How Sharklio Reviews Campaigns and Apps

How does Sharklio review campaigns and apps?

Every campaign is reviewed by Sharklio staff before it goes live, and every publisher app is reviewed before its offerwall link works. A campaign is either approved, in which case it starts as Paused until you choose Resume, or sent back as Changes needed with a written reason. An app is either approved and set to Live, or not approved, with a reason sent by email.

This page follows both processes step by step, as they work in the dashboard today. For the common reasons campaigns are sent back, read Why was my campaign rejected?, and for the categories that can never be approved, What campaigns are not allowed on Sharklio. Neither list is repeated here.

Campaign statuses at a glance

The campaign review, step by step

1. Build and submit

You build the campaign in the dashboard and either save it as a draft or choose Submit for review. To submit, every required field must be complete, the campaign needs a thumbnail, you must accept the Campaign Rules, Terms and Privacy Policy with a checkbox, and your balance must be at least $1. If your balance is lower, the campaign is saved as a draft and you can submit it after a top-up.

When the campaign is submitted, its status changes to In review and you get a dashboard notification. The builder and the notification say that most reviews finish within a few hours. That is a usual time, not a guarantee.

2. What the reviewer checks

The reviewer checks the campaign against the Campaign Rules shown in the builder and the advertiser section of the Terms:

• the campaign and the promoted product comply with the Terms and the law in the targeted countries;
• the content and offer are not on the prohibited list, and gambling campaigns meet the licensing conditions, with proof of license if requested;
• the instructions are specific and the proof requirement says exactly what the proof must show;
• the starting link works and leads where the instructions say;
• the task does not ask for credentials, keys or sensitive data beyond the stated proof, and does not break the rules of the platform it sends users to;
• referral or affiliate links that pay you per sign-up are disclosed in the instructions;
• for offer campaigns, the tracking link leads straight to the offer and passes {click_id} to your tracker.

The Terms also allow us to require changes to creatives, instructions, landing pages or targeting. Use Notes for our review team for anything the reviewer cannot see on the page, such as the countries your license covers. Users never see these notes. A campaign can only be approved while the advertiser account is active.

3. The decision

• Approved. The campaign is set to Paused, and you get an email titled with your campaign name and “is approved and paused”, plus a dashboard notification. Check the details once more and choose Resume on your Campaigns page when you are ready to spend.
• Changes needed. The reviewer writes a reason for your campaign. You get it by email with the subject ending “needs changes”, in a dashboard notification, and in a Changes requested box on the campaign, its edit page and your Campaigns list.

Review after launch

Approval is not the last check. Two things can send a live campaign back.

Your own edits. If you change the task content of an active, paused or completed campaign, it goes back to In review and stops running until it is approved again. You see a message saying so, and a dashboard notification titled “Campaign sent back for review”. Task content means the campaign type, title, category, instructions, the clickable links setting, proof type, proof requirement, the starting link setting and URL, a new thumbnail, and the step names of an offer campaign. Bids, budget, caps, targeting and notes change right away without a new review. When the changed campaign is approved, it is set to Paused again, so choose Resume to continue.

Our team. Staff may pause a live campaign that breaks the rules, for example because its landing page changed, or send it back as Changes needed with a reason. A campaign paused by our team cannot be resumed from your dashboard; contact [email protected]. If you edit a campaign while it is paused by our team and the changes are approved, it stays paused until our team resumes it.

How publisher apps are reviewed

Publisher applications open soon. On the publisher side, each website, game or app where you want to show offers is an app, and each one is reviewed on its own.

1. Add the app. Enter a name, the website or app URL, how you will show offers, and a description of your traffic: audience, platforms and main countries, in 30 to 2,000 characters.
2. Submit for review. The app goes straight to In review.
3. Review. Our team looks for a real audience that matches your description, terms and a privacy notice that cover rewards and the offerwall, no adult, illegal or infringing content around the wall, an audience that is at least 16, and a placement that follows the Terms: no hidden iframes, pop-ups that open without a click, pop-unders or paywalls.
4. Decision. An approved app goes Live, and you get a dashboard notification and an email with a link to your integration. An app that is not approved is set to Rejected, and you get a notification and an email with the reviewer’s reason.

Some details are fixed once an app is approved. The website address is locked to the site that was reviewed; if you move it, write to [email protected] and we review it again. Our team can also pause a live app or remove one, and you get a dashboard notification either way.

How to fix and resubmit

A campaign marked Changes needed:

1. Read the Changes requested note in full. It is written for your campaign and usually names the field to change.
2. Choose Edit, change what the note asks for, and add context in Notes for our review team if needed.
3. Choose Submit for review. The old reason is cleared and the campaign goes back to In review.

You can also delete a draft or a campaign that needs changes, or use Clone to copy any campaign as a new draft. No limit is set on how often you resubmit, but submitting the same campaign unchanged will usually get the same answer.

An app that was not approved: the email tells you to write to [email protected] if you have questions or want us to take another look after you made changes. Say what you changed, so the reviewer can check exactly that.

If you believe any decision was wrong, write to [email protected]. Under the Terms, decisions that close a business account or withhold a publisher settlement are reviewed by a person. Is Sharklio legit? covers the wider safeguards, from disputes to payouts.

Frequently asked questions