Skip to main content

Creative Audit

This article contains descriptions and recommendations related to creative audits.

M
Written by Marcus Johansson
Updated over 4 years ago

For ads to run in Google and Xandr (formerly Appnexus) markets, creatives need to be audited.

Ads are automatically submitted for audit as soon as they are part of an adgroup that belongs to a bid strategy.

Audit status

The available statuses available for creatives is

  • Pending (audit have not yet been made)

  • Audited (audit have been made and the creative is approved)

  • Rejected (audit have been made but the creative have been denied from serving)

Note that the audit status for an ad may be subject to change. If the status is Rejected the reason for this can be inspected by editing the Ad creative.

Google Audit Feedback

Audit Rejection Feedback

Likely causes

How to resolve

LENGTH_OF_IMAGE_ANIMATION

The creative animate longer than what is allowed

Modify your creatives so that the animation stops after the given period of time (normally 30 seconds) or create a set of non-animated banners to use instead.

BLANK_CREATIVE

The creative did not load when invoked.

If the issues persist when view in ASX Admin. Verify that the campaign is active and all settings seems to be correct. If so, contact support@bidtheatre.com

BROKEN_URL

  • The creative is clicked and does not open a landing page

  • The creative is clicked and a landing page opens but no content loads

  • The creative is clicked and a landing page loads, but an error keeps any content from being displayed

Verify that the the URL set in the Click Target URL-field for the ad or the campaign actually leads to the desired web site and renders without issues.

DESTINATION_URL_SITE_NOT_CRAWLABLE

Googles web crawlers was not allowed access to required pages on the web site.

Make sure that the the web server that hosts the landing page have a text file called robots.txt placed in the root folder of the web server that allows googles web crawlers access. See this external resource for more information how this file can be formatted: https://developers.google.com/webmasters/control-crawl-index/docs/robots_txt

INCORRECT_DESTINATION_URL_DECLARATION

The domain provided as Click Through URL does not match the domain of the actual landing page.

Make sure the domain given as Click Through URL matches the one of the actual landing page on the advertisers site the user lands on when clicking the creative.

PHARMA_GAMBLING_ALCOHOL_NOT_ALLOWED

Xandr Audit Feedback

Audit Rejection Feedback

Likely causes

How to resolve

Creative Does Not Display Properly

  • The creative does not display at all

  • The creative intermittently does not display

  • The creative is geo-targeted or has an impression cap at an advertiser level.

  • For expandable creatives or other creatives with interaction, the creative attempts the interaction but does not function properly.

Verify that the campaign is active and all settings seems to be correct. If so, try as a first step to re-audit the creative and if that doesn't help contact support@bidtheatre.com. For Facebook creatives re-audit isn't supported so you'll need to create a new ad and send the new ad to audit.

Creative Improperly Rotates Brands or Advertisers

  • The creative has multiple versions with different brands under a single IDA single creative represents and clicks through to multiple different brands' landing pages. For video creatives, a pre-roll ad for a different brand plays before the actual offer

  • Creatives with multiple brands must link to landing page(s) having the same single consistent brand.

Creative Does Not Click Through Properly

  • The creative is clicked and does not open a landing page

  • The creative is clicked and a landing page opens but no content loadsThis can be caused by improperly configured campaign-level landing pages

  • The creative is clicked and a landing page loads, but an error keeps any content from being displayed

Verify that the the URL set in the Click Target URL-field for the ad or the campaign actually leads to the desired web site and renders without issues.

Creative Does Not Contain Sufficient Brand Notification

  • The creative does not display a brand

  • The creative displays a brand but it is not sufficient notification

When evaluating a creative for appropriate brand notification, the audit team looks for at least one of three things:

  • A clearly identifiable logoIf the only branding on the creative is a logo, that exact logo must also be on the landing page to be sufficient.

  • A landing page URLIf the only branding on the creative is a landing page URL, that URL must be the URL the creative has as its landing page.

  • A distinct brand nameIf the only branding on the creative is a distinct brand name, the brand name must not be an actual word and when it appears on the creative it cannot be confused for other, non-branded text (e.g. Cygnas).Also, the brand name must be a distinct set of actual words and the landing page must exactly match this and/or have a distinct, matching typeface as the creative (e.g. "The Best Wedding Music" goes to thebestweddingmusic.com and/or is written in red bold on both the creative and the landing page). Further, the content of the page must match the implied offer (thebestweddingmusic.com must offer wedding music).


​Creative Brand Does Not Match Creative Landing Page

  • The brand that the creative displays and the brand of the landing page are not the same or related.

This feedback is sometimes given as a result of geo-targeted landing pages. Please ensure the landing page is accessible from all Geos at the time of audit.

Creative Clicks Through In The Same Window

  • The creative's landing page loads in the same page instead of opening a new window or tab

  • The creative loads the entire landing page into the frame

Creative Does Not Meet Minimum Standards

  • The creative has no discernible offering through either branding or content.

  • The implied offer does not match (i.e "Find Doctors" on a creative goes to a matching-branded page listing insurance agents)

Displaying PSAs (Public Service Announcements)

  • The creative is serving Public Service Announcements, either intermittently or always

Campaigns that are intentionally Public Service Announcements are accepted, but must be described as such in the creative description.

Creative has Prohibited Content

  • AppNexus does not allow creatives to advertise for or link to sites that enable or promote piracy or pornography.

  • AppNexus policy prohibits creatives that advertise free governmental services, such as greencards, at a fee.

  • AppNeuxs prohibits creatives for online pharmacies that sell prescription drugs and do not have a brick-and-mortar component.


​

Did this answer your question?