Ad controls

Use Ad controls in the Unity Ads Monetization dashboard to ensure brand safety requirements and standards.

Read time 8 minutes

Last updated 25 days ago

Ad controls let you manage and optimize the ad content and creatives that run in your apps from our direct demand and programmatic demand partners. It centralizes how you review and block creatives, and provides you with granular control over the ad content in your apps to ensure brand safety requirements and standards. On the Ad controls dashboard, you can perform the following actions:

Find creatives with impressions in your app by using one or more combinations of filters, sorts, and search tools.
Review and take action on unwanted ads at both the project level and the organization level of the Unity Ads Monetization dashboard.
Limit impact on revenue by using creative-level ad filtering instead of over-blocking with advertisers, demand sources, or categories.
Protect and maintain your brand goals and standards with transparent ad review to get ahead of unwanted ad content or to handle block requests from users.
Refine your ad strategy by enabling specific ad content and blocking ad content by advertiser, category, or age appropriateness.

Ad controls scope

You can access Ad controls at either the organization level or the project level of the Monetization dashboard. Each level serves different purposes for your ad review and blocking needs.

Blocking type	Use case
Project-level	Limit revenue impact. See and filter ads that ran on a specific project.
Organization-level	Preserve brand safety across all apps. Use filters to find a specific creative across all of your apps.

Ad Review

On the Ad Review page, you can browse through the ads that have run in your app so you can identify what you might need to block to align with your brand safety guidelines. Each creative pack displays in a tile format, with thumbnail previews available for each creative. When you review an ad, you have the option to block the specific creative pack.

Note

A creative pack is the set of creatives and ad content used in an ad campaign. A creative pack can contain a mix of video ads, playable ads, and end cards. For more information, refer to creative packs.

Searching creatives

To ensure that you see the most impactful ads first, ads display in order of highest impression by default over the last seven days. The creatives that display the most often in your app display first automatically.

Note

If you're not seeing an ad on the Ad Review page, this is because the ad likely has limited or no impressions and is not yet eligible for review.

You can additionally use the following sorting methods and filters to refine your search results and find any ad with impressions. Sort By: Automatically sort all creative packs by your selected sorting method: most impressions, least impressions, revenue. The default sort is by most impressions. You can only use one sorting method at a time. Add Filter: Automatically filter all creatives by your selected filter or filters: ad type, categories, countries, and platform. These filters have sub-filters which can help to produce a more granular view of creatives. You can use multiple filters at a time in combination with a sorting method. There is also a date filter that you can use to view creatives over a predetermined or custom time frame. You can use the date filter with other search filters or a sorting method. Search: Find specific creatives or specific advertisers beyond the filter and sorting tools. This can be useful if you want to search for certain advertiser domains, store URLs, store IDs, and bundle IDs.

Blocking creatives

After you find a specific creative from the Ad Review page, locate the creative that you want to begin the review process for. Note that a creative pack can include multiple creatives, and you can look through each creative by using the arrow. To look at a creative in more detail from the Ad Review page, select the creative thumbnail to open a full screen preview of the creative. This opens the Creative Details window to display specific metadata about the creative, including, the ad type, category, destination URL, and store ID acquired from the advertiser. You can also play video creatives that are organized into creative packs, which consist of a portrait and landscape video, along with an end card that displays after an ad has completed. Playable creatives can consist of playables alone, or playables and videos together. For more information, refer to creative packs.

Note

Playable ads might not render correctly in a desktop browser. For the most accurate experience, render playables by using the Unity SDK on a mobile device.

To block an individual ad, on the Ad Review page or on the Creative Details window, select Block. To block multiple ads at a time, select the ads to block, and then on the Ad Review page, select Block Selected.

Unblocking creatives

You can see all of the ads you have blocked by using the Blocked toggle on the Ad Review page. The recommended best practice is to review blocked ads periodically to ensure that the list of blocked ads are still relevant and applicable. For example, a creative might have been mistakenly blocked, the creative might now meet your branding objectives, or you might need to run the creative again on your app for any reason. If there are many blocked ads and you're trying to find a specific ad to unblock, then you can use the sorting, filter, and search functions to help find the ad. Similarly, to recall which creative was blocked, select the creative to open the Creative Details page, where you can play and find creative metadata. To unblock an individual ad, on the Blocked screen or the Creative Details page, select Unblock. To unblock multiple ads at a time, choose the ads to unblock, then on the Blocked screen, select Unblock Selected.

Block Reason reporting

Introduction to Block Reason reporting

After blocking one or more ads from showing in your app via the Ad Review in the Ad controls dashboard, you can indicate the reason for blocking ads through the block reason report form. Sharing the block reasons of ads through the block reason form is optional. Skipping the submission of this form doesn't prevent you from blocking an ad, however, sharing your block reasons at the time of ad blocking is to your benefit because your feedback:

Helps Unity uphold a higher quality of ads on the Unity Ads network
Improves your overall experience using Ad controls and Unity's services

Using Block Reason Reporting

There are several ways to report a block reason from the Ad controls dashboard, depending on if you want to block ads individually or in bulk. Follow these steps to block unwanted ads and submit a block reason.

Blocking an ad and submitting a block reason report form

Go to the Monetization dashboard and select Ad controls > Ad Review.
Follow the process to block ads individually or block ads in bulk, as required:

To block ads individually, select the ad you want to block, then select Block. Alternatively, select the creative directly to open the Creative Details page and select Block.
To block ads in bulk, select one or more ads and select Block Selected.

Confirm your action to block this ad (or creatives) to continue. The block reason form will appear.
Select a creative to assign it a block reason from the dropdown. If bulk-blocking, select one or more creatives that share the same block reason from the dropdown.
Repeat the previous step until there are no more uncategorized creatives left, and each creative has been assigned its respective block reason.

Note

Selecting Confirm removes the app from the blocked list, but does not unblock the app. Before you select Confirm, review the conflicts. After you select Confirm, you return to Ad controls where you can resolve the conflicts and unblock the app.

Select Done to finish and close out the form.

Managing a blocked ad after assigning block reasons

Navigate to Blocked creatives from the Ad Review page to review the status of a blocked ad, including its block reason. The Blocked creatives tab consists of all blocked ad content within your app. To find a specific ad, use the date or additional add filters to narrow your search. If you want to review the block reasons of an ad:

Locate the ad in the Blocked creatives tab, and select the creative to open the Creative Details page.
Navigate to the Blocked due to section to review the block reasons associated with that ad.
To remove one or more block reasons assigned to a creative, in the Blocked due to section, select x on the applicable reasons.
To add additional block reasons, select Add, select one or more block reasons, and select Done.

Advertiser Blocking

Use Advertiser Blocking to block content and ensure a quality and safe experience for your players. Any advertiser content that matches the fields you set for blocking an ad will be blocked from displaying in your project. You can block by app store ID or advertiser domain. To bulk-update Settings , select Download to download a CSV template to fill out, then Upload the revised template to update the dashboard. Use Category Filters to exclude certain ad categories and content that might not be suitable for your target audience. A category is defined as a genre that is used to identify and group similar apps with each other for search purposes, for example, Puzzle, Arcade, or Trivia. Any content that matches the fields you set for filtering out a category will be blocked from displaying in your project, and can be defined specifically per app store. Use this to prevent certain app categories from being advertised in your app if they do not align with your branding and affiliation objectives.

Note

Category Filters can be applied only for ads for other apps at the project level.

When blocking new categories, a preview displays the estimated revenue loss for your project over the next 14 days before you continue.

Age Settings

Age Settings allow you to exclude specific ad categories that can be deemed inappropriate for some target audiences, such as children. To protect your players from unwanted ad content, set the appropriate age limit for your project on platform, as applicable. This will prevent ads targeting older audiences from showing up in your project. If you serve ads in your app and want to participate in Google's Designed for Families program or the Apple Kids Category, you must configure your app's age designation to This app is directed to children under the age of 13, and set your Age limits filter to Do not show ads rated 13+ or stricter.

Note

Configuring the Age designation setting to This app is directed to children under the age of 13 does not automatically set your age filters accordingly. To participate in these categories, you must also set the age filter manually here in the Age limits field.

Important

Unity does not provide legal advice. Therefore the information on this page is not a substitute for reading the Apple App Store or Google Play Store guidelines, applicable publisher terms, or seeking your own legal counsel to determine the legal requirements of your business and processes, and how to address them.

If you have additional questions or unique requests regarding ad filtering, contact the Unity Ads Support team, or contact your Unity Account Manager.

Unblocking Insights

Important

The revenue projections provided are estimates of revenue uplift and are not guaranteed. Actual performance will be based on your particular circumstances and a multitude of different factors, some of which may be outside of your and/or Unity's control. Your actual revenue uplift may vary. Estimated revenue represents potential revenue uplift estimates over a two-week period.

Unblocking Insights provides an estimated range of potential revenue gains from unblocking ad content in your app, either at the project or organization level. To unblock an app:

Go to the Monetization dashboard and select Ad controls.
Select Unblocking Insights.
Select or search for the app you want to unblock.

Note

Use the Categories filter to list apps by category.

Select Unblock > Confirm.
Result: The app is unblocked.

If there is a conflict with unblocking, a dialogue box appears explaining the reason for the conflict. To proceed:

Select Next.
Select Cancel to return to Unblocking Insights.

Note

Review unblocking conflicts in the Conflict column and select the dropdown menu (See conflict).
Resolve the conflict.
Select Unblocking Insights.
Select the app you wanted to unblock.
Select Unblock > Confirm.

Result: The app is unblocked.

Documentation

Development

User Acquisition

Monetization

Industry

Documentation

Development

User Acquisition

Monetization

Industry

Unity Monetization

Unity Ads Android SDK

Unity Ads iOS SDK

Unity Ads SDK

Unity Monetization

Ad controls

Ad controls scope

Blocking type

Use case

Ad Review

Searching creatives

Blocking creatives

Unblocking creatives

Block Reason reporting

Introduction to Block Reason reporting

Using Block Reason Reporting

Blocking an ad and submitting a block reason report form

Managing a blocked ad after assigning block reasons

Advertiser Blocking

Category Filters

Age Settings

Unblocking Insights