Master Cheat Sheet - Outbrain Ads Compliance

[joeybabbs]

For those who run compliantly this cheat sheet was provided to me by my rep at Outbrain. Can be helpful to get faster approvals.

A crash course on Outbrain Lander compliance:

• All headers need to state "advertorial" or "advertisement." Technically there is no min font size, but it needs to be large enough to be legible.
• Privacy policy and terms and conditions and Contact us links need to be on every lander. Usually, advertisers put them in the footers. They need to really link to these things.
• Contact needs to be a phone number, email address, or snail mail address. Not just a form fill out. For financial offers, contact info always needs to include a snail mail address.
• No Countdown clocks
• No before and after pics
• No promises to be able to diagnose or cure
• No gross images
• No too good to be true statements or promises
• Video sales landers are usually ok, if in addition to complying with everything else on this list, they also have a button or a link to click through to the product or sales page avail for the consumer at all times. Meaning, a 40 min video where the only option for clicking through to buy the product is to let the video run for 30 min waiting for the "buy now" button to appear, may not get approved. VSLs also need to show how long the total video is, and have pause and mute functions avail
• No Cloaking or redirects (though tracking is usually ok)
• All comments need to click through to real social pages where those real people really said those comments
• Do not use the Voluum (or other tracking platforms) feature that lets you create one link, and then have that link rotate different landers / versions of your lander
• Using a generic gmail address + a brand new domain name can get you flagged. Ideally you either can use a corporate email (as an example @infinitymarketing.com and not @gmail.com) or use seasoned URLs. IN a worst case scenario, let me know ahead of time that the URL you are using is new, so I can stay ahead of this issue

Lander compliance - Nav and functionality:

• All navigation bars need to actually be hot links to where they say they are going. Unless you truly want people clicking though to anywhere other than your product page, the simplest solution to being Outbrain compliant is to remove all Nav bars.
• Same with the social links--do you really want them clicking through to twitter? if you do, great, leave the social in and really link them to those social platforms. But if you set up nav and social links to just click though to your product page anyway, then your best option for being Outbrain compliant is to remove the nav bars and remove the social links.
• Same with the "site logo." Meaning, if you lander is purporting to be on a site called "Daily Health Tips," and there is a Daily Health Tips logo in the upper left, if you make it a hot link, then it actually need to take the reader to Dailyhealthtips.com. If you do not want them going there (most likely because that site doesn't actually exist) simply do not make the logo a link.
• And, same with anything in the right rail that doesn't clearly state that it goes to your product page. Meaning, you can have trending story links, or recommended for you links, as long as they actually link away from your site and to the the things that they actually are. But if you either don't have them link to anything, or they also redirect to your product page, then the solution to be compliant is to remove them.
• And same with any logos for NBC, MSN, ect. If you want, keep all the logos in, and have them really link through to articles about your product on those sites. But, if you do not have articles on those sites + do not want people to click through to them, then the logos need to be removed too.
• And the same with form fill out fields. If the lander is claiming that a customer can leave a comment, ask a question, or fill out a lead form, then those fields need to be type able.

A crash course on Outbrain Headline & Image compliance:

• No gross images
• No close ups of individual body parts (like an elbow or an eye)
• Nothing obviously sexy / scantily clad
• No promises to be able to diagnose or cure (Certain words get flagged like "fix")
• No scare tactics ("You doctor says you will die if you do / do not"..." 5 death foods")
• No too good to be true statements or promises
• Nothing deemed too sensational (Certain words get flagged. "stun" & "shock" for example.)
• No pics of people holding cash, gov't checks, or social security cards
• No pics of marijuana plants
• No pics of people smoking or otherwise using drugs
• No photo shopped images
• No iterations of cable companies / big pharma / doctors / casinos whoever are shocked / scared / baffled / angry / don't want you to do this
• An image can get flagged for not being relevant to the offer. As an example, if you are selling a product(s), but the image is of something that can not be purchased from the lander you are using

For health advertorials, make sure to add a disclaimer that mentions/addresses the below points as necessary:

• This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
• Results may vary / results may not be typical / reviews or testimonials may be fictionalized.
• "Results may vary / may not be typical" should be placed next to any before/after photos on the landing page.
• This information does not constitute medical advice and it should not be relied upon as such. Consult with your doctor before modifying your regular medical regime.

A list of products that Outbrain will never approve:

• Erectile dysfunction (And even products that are for blood flow or circulation will get flagged if the lander or VSL even mentions virility or erections)
• Bitcoin investing or trading. Basically no crypto right now.
• HGH, ephedrine, steroids
• Weight loss / fat burning pills, shakes, and other ingestibles
• Real money gambling
• "Brain Pills."
• High risk investments & get rich quick schemes. (Binary options is included here.)

Offers that run well on Outbrain:

• Block street, Banyan Hill, or other financial subscription edu
• Social slots like huuuuuuge casino
• consumer goods like drones, coolAir, a tracker or the baKblade (no "tactical" pens or flashlights tho)
• Refinance or mortgage lead gen (Harp or other)
• Hair / hair loss, CBD, skin, probiotics, wrinkle remover, fungus treatment or other wellness products
• Checkpeople / instant checkmate
• Free trials / $1 trials that then turn into a monthly re-bill (as long as that info is easy to find and read)
• Insurance lead gen
• Search Arbitrage pages
• Gundry MD