Ad Content Guidelines and Policies

Overview

As with any editorial review, application of our policies will always involve an element of discretion and AdLocal reserves the right to approve or remove/reject any ads.

AdLocal is focused on delivering high quality ad content to mobile subscribers. We include relevant advertisements that are clearly distinguishable as display ads within the mobile applications and/or mobile websites.

When submitting ads, it is important for advertisers to remember that ads, landing pages and linked mobile sites must be relevant to each other and clearly represent the product or service being offered.

AdLocal's goal is to make our advertisers successful in the mobile space. In order to achieve that, AdLocal believes that providing a great and relevant user experience is important. Our advertising policies will help the advertisers achieve success while also providing relevant and effective advertising to the mobile subscribers.

In summary, all AdLocal advertising should incorporate the following principles.

Ads should:

• Clearly and specifically represent an advertiser's business, service, or offer.
• Not contain any illegal/inappropriate content (ad copy, landing page, or destination URL)

Reasons for Ad-Removal & Mobile Ad Policies

All mobile ads must follow the below guidelines and be approved before they appear on AdLocal’s publisher’s applications and mobile web pages.

If an ad does not comply with our policies, we will disapprove the ad from running, and the ad will be removed from the advertiser's account. Once an advertiser has made the appropriate edits, the ad will need to be resubmitted for review. If an advertiser has questions or concerns about any of our editorial decision, they may contact us at: contact-us@adlocal.biz.

Ads may be removed due to one of the following reasons:

(may state specific section of the ad)

• Check accuracy & relevance: text / banner / landing page / site
• Unacceptable content: banner / text
• Unacceptable content: Landing page / site
• Check spelling/grammar/format: banner / text / landing page
• Check link: Landing page / site
• Check phone number: Landing page
• Trademark violation
• Other
• AdLocal also reserves the right to terminate a customer’s account for excessive and repeated/continued violation of AdLocal’s Ad Content Guidelines. In such an event, the customer will not be entitled to a refund of any remaining balance on the account.

Explanation for the Ad-Removal Reasons

1. Check accuracy & relevance: text / banner / landing page / site

Accurate & relevant ad content (text/banner) and landing pages (or mobile site)

• Banner, text and landing pages must accurately represent the product or service.
• Ads must directly relate to the content on the landing page for the ad. When users see the ad, they should easily understand what kind of product, service, or other content they will find on your site. Products or services promoted in the ad must be reflected on the landing page; ads could be removed if a promoted product or service is not offered or available.
• Make sure the copy for the ad is relevant to the page a user will see when they click on the ad.
• Landing pages must include:
  • An accurate description of the offering that follows relevancy and grammar guidelines.
  • Landing page or mobile web site should be consistent with the ad copy. For example, ad copy that says 'Bargain Haircuts' that leads to a mobile site for insurance is not acceptable. See Landing Pages / Mobile Site section for more detail on what is appropriate for linked content.
  • Offers that are made or prices described in the ad copy must appear prominently on the landing page or mobile web site. For example, an ad reading '20% off large pizza’ must link to a page that has a prominent link to coupon or instructions to receive the discount.
  • See the Phone Numbers section for guidelines regarding phone numbers on landing pages.

Competitive claims

• Ads must provide reference/s for any competitive claims made therein.
• Competitive claims are statements implying that a product/service is better than a competitor's. If the ad copy contains competitive language regarding other companies, there should also be specific support for this claim on the landing page for your AdLocal ad, or your mobile web site.
• Support for a claim can be shown as comparison of prices of an advertiser's product versus the competitor's product or a competitive analysis discussing why the advertiser's product is superior.
• For example, ad copy that states 'Mike’s Auto-Detail Is #1' would be considered a competitive claim and would require support on the landing page or the mobile website. As an example, if the landing page includes a reference to an independent study (or results of a survey) that rated auto-detailing services in the local area, this claim may be acceptable and the ad could be approved.

Prices, discounts, & free offers

• If ads suggest or include a price, special discount, or 'free' offer, it must be clearly and accurately validated or displayed on the advertiser's website or landing page.
• Prices in the ad text must be accurate and can also apply to bulk purchases.

2. Unacceptable content

Inappropriate language

• An ad must not contain crude, lewd, offensive or inappropriate language. This also applies to misspellings or other variations of inappropriate language.

Illegal content

• Content in the ad copy that contains weapons, illegal drugs, tobacco, gambling, spam, phishing, alcohol and violence is not allowed to be promoted.
• Ads attacking individuals, and/or inciting hatred are not allowed.

Adult content

• Adult content (nudity, sexual, and/or suggestive material) is not allowed.
• Ads promoting child pornography or non-consensual sexual activity are never allowed.

3. Check spelling / grammar / format: banner / text / landing page

Grammar & spelling

• Follow proper spelling and grammar conventions.
• Ad text should be in logical sentence or phrase form to the extent possible. This includes using grammatically correct spacing between words and around punctuation.
• Commonly used abbreviations are acceptable. For example, 'Close 2 Rte 24' may be OK, but 'RU ROTFLYAO?' is not.
• Proper punctuation: Excessive punctuation is not acceptable. For example, 'Buy It Here!' is acceptable, but 'Buy It Here!!!' is unacceptable.
• Ads must contain correct spelling.

Capitalization

• Use of standard capitalization is acceptable, but excessive use may result in ad-removal.
• Ad copy should not display excessive capitalization such as 'FREE' or 'NAME OF BUSINESS. Certain exceptions exist: a business that has all caps in its name (eg, TGIF, AT&T, IBM, etc.); a SMB that is trying to emphasize a discount offer (eg, “70% OFF for 2 days” may be approved, although 70% OFF FOR 2 DAYS may be removed).
• Capitalization of the first letter of each word in the ad copy is permitted.

Punctuation & symbols

• Ads must use standard punctuation and symbols
• Don't use repeated, unnecessary, or gimmicky punctuation or symbols.
• Your entire ad text may only contain one exclamation point in total.
• The use of symbols, numbers, and letters should adhere to the true meaning of the symbol, to the extent possible.

Repetition

• Ads should not contain unnecessary or gimmicky repetition of words or phrases.
• Words should not be repeated for emphasis ('Cheap, cheap stuff') and the description/text on the landing page should not be a copy of the ad title or the heading on the landing page.

Superlatives

• Ads should avoid using generic superlatives, such as “best,” “greatest,” “cheapest,” “fastest,” etc.
• If an ad contains the comparative or subjective phrases 'best' or '#1,' verification by a third party must be clearly displayed/mentioned on the advertiser's website or landing page. Third-party verification must come from someone or some group unrelated to your site; customer testimonials do not constitute third-party verification.

4. Check link: landing page / mobile site

For links to mobile web sites or landing pages, the following criteria must be met:

• Relevant: The landing page or the mobile web site must be relevant to the ad copy (text/banner).
• Functional: Clicking on the ad must lead to a functional mobile web site. In instances where AdLocal hosts the landing pages, AdLocal will be responsible to ensure links to landing pages are functional.
• Mobile-specific: the destination mobile web site should be in a markup language (WML or xHTML) and format that displays properly on a mobile phone. Pages should be light weight and load in a reasonable amount of time on a mobile phone.
• Appropriate for all ages.

5. Check phone numbers: Landing page

• Click-to-call numbers must connect customers to the advertiser's business.
• Phone numbers must be local or domestic to the country the ads are targeting. The telephone number must be entered using the correct format for the target country
• Phone numbers must be functional, and may not connect customers to a fax number. The call must connect to a person, automated system, or voicemail system.
• No premium or toll services: Calls must not have a charge in addition to the cost of placing the call.
• No emergency numbers: Emergency numbers (such as 911 in the United States) are not allowed.

6. Trademark violation

• Ads must adhere to our trademark policies.
• Advertisers must be the registered trademark holder or an approved party (reseller, distributor) to use a registered trademark in their ad text. It may not always be possible for an AdLocal editor to determine whether a term used in an ad is a trademarked term. AdLocal does not resolve trademark disputes and the ad copy and landing page text is the ultimately the responsibility of the advertiser. However, AdLocal provides an outlet to remove ads proactively and also if an advertiser or other copyright holder informs us that their trademark is being used inappropriately.
• Use of trademarked terms that are content within a site, as for example, shopping terms are allowed unless the trademark owner files a complaint with AdLocal.