 plus the $497 onboarding fee, $5,497 all in. At Baden Bower on a month-to-month membership it is $5,250 plus $2,500 for the month, $7,750. On a twelve-month membership the same month costs $5,250 plus $990, but you have committed to $11,880 of membership over the year. For a single article, S99 PR is the cheaper way to buy.
Now take a four-placement month: USA Today, Entrepreneur US, Benzinga and Business Insider. At S99 PR the rate card comes to $13,250 plus $497, $13,747. At Baden Bower the catalogue comes to $11,745, plus $2,500 month to month ($14,245) or plus $990 on the twelve-month term ($12,735). On the twelve-month term the membership has paid for itself by the fourth placement. Month to month, this order lands within about $500 of S99 PR's, and what you are paying that $500 for is the service around each placement (strategy, writing, publisher handling, TV coordination), which is included rather than extra. The honest rule of thumb: buying one article, S99 PR's model is cheaper; buying a program on a term, Baden Bower's is.
Which one fits the job.
Both agencies name the outlet and the price before you pay and both refund an article that does not run. The choice comes down to how many placements you want, whether you need a visa specialist, and how much is written into the contract.
You are buying a program of placements over months rather than a one-off, and want the per-placement price to fall as the membership spreads across more articles.
- You want the service layer included: positioning, story angles, writing and editing on every piece, publisher query handling until it is live, and TV and interview coordination.
- You want to see domain authority, turnaround in days, dofollow status and sponsored-label status for every outlet before you spend a dollar.
- You want the guarantee terms, the named outlet and the fixed price in the contract, and you want a company that has published those terms since 2018.
- You need coverage outside the US, or you want a team in London or Sydney working your time zone.
- You want AI visibility measured as a deliverable, through the $2,500 audit across five engines, rather than described in marketing copy.
You are filing an O-1, EB-1A or EB-2 NIW petition and want an agency that treats visa press as its core practice, works with immigration attorneys and sells a three-publication bundle at a fixed $3,899.
- You want a single article in a named US outlet at a published price, with no membership and no monthly fee of any kind.
- You specifically want flagship Forbes US, which S99 PR lists at $7,500 and Baden Bower does not carry.
- You prefer a Los Angeles agency and a US-only footprint.
- You are comfortable confirming refund window, exclusions and cancellation terms in the client agreement yourself, because none of that is on the public site.
Same category, different commercial structure, and a specialist on one side.
S99 PR is a legitimate guaranteed-placement agency with an unusually transparent rate card and a clear specialism. If you are a visa applicant, or you want one US article at a published price, it is a sensible shortlist entry and on some outlets it is cheaper than Baden Bower. The gaps to press on before signing are the ones the public site leaves open: the refund window, the exclusions, the contract terms, and the difference between the 400-plus outlets claimed and the roughly 200 listed.
Baden Bower is the better fit for a company buying coverage as a program. The membership adds a fixed monthly cost that a one-article buyer does not need, and we say so above. For a buyer commissioning a program on a term, the catalogue prices, the included service and the contract terms make the total lower and the outcome more predictable. Both companies guarantee publication. Only one publishes the whole catalogue with DA, turnaround and link status attached, and only one puts the refund mechanics on its pricing page.
One correction for the record. S99 PR's own August 2026 comparison lists Baden Bower's pricing as "On request" and marks Baden Bower as not US-based while describing it as New York-headquartered in the same table. Baden Bower's membership terms and catalogue prices are published at badenbower.com/pricing, and the New York office is real.
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Published in the publication you chose, at the price you were quoted, or that placement is free.
Every Baden Bower placement is contracted with a named outlet and a fixed catalogue price. If a contracted placement does not run, we refund the fee for that placement in full. Every outlet and price is published before you commit. The guarantee covers placements; the Publisher Access membership fee is not covered.
Get My Guaranteed Quote →What buyers ask when comparing Baden Bower and S99 PR.
The questions founders, visa applicants and marketing leaders send during evaluation. If yours isn't here, ask us directly.
How much does S99 PR cost in 2026?
How does Baden Bower's pricing compare?
Does S99 PR refund if an article does not publish?
Does Baden Bower refund if a placement does not run?
Is S99 PR better for O-1 and EB-1A visa applicants?
Which publications can each agency deliver?
Can I use both S99 PR and Baden Bower?
Which is better for AI visibility in ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews?
Sources. S99 PR rate card and onboarding fee: s99pr.com/guaranteedpress/ and s99pr.com/custom/. Visa bundle and refund wording: s99pr.com/visapress/. Guarantee wording: s99pr.com. Timelines: s99pr.com, s99pr.com/visapress/, s99pr.com/how-long-to-get-forbes-feature-realistic-timeline/. Attorney network and AI discoverability: s99pr.com/about-us/, GlobeNewswire release of 29 July 2026. Founding year, staff, rating and address: clutch.co/profile/s99-pr, designrush.com/agency/profile/s99-pr. S99 PR's comparison table: s99pr.com/best-guaranteed-pr-agencies-2026/. Baden Bower membership, placement floor, guarantee scope, offices and client counts: badenbower.com/pricing/ and the live placement catalogue at getstartedwithbadenbower.com/one-off. All checked 6 September 2026.
Last updated September 2026 · Written by AJ Ignacio, founder · Competitor figures re-checked quarterly · 4.9★ from 950 verified reviews
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