---
name: pass-ad-review-and-avoid-rejection
description: >-
  Runs the pre-submit self-check that gets a Meta ad through review clean the first time. Meta reviews most
  ads - creative, text, landing page, and targeting together - typically within ~24 hours; there is no fixed
  7-day window, and assuming one produces bad launch timelines. Covers the causes behind most rejections:
  language that asserts or implies a viewer's personal or protected attribute ("Are YOU diabetic?"),
  unrealistic or unprovable before/after health or financial claims, a landing page that fails to load or
  mismatches the offer, prohibited or restricted content, excessive or sensational text, and circumventing
  review (cloaking, resubmitting disapproved ads). Renders the ad via mads_preview_creative before
  submission and confirms the landing page matches the ad's promise. Reach for it as the last step before
  mads_create_ad. It ends at a review-ready ad - appeals for rejected ads are
  appeal-rejections-and-restrictions, and vertical eligibility is navigate-restricted-verticals.
---
# Pass Ad Review and Avoid Rejection

## Purpose
Ad review checks the whole unit, creative, copy, destination, and targeting together, and most ads
clear it in about a day; there is no fixed 7-day window despite that being common lore, and planning
launches around a week-long wait produces slack that isn't real. This skill is the pre-submit pass that
catches the small set of causes behind most rejections before Meta's reviewers do, so ads launch clean
instead of cycling through disapproval and resubmission.

## When to run
- Before submitting any new ad, as the last check before `mads_create_ad`.
- An account's disapproval rate is rising and needs a systematic pre-submit gate added to the workflow.
- After editing creative, copy, or the landing page URL on an existing ad, re-check before resubmitting.

## When NOT to run
- An ad is already disapproved and needs its rejection reason diagnosed and fixed →
  `appeal-rejections-and-restrictions`.
- The open question is whether the vertical is allowed on Meta at all → `navigate-restricted-verticals`
  (run that first; this skill assumes the vertical already cleared).
- Targeting compliance for a Special Ad Category is unresolved → `declare-special-ad-categories`.

## Prerequisites
- Finished creative (image/video) and final ad copy ready for preview.
- The exact landing page URL the ad will use, live and loadable, HUMAN STEP to confirm the page is
  published and not sitting behind a login or paywall the ad doesn't disclose.
- Vertical already cleared per `navigate-restricted-verticals`, and targeting already compliant per
  `declare-special-ad-categories` if applicable.

## Procedure
1. **Render the ad with `mads_preview_creative` before writing anything.** Look at it the way a
   reviewer and a real user would, does the creative, headline, and body text match what the landing
   page actually delivers.
2. **Check for personal-attribute language.** Rewrite any copy that asserts or implies knowledge of a
   protected or personal attribute pointed at the viewer, "Are YOU diabetic?", "Meet other
   40-year-olds," "Struggling with debt?" Describe the product or service, not the person looking at it.
3. **Check claims for realism.** No unrealistic or unprovable before/after health claims (weight loss,
   skin conditions), no guaranteed financial outcomes ("double your income," "guaranteed approval").
   Claims must be something the business can substantiate, not aspirational marketing dressed as fact.
4. **Verify the landing page matches the ad.** The destination must deliver exactly what the creative and
   copy promise, same product, same offer, same language. It must load fully and must not redirect
   differently for a reviewer than for a real user (cloaking), that is a severe violation, not a gray area.
5. **Check text density and tone on the creative itself.** Heavy or sensational text overlay on images,
   all-caps shouting, exaggerated claims ("SHOCKING," "you won't believe") read as low-quality or
   sensational and are a common soft-rejection or reduced-delivery trigger even when not an outright block.
6. **Confirm prohibited or restricted content isn't present.** Cross-check against the vertical's
   `navigate-restricted-verticals` result, this is a re-check, not the first time the question gets asked.
7. **Preview, get approval, create PAUSED.** Present the rendered preview and the checklist results to
   the user, get explicit approval, then call `mads_create_ad` with `status=PAUSED`. Never activate
   directly from this skill.
8. **After submission, monitor status.** Poll `mads_get_ad` for `effective_status`. Most ads clear review
   in about 24 hours; if it's still `IN_REVIEW` well past that, treat it as a monitoring item, not yet a
   rejection.

## Decision rules
- IF copy asserts or implies a protected or personal attribute about the viewer THEN rewrite before
  submission, this is one of the most common and most avoidable rejection causes.
- IF a claim can't be substantiated by the business (specific results, guarantees) THEN soften it to
  what's provably true, or cut it.
- IF the landing page doesn't match the ad's offer, or doesn't fully load, THEN fix the page first, resubmitting copy against a broken or mismatched destination fails again for the same reason.
- IF creative text is dense or sensational THEN trim it, this lowers both rejection risk and delivery
  quality even when it was never going to be an outright block.
- IF the vertical is prohibited or an ungated restricted category THEN this skill doesn't apply yet, go
  back to `navigate-restricted-verticals`.
- IF the instinct is "just resubmit and see" on an ad that already failed one of these checks THEN don't, fix the identified cause first; that path is `appeal-rejections-and-restrictions` and its own risks.
- **Done means:** creative previewed via `mads_preview_creative`, no personal-attribute or
  unrealistic-claim language, landing page verified live and matching, text density checked, and the ad
  created PAUSED pending human go-live approval.

## Common failure modes
- Treating review as a fixed 7-day wait and building launch timelines around it, most ads clear in about
  a day; treat a long delay as worth investigating, not normal.
- Writing technically-true copy that still implies a personal attribute ("For parents over 40 managing
  diabetes..."), the implication gets flagged, not just literal claims.
- Approving creative without ever loading the actual landing page URL, a broken or mismatched
  destination stays invisible if nobody clicks through.
- Treating sensational text as a copywriting style choice instead of a delivery and rejection risk.
- Skipping `mads_preview_creative` and going straight to `mads_create_ad`, losing the one pre-submit
  check that catches most of this before Meta does.

## Related skills
- Run before: any ad-creation step in campaign-structure or creative-build skills.
- Run after this if rejected anyway: `appeal-rejections-and-restrictions`.
- Run before this: `navigate-restricted-verticals` (vertical clearance), `declare-special-ad-categories`
  (targeting compliance).