The True Cost of a Successful Puppy Placement on Good Dog

At Good Dog, we're committed to bringing peace of mind to puppy placements by connecting responsible breeders like you with serious, qualified buyers. But what exactly goes into making these connections happen? Let's pull back the curtain and explore some of the costs and efforts involved in delivering a successful placement on our platform.

Marketing: Reaching Quality Buyers

One of the biggest investments we make is in marketing, and it’s all about quality over quantity. We’re not just casting a wide net—we use targeted strategies to reach serious puppy buyers who are actively searching. Our approach includes:

• Search engine advertising, especially on Google
• Search engine optimization (SEO) to improve our visibility
• Social media campaigns aimed at high-quality buyers
• Engaging content that educates potential buyers
• Tailored email campaigns to nurture leads

This type of targeted, multi-platform advertising requires substantial financial investment and expertise. Our monthly budget runs into hundreds of thousands of dollars, and we collaborate closely with dedicated teams at Google and Facebook to optimize our reach and maximize the impact of every dollar spent. By leveraging our scale and expertise, we market far more efficiently and effectively than individual breeders could, saving you thousands in advertising costs. This frees up your time and resources to focus on raising happy, healthy puppies.

With the upcoming update to our pricing structure, we’ll be able to substantially increase our marketing investments for the first time in Good Dog history. Previously, we were losing money on every dollar spent, which wasn't sustainable and limited our ability to reach the buyers you need. The new deduction on payments from Good Dog-sourced buyers, which goes into effect in mid-September, will allow us to cover our costs and significantly scale up our marketing efforts. This means we can connect you with a lot more qualified buyers, ensuring a steady stream of serious inquiries for your puppies.

Our marketing budget isn't just an expense—it's an investment in your success. Our goal is to make Good Dog your go-to platform for all your placement needs. With increased marketing investment, we're working to ensure you can confidently list all your puppies on Good Dog, knowing we'll connect you with the right buyers when you need them.

Technology: Powering a Trusted Platform for Breeders and Buyers

Our technology is the core of Good Dog, and it's far more complex than it might seem at first glance. We've built a sophisticated system tailored specifically for breeders and puppy buyers. Keeping this platform running smoothly and continuously improving it requires dedicated effort from our engineering, product, and design teams. Here's what goes into it:

• Robust web, iOS, and Android platforms that serve both breeders and buyers
• High-capacity servers and cloud infrastructure to handle millions of secure interactions
• Bank-grade security systems safeguarding every transaction
• Reliable communication systems ensuring seamless, secure connections
• Ongoing development of new features based on real feedback from our community

​​Our full-time engineering and product team works hard to maintain and improve our platform. This talented group includes software developers, product managers, and specialized UX/UI designers. Their expertise, combined with essential tools and infrastructure—like video hosting for puppy listings and email systems for important notifications—represents a significant ongoing investment.

All of this ensures that every time you need to place a litter, your Good Dog experience is seamless and hassle-free. We're committed to continually improving the Good Dog platform, making it easier and more effective for you to connect with the right families for your puppies.

Safety and Security: Protecting Our Community

Protecting our community and offering comprehensive financial guarantees are fundamental to our mission. We invest significantly in systems and personnel to create a secure environment for breeders and buyers alike. To date, we've protected breeders from over $500,000 in fraudulent chargebacks and continue to safeguard them weekly from customers attempting to dispute payments with credit card companies or banks.

Here's what we invest in to safeguard our community:

• Fraud detection and prevention measures, including security scans on every application and payment
• Chargeback protection for every breeder on Good Dog
• Our no scam promise and buyer vetting
• Backing for our Good Breeder Payment Guarantee
• Funding for our Good Dog Guarantee for buyers
• Screening and ongoing compliance monitoring for breeders

We have a dedicated Fraud & Security team that monitors transactions and investigates any suspicious activity. This team works around the clock to ensure the safety of our platform, necessitating ongoing staffing investments.

We also have a full-time Good Dog veterinarian on staff to help maintain our high standards. This expert, along with our Standards team and advisors, ensures that all breeders on our platform meet our health and welfare criteria.

Our commitment to safety and support isn't just about protecting transactions—it's about fostering a community where responsible breeding practices thrive and puppies find loving, prepared homes. By investing in these areas, we create an environment where breeders and buyers can focus on making the right connections, confident that Good Dog has their back every step of the way.

Support: Always Here When You Need Us

We pride ourselves on providing unparalleled, personal support to every member of our community, which requires an investment in staff and training. This includes:

• Dedicated Good Breeder Specialists: Our team of specialists is your direct line to personalized support. They're here to help you make the most of Good Dog, offering guidance on everything from optimizing your profile to navigating tricky situations with buyers. Think of them as your partners in success, always ready to lend an expert hand.
• 24/7 Buyer Support: We know that questions don't always arise during business hours. That's why we offer 24/7 support to Good Dog buyers. Our team educates potential owners, guides them through their puppy search, and addresses any concerns they might have. This ongoing support ensures that buyers are well-prepared and informed, leading to better matches and smoother transitions for your puppies.
• Building a Supportive Community: We have a team of content creators, event coordinators, moderators, external partnership specialists, and even lawyers to ensure that Good Dog remains the most supportive community ever built for responsible dog breeders like you. And to educate the public about responsible breeding.
• Breeder Education, Courses, and Certifications: We are committed to empowering you with ongoing access to world-class education so we can continue improving dog health and help your breeding program stand out to potential puppy buyers. While we're efficient in our content creation, by utilizing evergreen articles and videos, we believe it's important to invest in high-quality resources. This involves collaborating with skilled content creators, educational specialists, and external experts in various fields related to dog breeding, training, and care.

Investing in Our Shared Success: A Sustainable Future for Good Dog

For the past few years, we’ve been operating on a shoe-string budget – relying only on the optional Protection & Support fee some buyers choose to pay. As we’ve grown and expanded our services, this no longer allows us to cover our costs or provide the experience you deserve by reaching the buyers you need. To ensure Good Dog remains viable and is able to grow and thrive, we needed to make a change. That’s why we recently announced a change to our pricing structure, effective September 10th, that introduces a 6.5% deduction on successful payments from Good Dog-sourced buyers. This change will allow us to not only cover our costs but also to scale up our marketing efforts so you can reach the buyers you need through Good Dog.

Every cent of the deduction will go directly to covering these costs and improving our services. We're not pocketing profits – we're reinvesting in the platform to make it the best it can be for you, your dogs, and quality puppy buyers. This will ensure that we can connect you with serious buyers for all your puppies and maintain high-quality, dedicated teams across all areas of our operations, from technology to customer support. 

By investing in Good Dog, you're not just paying for a service – you're contributing to a platform that's working hard to make puppy placements safer, easier, and more reliable for everyone involved. Our mission is to be a community where you can confidently place all your puppies in loving forever homes, freeing you up to focus on what you do best… breeding healthy, happy puppies.

Good Dog isn't just a website – we’re a community on a mission, a support system, and we’re a partner in your breeding program. This change will ensure we can continue to be the partner you deserve, now and in the future.