In addition to Moloco's internal review process, individual exchanges also perform their own review of creative assets that have been uploaded. When creative assets are unapproved at the exchange level, Moloco lists the reason for rejection and provides advice on troubleshooting. In this guide, you will find potential reasons for rejection and ways to troubleshoot.
Important: For Samsung, Moloco Ads only indicates whether they have approved or rejected your creatives. Be sure to check if the rejected creative falls under any the following categories. If you still have questions, reach out to your Moloco representative for assistance.
Creative spec issue
| Reason | Source | Suggested solution |
| Creative spec issue - Invalid cta | Kakao | Check out the list of CTA texts allowed by Kakao and re-upload the native creative asset using a valid CTA text. |
| Creative spec issue - Invalid file size | All |
Check to be sure the file size meets the requirements outlined in the exchange guide for Samsung or Kakao. Then, try re-uploading the creative with the correct file size.
|
| Creative spec issue - Invalid video duration | All |
Upload the creative again with the allowed spec. Video must be at least 6 seconds and shouldn't go over 100 seconds.
|
| Creative spec issue - Invalid aspect ratio | All |
Upload the creative again with the allowed spec. Samsung has specific requirements for the aspect ratio of video assets.
|
| Creative spec issue - Others | All | Upload the creative again with the allowed spec. Creative may have been rejected due to low image quality and other related issues. Reach out to your Moloco representative to learn more about the reason for rejection. |
Denied app category
| Reason | Source | Suggested solution |
| Denied App Category - Cryptocurrencies | AdX, Kakao | Advertisers offering cryptocurrency exchanges and wallets targeting France, Germany, South Korea, and the Philippines should meet Google's requirements and be certified by Google. See the detailed guide on cryptocurrencies from Google. |
| Denied App Category - Gambling | AdX, Kakao |
|
| Denied App Category - Blind date | Kakao | No action is required. Dating and chat apps are prohibited by Kakao. See Kakao's guide on restricted industries for more information. |
| Denied App Category - Improper Finance service | Kakao |
No action is required. The following financial products can't be advertised on Kakao inventory. See Kakao's guide on restricted industries for more information.
|
| Denied App Category | All | Depending on the app's category, your app may be rejected by exchanges. Reach out to your Moloco representative to learn more about the reason for rejection. |
| Denied App Category - Not Galaxy store app | Samsung | No action is required. Samsung exchange rejects apps that have not been registered on Galaxy Store. |
Limited app category
| Reason | Source | Suggested solution |
| Limited App Category - Mildly suggestive content included | Partial publishers |
This is applicable only to apps flagged as including content that may not be appropriate to all ages. All creatives under these apps are excluded from running on inventories that restrict adult content. You can ask your Moloco representative to un-flag the app these creatives are under so that you can still run the non-adult creatives under the app. In this case, the status of creatives that had been flagged as not safe for all ages is updated to "Denied" and these creatives will be excluded from all exchange traffic. |
Denied contents
Creative assets may be unapproved at the exchange level for prohibited or restricted content. Both Moloco and individual exchanges have guidelines on what is and isn't allowed. Moloco's creative policy outlines a set of categories that we consider unacceptable.
| Reason | Source | Suggested solution |
| Denied Contents - Adults | All |
Remove adult content and re-upload the creative. Moloco prohibits creatives containing sexual content. See Moloco's creative policy for more information. If your app is targeting adults, your campaign may be blocked entirely by AdX or Kakao exchange, or subject to the following limitations at minimum.
|
| Denied Contents - Weapon | All | Remove weapons and re-upload the creative. Moloco prohibits promoting guns and other weapons. See Moloco's creative policy for more information. |
| Denied Contents - Tobacco | All | Remove tobacco or other smoking-themed content and re-upload the creative. Moloco prohibits promoting tobacco and other related products. See Moloco's creative policy for more information. |
| Denied Contents - Personal contents | All |
Remove personal information and re-upload the creative. Moloco prohibits ads (i.e., creative assets and landing pages) from collecting personal information or otherwise violating privacy laws. See Moloco's creative policy for more information.
|
| Denied Contents - Uncertified drug | All |
Remove restricted drug related content and re-upload the creative.
|
| Denied Contents - Unapproved substances | All |
Remove content depicting unapproved substances and re-upload the creative. Moloco prohibits ads about unapproved substances. See Moloco's creative policy for more information.
|
| Denied Contents | All |
Remove prohibited content and re-upload the creative. Both Moloco and AdX provide a list of prohibit content. See Moloco's creative policy and Google Ads policy for more information. |
| Denied Contents_Legal Local | AdX | AdX may reject creatives depending on the target country's legal restrictions. See the Google Ads policy for more detailed restrictions by country. |
| Denied Contents_Legal China | AdX |
For creatives to be displayed to users in China, AdX requires a thorough geographic policy review. The ad will take some time to be reviewed and approved. Reach out to your Moloco representative to request the review. It will take approximately 1-2 business days. |
| Denied Contents_Legal Russia | AdX | Due to the ongoing war in Ukraine, Google is temporarily pausing ads from serving to users located in Russia. See Google's announcement. |
| Denied Contents - Not allowed language | AdX, Samsung |
Change the language of your creative. Samsung and some publishers under AdX limit advertisers to using select languages only for creatives targeting specific countries. For example, creatives intended for users in South Korea can only be in Korean and English. AdX supports languages in this list only.
|
| Denied Contents - Religion | Kakao | Kakao prohibits ads about religious organizations, public relations of religious activities, specific religious information, missionary activities, and similar services. See Kakao's guide on restricted industries for more information. |
| Denied Contents - Used trade | Kakao | Kakao prohibits promoting apps for used trade for risk of trading counterfeit goods. |
| Denied Contents - Illegal service | Kakao | Kakao prohibits promoting apps handling products that can't be sold or distributed on the internet including products that can't be imported. See Kakao's guide on restricted industries for more information. |
| Denied Contents - Retargeting | Samsung | No action is required. Samsung doesn't allow retargeting ads. |
Landing page issue
| Reason | Source | Suggested solution |
| Landing page Issue - Not Crawlable or broken. | AdX | Replace the landing page with an alternative store link that can be accessed globally or in the US. Before an ad can be shown, the landing page URL needs to be reviewed by Google. Contact your Moloco representative if you want to run ads using an app only for your local region but the ads have been blocked by AdX for this reason. |
| Landing page Issue - Low quality | AdX, Samsung | The creative has been rejected because of poor landing page quality from the click-through URL. Review the landing page and ensure that the website provides a good user experience. For AdX, learn more about using Quality Score to guide optimization. |
| Landing page Issue - others | AdX |
Double-check the landing page. The ad has been rejected because the landing page doesn't work properly. Common issues include malformed click-through URLs, invalid click redirect URLs, problems with macro replacement in URLs, invalid URLs from landing pages, or non-working/non-existent landing pages. |
Others
All other reasons not described in previous sections are labeled Others. Reach out to your Moloco representative to identify the reason for rejection.