The review queue

A policy you set once decides most advertisers for you. The queue holds only what the policy cannot decide — and a decision you make by hand outranks the policy, always.

Why it existsA screen in a bakery is part of that bakery's brand. An automated exchange has no opinion about whether a competitor's advert, a betting brand or a political message belongs there — you do, and only you. But a network that judges every advertiser by hand ends up with a queue that never empties and screens that earn nothing while it waits. So the answer is given once, as a policy, and the queue is for what the policy cannot answer.

Four ways to run it#

The policy sits at the top of the Review queue page, above the table, because “why is nothing here” and “why is everything here” are both answered by it.

Review queue → Who can advertise here

Review everythingNothing plays until you have approved it1

Block some categoriesEverything plays except the categories you refuse2

Accept only some categoriesOnly the categories you choose can play3

Allow everythingAny advertiser can play, with no approval4

Refused categories

Alcohol Gambling and betting Tobacco and vaping Adult and explicit Illegal content+ 23 more, in six groups

Save policyDiscard

1The default. Safest, and the most work: every new advertiser waits, and while it waits it is not earning.

2What most networks settle on. Refused categories are also told to the exchange, so they are not even bid on.

3Strict, and narrower than it looks: a bid that declares no category cannot be matched to your list, so it waits for you.

4The most revenue and no control. Nothing new is ever held; only what you refused by hand stays refused.

Where to start

Block some categories, with the “Commonly restricted” group ticked, is the policy most venues would write for themselves if asked: everything ordinary plays from the first auction, and alcohol, betting, tobacco, adult and political advertising never do. Tighten or loosen it after a week of real bids.

Categories, in plain names#

A bid declares what it advertises as IAB codes — IAB8-5, IAB9-7. You never see those. They arrive translated into 28 categories with names a person can decide with, in six groups: commonly restricted, shopping and lifestyle, motoring and travel, leisure and media, business and learning, people and community. The group venues most often refuse comes first, and the list can be searched.

Finer than IAB where it matters. Nobody blocks “Food & Drink” when they mean alcohol, so alcohol is its own category, mapped to the codes underneath it.
Unknown codes are shown as themselves, in amber, rather than guessed at. A bid that declares nothing at all shows as Not declared.

What happens to a bid#

Every bid that comes back gets one of three verdicts, before its price is even looked at:

Verdicts

VerdictWhat it meansWhat the exchange is told

ServePlays now, if it is the highest—

HoldWaits in the queue; may play once somebody looksPending approval

RefuseNever, until the policy or the decision behind it changesDisapproved — stop offering it

A first sighting never plays. That is the cost of moderating. It enters the queue now so it can play next time — unless the policy would refuse it, in which case it is refused outright rather than parked in a queue you have chosen not to read.
Your own decisions outrank the policy, in both directions. A creative you approved keeps playing when its category is later blocked. A creative you blocked stays blocked under Allow everything. Changing a dropdown never silently reverses something a person decided.
Refused categories are sent upstream as bcat, so a bid you would throw away is never made. Some bidders ignore that, which is why the verdict runs on every response regardless.

The queue itself#

Each row is an advertiser and one creative: who is buying, by their domain, and exactly what would appear, playable at the shape it would occupy. Open a pending row to decide it. The filters narrow the list by status, category, publisher, screen, ad slot and partner, and First seen to a period — all time by default, so nothing pending ever drops out of view for being old.

Review queue

AdvertiserFormatCategoryStatus

sportsdirect.co.ukVideo · 15sSport and fitnessPending1

deliveroo.co.ukVideo · 10sFood and drinkApproved2

—HTML5 · 10sNot declaredBlocked

Reason (required to block)3

e.g. competitor of an existing contract; unsuitable for this location

ApproveBlock

1The domain — the honest identifier, not a display name somebody chose.

2What the bid declared, in plain names. A refused category is not a queue entry; it never gets this far.

3Approve: it can win auctions from now on. Block: never again, and a reason is required — kept with the decision.

Watch the creative, not the name
A recognisable brand can still run a creative that is wrong for your venue — a loud fast-food advert on a gym wall, a competitor's offer beside your own counter. The preview is there so you judge what will actually appear.
If the answer is a category, put it in the policy
The useful question is “would I accept every advert of this kind”. When the answer is yes or no for a whole category, one tick in the policy decides it for every advertiser you have not met yet, instead of the same decision forty times.
Leave nothing pending
A pending advertiser does not earn. Under Review everything an unattended queue is lost revenue that looks like low demand — the most misleading way for money to go missing.

One slot, its own rule#

The account policy is the house rule. A single ad slot can say otherwise — Who may buy this slot in the slot's settings — and where the slot has an opinion, the slot wins. Keep it for the exception: the screen in the children's area, the slot sold to one buyer. An exception made on the whole estate stops being an exception.

Media Library → ad slot → Who may buy this slot

Follow the account policyReview everythingBlock categoriesAccept onlyAllow everything

A private deal#

A buyer you already know — the agency next door, a brand on a yearly contract — can be given a Deal ID for a slot. It travels in every bid request for that slot as imp.pmp.deals[].id, at your floor, and the buyer targets it directly. Generate one in the slot's settings: it is short, and avoids the letters that get misread down a phone.

Ad slot → Private deal

Deal ID1

SR-K7WM3QX9

Generate

Only this deal may bidOff: the deal competes alongside the open market, which is what you almost always want2

1Ours to invent — OpenRTB only asks that it be unique and agreed with the buyer.

2Off by default, loudly. Switched on, everyone else is shut out and the slot fills only when your buyer bids.

Note

A deal is a price agreement, not a pass. The buyer's creative goes through the same policy and the same queue as everyone else's.

When fill is zero#

The no-fill reason — on the slot, and in the diagnostics panel — names the owner of the problem:

Nothing approved — the queue. Work it, or set a policy that decides for you.
Category refused — a settings question, not a queue. The account policy, or the slot's own, refuses what the bids declare. Nothing is waiting for you.
No bid — the market. No ads are appearing works through it.