Click Factor that Gets You into Ban

With the constant growth of native advertising and the globalization of its markets, advertisers keep coming up with more and more ideas, approaches and concepts to “make offers great again.” Our mission as compliance officers is to not let content get too out of hand and to keep both advertisers and publishers happy: a win-win situation. Wall-E of native ads, if you like.

What we would love to do is to give you a clearer vision of how we work in order to prevent you from violating our policies and thereby saving yourself time and money.

First things first, se-cu-ri-ty. Well, this is here only to remind you to keep your content 100% safe and user-friendly. Let’s have a closer look at Browser Locking, which is one of the most infamous security issues; it is a simple JavaScript that prevents the user from closing the page until they proceed with a certain payment. Let alone the fact that it is an obvious scam, but also all the software tools will have you blacklisted and it will take a hot minute and some Xanax to get things back to their initial state after you remove the malicious code. We’re pretty much sure you wouldn’t want to turn your advertising journey into a nightmare, so please forget about anything that can badly affect the user.

Secondly, MGID Content Policies which you have an inherent right to be compliant with, because anything you do can and will be used against you for blocking reasons. And that’s what this article is going to be all about.

Everything passes, but some things remain popular forever

Celebrity endorsement

People still enthusiastically buy products “recommended by Dr Oz” or accompanied by a fascinating story of Oprah Winfrey’s weight loss/wrinkles removal/parasites treatment/whatsoever. We can totally understand advertisers’ willingness to use famous faces on their products’ promotion here and there: at the top of the page, at the bottom, even in its tiniest corners. More recognizable faces equals bigger profits, right? Certainly, but not in the long run, and there are negative consequences to this practice in the form of brand safety and uniqueness of the provided content. Do you believe it can be effective and “harmless” at the same time? We don’t think so, and we put our best efforts to define such cases as quickly as possible.

However, there’s definitely a way you can get a celebrity (or a real-practicing doctor) on your landing page approved. You simply need to provide us with any legal paper testifying their agreement on your product’s promotion and voilà - you’re safe (at least on this matter). Also, some Instagram models and local influencers sell their pictures to popular photo banks. One of them is Shutterstock, which we are partnered with as well; therefore, the usage of such pictures is not by any means restricted.

Fake design

Mimicking well-known websites and brands takes a truly deserved second place in this parade. We all know that people are more inclined to buy a product placed in a Vogue article (or anything that looks like a Vogue article) than from an unknown website.

We’ve been constantly digging into regional peculiarities to create content that is compliant and correlates to a region’s local rules. In other words, to become even more “native.” That’s why mimicking not only worldwide known brands like the already mentioned Vogue or Men’s Health is considered fake, but also un-optimal in capturing the audience's attention.

Gruesome content

Unexplainable fact - people are more interested in and more engaged with shocking content. Extremely overweight people, open wounds, crime scenes - anything that gets them scared and makes them act (buy your product, in our case) in order to avoid such an experience in their own life. But still, it is very important to know where to draw the line. That’s exactly what we are here for.

Last but not least - sex

Ain’t nothing new here - sex sells. An established fact, which, by the way, doesn’t mean you have to put something erotic everywhere. Sexual intercourse, naked people, oversexualized women, inappropriate gestures are a no, no, no and no. Moreover, even a single redirect leading to explicit content causes a block as it is the most serious violation. Vice squad is on guard 24/7/365.

A look inside the MGID's moderation police

A reasonable question that might have been bothering you since the beginning of this article is - how do we detect your substitutions of inappropriate content?

• GeoEdge - our reliable security partner. You might’ve already heard (and probably more than once), but we really appreciate their partnership. With their automated constant scanning of all active ads in our system on various security and content aspects, we shouldn’t have to worry anymore.
• But we still do. Manual check is an integral part of our daily workflow, and that one is even more critical. Our Compliance team is large enough to cover all time zones and we’re still expanding. Your content and its compliance are being monitored all day by our moderators. Armed with a trusted proxy service which provides dynamic IPs, we track all redirects possible while utilizing a wide range of technical features to inspect each component in combination and individually. We adjust your creatives by assessing the image quality and dimension and replacing it with a better one if needed, while also giving our recommendations on anything that could improve your performance. Can we agree it all couldn’t be possible if it wasn’t for manual moderation?

Final word

However, as well as being an “attorney,” an Account manager can also be your “judge.” We appreciate our reputation and for any serious/continuous (underline the correct one or choose both) violations, MGID has a multi-level system of penalties, starting from blocking your campaigns, continuing with regular fines and up to freezing your account’s balance and permanent block of your cabinet.

The Compliance team has created an entire section devoted to our Content Policies and we highly recommend that you study it extensively. This will help you to avoid all the perceived risks and pitfalls of moderation. You better think twice before playing with compliance officers and remember - ignorance of the law excuses no one. Unless you’re a bad guy and it gets you some weird pleasure, duh.