OUR MISSION

We help brands connect with passionate audiences on the publications they love most. We believe transparency and fairness is the key to any successful marketing partnership, which is why we constantly strive to offer the best advertising experience for our ad partners as well as the public. If you follow these guidelines, you’ll be in good shape to promote engaging content to the largest audience of its kind.

COMMUNITY GUIDELINES

Before submitting your advertising campaigns and creatives to the Mantis ad network, please review our Ad Policies and Creative Restrictions (hereinafter “Policies”) to be certain that you are in compliance with all of the requirements.

These Ad Policies and Creative Restrictions are not an exhaustive list of prohibitions, but rather represent the key principles of the Mantis ad network.

Please remember to check back here often as these Policies are not exhaustive and are subject to change without notice.

WHAT’S PROHIBITED

Mantis reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to reject, suspend, or remove any ad from its platform regardless of whether a basis for removal is listed in these Policies or not.

Adult Content

A campaign cannot promote the sale or use of adult products or services (e.g., mail-order brides, enhancement or dysfunction products, escorts or other services offering sexual encounters, pay-per view, adult live chats), and must not promote anything that is overtly sexual in nature or would be received as sexually suggestive. Pornographic material is expressly prohibited.

Contests, Sweepstakes, and Giveaways

Ads cannot promote contests, sweepstakes, or giveaways. Additionally, the promotion of Quasi-free products or services requiring any type of payment, administration costs, shipping or carrying charges, or any other fees (hence not truly free items) is prohibited. Note: Contests generally require some skill to win a prize (e.g., the winner of a logo contest would presumably be a person with the most creative submission). A giveaway is essentially another word for sweepstakes. In contrast to a contest, no skill is required and a winner or winners are selected at random.

Counterfeit Goods

The sale of counterfeit goods is forbidden. Counterfeit goods contain a trade name, trademark or logo that is identical to or substantially similar to another company's goods/services, and is used as an attempt to pass the product off as that of the brand owner.

Controversial Content

Ads cannot contain content that exploits controversial social issues, election-related or political issues.

Dangerous Content

Ads cannot promote the sale or use of weapons, ammunition, gunpowder, explosives, fireworks, and similar items are expressly prohibited.

Dietary Supplements

A campaign cannot promote the sale or use of dietary supplements. Dietary supplements include such ingredients as vitamins, minerals, herbs, amino acids, and enzymes.

Discriminatory Practices

Ad campaigns cannot discriminate or encourage discrimination against people based on personal attributes such as race, ethnicity, color, national origin, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, family status, disability, or genetic condition.

Disruptive Content

Videos and other similar ad types cannot employ overly disruptive tactics, such as flashing screens or excessive volume.

Fake Documents

Ads cannot facilitate the creation of fake, falsified, or counterfeit documents, such as degrees, certifications, birth certificates, passports or immigration papers.

Gambling

A campaign cannot promote or facilitate online gambling, games of skill or lotteries, including online casinos, sports books, bingo, or poker if it costs money.

Get Rich Quick Schemes

An ad campaign cannot promote investment opportunities or other services that promise high rewards.

Health Claims

Mantis reserves the right to reject any creative we deem an unfit match for our platform. We believe consumers should be protected from health fraud; therefore, we do not accept advertising that makes unfounded claims about a product's ability to limit, treat or cure cancer and other diseases, or deliberately preys on sick people with baseless claims.

We are not equipped to give legal advice, nor is it possible to create a running list of acceptable and prohibited words/phrases. You need to use your own good judgment. If you need legal advice as to what you should or should not advertise, you should contact an attorney.

There are no specific adjectives that constitute a disease claim. Therefore, words such as "restore," "support," "maintain," "raise," "lower," "promote," "regulate," or "stimulate" might create an implied disease claim if, in the context they are used, they imply an effect on disease. Similarly, words like "prevent," "mitigate," "diagnose," "cure," or "treat" would be disease claims if the context of their use implied an effect on a disease.

Low Quality or Disruptive Content

Ads cannot contain content leading to external landing pages that provide an unexpected or disruptive experience. This includes misleading ad positioning, such as overly sensationalized headlines, and leading people to landing pages that contain minimal original content and a majority of unrelated or low quality ad content.

Misleading or False Content

Ads cannot contain deceptive, false, or misleading content, including deceptive claims, offers, or business practices.

Moneylending & Loan Services

Ad campaigns cannot promote money lending services such as payday loans, paycheck advances or any other short-term loan intended to cover someone's expenses until their next payday, or services offering cash or goods with a high rate of interest over a short period of time. Further, ads cannot promote misleading or deceptive services related to student loan consolidation, forgiveness, or refinancing.

Multi-level Marketing

A campaign promoting income opportunities must fully describe the associated product or business model, and must not promote business models offering quick compensation for little investment, including multi level marketing opportunities.

Non-Functional Landing Pages

Ads cannot direct people to non-functional landing pages, including landing page content that interferes with a person’s ability to navigate away from the page.

Nudity and Impression of Nudity

Ads cannot contain nudity or give the impression of nudity. This includes full or partial nudity, depictions of people in explicit or suggestive positions, or activities that are overly suggestive or sexually provocative (e.g., scantily clad individuals or skin-colored clothing).

Pay to Remove Sites

Platforms that facilitate the publication and removal of content where the primary purpose of posting such content is to cause or raise concerns of harming reputation are prohibited (e.g., mug shots).

Penny Auctions

Ads cannot promote penny auctions, bidding fee auctions or other similar business models.

Personal Attributes & Traits

Ad campaigns cannot contain content that asserts or implies, directly or indirectly, personal attributes such as a person’s race, ethnic origin, religion, beliefs, age, sexual orientation or practices, gender identity, disability, medical condition (including physical or mental health), financial status, membership in a trade union or organization, criminal record, or name. Anything that promotes hate, discrimination, abuse, intolerance, or exploitation is expressly prohibited.

Personal Health & Negative Self-Perception

Ad campaigns cannot use negative self-perception in order to promote products/services, (e.g., before-and-after pics or other images that suggest unexpected or unlikely results).

Pharmaceuticals & Drugs

A campaign cannot promote the sale or use of prescription, pharmaceutical, or illegal recreational drugs (e.g., cocaine, heroin, MDMA). Promotion of a legal substance that provides the same effect as a recreational drug (e.g., salvia, kratom) is also prohibited.

Profanity & Offensive Tone

Ads cannot contain profanity or language with an offensive tone. Curse words, slurs (racial, religious or homophobic), corrupted spellings or visual presentations of profane language (in any language) are expressly prohibited.

Sensational Content

Ads cannot contain shocking, sensational, disrespectful or excessively violent content (e.g., feces and bodily fluids, dead bodies, blood).

Smoking

Ads cannot promote or encourage the act of smoking (e.g., an image of a person inhaling/exhaling smoke and other similar scenes are prohibited).

Spyware & Malware

Ads cannot contain spyware, malware, or any software that results in an unexpected or deceptive experience. This includes links to sites containing such.

Surveillance Equipment

Ads cannot promote the sale of any type of surveillance equipment (e.g., spy cams or mobile phone trackers).

Third-Party Infringement

Ads cannot contain anything that infringes upon or violates the rights of any third party, i.e., copyright, trademark, privacy, publicity, or other personal or proprietary rights. To report content that you feel may infringe upon or violate your rights, please send an email with the reference line “Third-Party Infringement Claim” to support@mantisadnetwork.com.

Tobacco & Nicotine

A campaign cannot promote the use of tobacco products, including e-liquids and other nicotine-containing products.

Trick to Click

Ads cannot contain images that portray nonexistent functionality, (e.g., nonfunctioning play buttons or checkboxes).

RESTRICTED CONTENT

Restricted content on Mantis must comply with all of the rules listed in these Advertising Policies, as well as the policies below:

Campaigns Including Special Offers, Deals, and Coupon Codes

Creatives and landing pages must clearly identify the terms and conditions to qualify for any and all special offers, discounts, or deals being advertised.
Creatives and landing pages must clearly identify the end-date for any and all special offers, deals, or coupon codes being advertised.
Coupon discount codes cannot appear to be affiliated by Mantis. The use of Mantis brand assets, including the Mantis name, symbol, or trademark is strictly prohibited without having the written consent of Mantis (e.g., creatives containing a coupon code labeled 20OFFMANTIS would be declined during review and is not permitted).

Campaigns Specific to Licensed Dispensaries and Delivery Services

The promotion of cannabis or cannabis-infused products for sale or for consumption is strictly prohibited.
Creatives associated with or directed at youth culture are strictly prohibited.
Creatives must be conservative and cannot promote products or services in this category as “shocking, glamorous, exciting, risky or daring."
Creatives must be geo-targeted to areas where the business can legally operate within; Mantis currently allows segmentation by state, metro, and postal (ZIP codes).
Creatives must adhere to any and all applicable advertising guidelines, rules and laws as set forth by local and/or state government bodies in the business’ jurisdiction. For example, a licensed cannabis company operating in California must provide its state I.D. number, in a legible manner, in all creatives.
Creatives cannot reference lab testing results/data.
Creatives cannot use text containing any discount/promotional codes (e.g., "Save 10% with this code" is prohibited), free gifts for completing a task (e.g., "Sign up and receive a free t-shirt" is prohibited), potency, quality, or health claims.
The landing page must deploy some type of age verification process or popup on entrance.
Creatives submitted by unlicensed cannabis companies will not be accepted.

Campaigns Specific to Hemp & CBD Products

Creatives associated with or directed at youth culture are strictly prohibited.
Creatives promoting infused gummy products (e.g., cbd infused gummies or similar offerings) are required to have a disclaimer "For Adult Use Only" or a similar statement included in all artwork.
Creatives must be conservative and cannot promote products or services in this category as “shocking, glamorous, exciting, risky or daring."
Creatives cannot contain anything that suggests or promises to diagnose, heal, cure, prevent, treat, or reverse any disease, condition, or illness.
Creatives cannot include terminology or text that recommends its use, consumption, and/or product efficacy, (e.g., an ad with the message “it works great!” will be declined).
Creatives cannot include structure/function claims.
Creatives cannot include statements about safety.
Creatives cannot include statements about side effects or lack thereof.
Creatives cannot include statements that claim or boast about the legality of hemp or CBD.
Creatives cannot include instructions for use or make dosage recommendations.
Creatives cannot include references to literature, studies, headlines and such, even if the material cited is related subject matter.
Creatives cannot claim a product is certified "Organic" or made from "Organic ingredients."
Creatives cannot reference a product’s strength or potency.
Creatives should only include a competitive claim when reliable, credible evidence supporting that claim can easily be found on the landing page.
Creatives cannot include flavor statements as the main call-to-action that may appeal to the youth, such as "vanilla mango, cotton candy, and fruit punch." Further, adjectives used to describe a product's flavor or aroma are strictly prohibited (e.g., an ad with the text "Amazing Strawberry Flavor" will be declined).

Over the years, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued several warning letters to companies they claim are selling products containing CBD with unsubstantiated therapeutic claims. The following are examples of the claims made by these companies that caught the eye of the FDA:

“CBD Extract Capsules Anti Anxiety Formula”
“Combats tumor and cancer cells”
“This formula has been specifically designed to prevent Panic/Anxiety Attacks from occurring. The medicine eliminates many of the peaks and valleys that are normally responsible for causing a panic attack.”
“CBD makes cancer cells commit ‘suicide’ without killing other cells”
“High CBD Healing Salve for Wounds, Blemishes and Cancers”
“We have treated thousands of patients and have seen this medicine work!”
“We have treated hundreds of patients using this methodology. There is no stronger treatment available.”
“CBD … [has] anti-proliferative properties that inhibit cell division and growth in certain types of cancer, not allowing the tumor to grow”
“Non-psychoactive cannabinoids like CBD (cannabidiol) may be effective in treating tumors from cancer – including breast cancer.”
“A literature review from 2009 recapped CBD’s documented capabilities as an . . . antipsychotic . . . vasorelaxant (lower blood pressure), antispasmodic, anti-ischemic, anti-cancer agent . . . antibacterial agent, anti-diabetic . . .”
“EXPLORING SEVEN HEALTH BENEFITS OF CANNABIDIOL (CBD) . . . antipsychotic, anti-depressant . . . analgesic for rheumatoid arthritis . . . stimulating new bone growth and strengthening bones affected by osteoporosis . . . vasorelaxant for glaucoma . . . atherosclerosis [sic], anti-ischemic (prevents plaque buildup in arteries)”
“It has shown great promise in treating the most aggressive forms of Cancer, MS . . . Resistant [sic] Bacteria . . . and so many other conditions.”
“CBD acts in some experimental models as an anti-inflammatory . . . and antipsychotic agent, and is therefore a potential medicine for the treatment of Neuroinflammation . . . and Schizophrenia, respectively.”
“Our oil is making a difference in the lives of our patients . . . Cancer is going into remission. People are recovering from serious disease.”
“CBD hemp oil critical for cancer treatment.”

Campaigns Specific to Seed Banks

Creatives associated with or directed at youth culture are strictly prohibited.
No references to the cultivation/growing of seeds is permitted, including no images of mature cannabis plants / flower / or related imagery. Images of seeds are allowed.
Creatives cannot reference a product’s strength or potency (e.g., an ad with copy stating “The Strongest Indica Seeds", "Potent Seeds Containing >20% THC," and other similar statements are prohibited).
Creatives cannot contain any design, imagery or logo style that might reasonably be associated with cartoon characters, superheroes, or other well-known figures recognizable by youth.

Campaigns Specific to Herbal Vaporizers & Glass Companies

Creatives associated with or directed at youth culture are strictly prohibited.
Creatives cannot promote any design, imagery or logo style that might reasonably be associated in the audience’s mind with a tobacco brand.
Creatives cannot contain anything that suggests or promises to diagnose, heal, cure, prevent, treat, or reverse any disease, condition, or illness.
Creatives cannot include terminology or text that recommends a product’s use/efficacy (e.g., "helps quit smoking").
Creatives cannot include structure/function claims. (e.g., “better than smoking”).
Creatives cannot include statements about safety.
Creatives cannot include statements about side effects or lack thereof.
Creatives cannot include references to literature, studies, headlines and such, even if the material cited is related subject matter.
Creatives cannot contain any type of representations that the product presents or lowers risk of tobacco-related disease or is less harmful than other commercially marketed tobacco products.
Creatives should only include a competitive claim when reliable, credible evidence supporting that claim can easily be found on the landing page.

Ads cannot promote the consumption of alcohol or alcohol products to audiences aged under 21 in the United States, and campaigns must follow all local and national laws regulating alcohol-related advertisements.

Campaigns Specific to Entertainment Industry

Movie trailers, TV shows, video game trailers, and other similar content intended for mature audiences may be allowed with prior written permission from Mantis.

Ads must be designed to specifically target people of legal age while following all local and federal laws. Obvious depictions of any of the following content within these ads is strictly prohibited:

Alcohol use
Tobacco use
Adult content
Profanity
Violence and gore

TECHNICAL GUIDELINES

The following technical requirements apply to all campaign creatives submitted for approval and are designed to prevent user confusion and to ensure Mantis remains a high-quality ad network void of spammy, irrelevant, and/or unethical ads.

1a. Acceptable Ad Unit Dimensions

300x250px - Medium Rectangle
728x90px - Leaderboard
300x600px - Half Page Ad
320x50px - Smartphone Static Wide Banner
160x600px - Wide Skyscraper
970x250px - Billboard
970x90px - Super Leaderboard

Note: Your campaign will be negatively impacted if you do not upload banners in every size. To reach the largest possible audience based on your targeting requirements, upload all available ad units listed above.

1b. Acceptable File Sizes

File sizes should be under 200KB, although Mantis may make exceptions for animated or rich media creatives that agree to run on a CPM basis. Please submit a Helpdesk ticket for more help.

1c. Accuracy and Relevance

Display ads must clearly represent the company, product, service, and/or brand that is being advertised. To prevent any confusion, all creatives must have the logo or company name of the advertiser clearly visible. All ad components, including any text, images or other media, must be relevant and appropriate to the product or service being offered and the audience viewing the ad.

1d. Animated Banners

All animated artwork must be designed to display at a rate slower than three (3) seconds per slide and cannot be distracting to users.

1e. Creative Border/Stroke

All creatives utilizing a white or light colored background must include a dark gray or black border to clearly separate the ad from the website/app that it is being advertised on.

1f. Excessive Text/Abnormally Large CTA

Creatives cannot be riddled with excessive text and words that create either a spammy or untrustworthy impression to the average user. In no case, can the call-to-action (e.g., buy now, order now, sign up, click here, redeem, etc.) be one of the most prominent features of the ad.

2. CONTENT ADS

2a. Content Image Requirements

Recommendation content ads on Mantis only require one (1) image per campaign that meets the following criteria:

Content images must be 250x175px; bigger images will be automatically sized down proportionately.
Content images may not include your company’s logo, name, trademarks, or any text.
Content images must be relevant to your content campaign’s title and landing page, as determined by Mantis in its sole discretion.

2b. Landing Page Guidelines for Content Ads

Recommended content ads on Mantis must link to relevant landing pages with editorial content that the average user would consider educational, informational, entertaining, and/or timely.

“Advertisement” or “Advertorial” must appear clearly and prominently at the top of applicable pages if the sponsored content's landing page is not hosted on the Advertiser's own website or blog in a clear manner. Disclosures must appear in a placement, color, and font size that is easily read by a reader.
No content ads should link to any sales or promotional page, nor any pages that excessively advertise or link to another sales or promotional page.
Affiliate marketing sites must clearly disclose any financial relationship between the site and sponsoring advertiser in accordance with governing guidelines.
No excessive overlays or use of pop-ups are allowed. A user must be able to easily close any popup advertisements or overlays that appear in connection with the landing page.
“Buying guides” or other similar content are allowed; however, these types of campaigns may be flagged for a more in-depth review process.
No misleading advertising techniques including, but not limited to, fake testimonials, fake comments, fake reviews, “Too good to be true” statements or unsubstantiated claims, fake social media icons, fake navigation or text/images that make a user think that it is a larger editorial site, fake site logos, auto-refreshing date stamps to the current date, false third party endorsements by celebrities or others, false rumors about any person/celebrity, scare tactics to encourage users to take a specific action, and countdown clocks that make a user think the offer expires (when it doesn’t).
No video player icons that seem to play on the landing page, but instead lead to a different URL. If a video appears to play on the landing page, it must do so, and with proper functionality (including pause and mute buttons, as well as a visual indication of the video's length).
All advertisers running a content campaign must have a working link to a privacy policy on their website, with an easy-to-find "contact us" section, and displaying an actual email address. An empty form that simply makes an offer to email the site owners, with no additional instructions or information, is not sufficient. Financial landing pages should include an actual physical address.
Landing page content must be authentic and cannot be copied from another site or violate copyrights. Any plagiarized content without clear disclosure of authorship will not be allowed.
Content should not include trademarks or logos that are confusingly similar in design to that of third parties.
Links in content must be labeled accurately and must link to the page or pages reasonably expected by the reader.
Content must be timely and relevant, featuring up-to-date information.
Landing pages cannot just be a hosted .PDF file.

2c. Title/Headline Formatting

All advertisers are required to provide a title for each content campaign submitted that adheres to the following guidelines:

Titles must be less than 56 characters in length.
Titles may not include your company’s logo, name, trademarks, products, or any promotional text.
Titles must be relevant to the content on the linked landing page.
Titles must use proper English for its sentence structure and read easily.
Each word in the title should be capitalized, except for any of the articles (e.g., a, an, the).
No excessive capitalization (e.g., “LEARN MORE” is incorrectly formatted, whereas “Learn More” is correctly formatted).
No excessive punctuation and/or symbols. Refrain from inappropriate, aggressive, or tasteless punctuation in headlines. Repeated punctuation (e.g., “?!?!”) or other symbols, including the use of emojis, is not permitted in titles.
No inaccurate, misleading, or overly sensational headlines, including titles that do not accurately depict the content being advertised, titles that exaggerate or embellish the content, and/or “Too good to be true” headlines (e.g., “One weird trick that will help you lose that belly fat”).

3. VIDEO ADS

Video ads and other dynamic ad types must comply to all of the rules listed in these Advertising Policies, as well as the policies below:

3a. Video Creative Requirements

Max standard video length: 60 secs
Min standard video length: 10 secs
File type: any standard digital video format (.MOV, .MP4, etc.)
Max file size: 300 MB
Aspect ratio: 4:3 or 16:9 (video will be scaled to show in different size video players)
Frame rate: 30 fps

3b. No Automatic Animation

Ads cannot contain audio or flash animation that plays automatically without a person's interaction.

USE OF MANTIS BRAND ASSETS

Brand Endorsement

Ads cannot imply a Mantis ad network endorsement or partnership of any kind, or an endorsement by any other Mantis publishing partner, without written consent.

Copyrights & Trademarks

All creatives and landing pages cannot use Mantis intellectual property, including but not limited to copyrights, trademarks, and trade names, except with our prior written permission.

DATA USE RESTRICTIONS

Ensure any ad data collected, received or derived from your Mantis campaign is only shared with someone acting on your behalf, such as your service provider. You are responsible for ensuring your service providers protect any Mantis advertising data or any other information obtained from us, limit their use of all of that information, and keep it confidential and secure.
Don’t use Mantis advertising data for any purpose (including retargeting, commingling data across multiple advertisers’ campaigns, or allowing piggybacking or redirecting with tags), except on an aggregate and anonymous basis (unless authorized by Mantis) and only to assess the performance and effectiveness of your advertising campaigns on Mantis.
Don’t use Mantis advertising data, including the targeting criteria for your ad, to build, append to, edit, influence, or augment user profiles, including profiles associated with any mobile device identifier or other unique identifier that identifies any particular user, browser, computer or device.
Don't transfer any Mantis advertising data (including anonymous, aggregate, or derived data) to any ad network, ad exchange, data broker, or other advertising or monetization related service.

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW

These Policies apply to all ads and commercial content served by or purchased through Mantis.
Advertisers are responsible for understanding and complying with all applicable laws and regulations. Failure to comply may result in a variety of consequences, including the cancellation of ads you have placed and termination of your account.
If you are managing ads on behalf of other advertisers, each advertiser or client must be managed through separate ad accounts. You cannot change the advertiser or client associated with an established ad account; it is necessary to set up a new account.. You are responsible for ensuring that each advertiser complies with these Policies.
Mantis reserves the right to reject, approve, or remove any ad for any reason, in our sole discretion, including ads that negatively affect our relationship with our users or that promote content, services, or activities contrary to our competitive position, interests, or advertising philosophy.
For policies that require prior written permission, Mantis reserves the right to either grant or reject these permissions.
These Policies are subject to change at any time without notice.