Appeal videos marked "Not suitable for most advertisers"

If the content of a video you uploaded is identified as not suitable for advertisers, you'll see a yellow dollar sign next to the video. You'll also get an email to the email address associated with your YouTube account.

A video will be marked "Not suitable for most advertisers" in Video Manager if:

It is not considered suitable for all brands, so the video will receive fewer ads.
It does not meet the criteria for advertiser-friendly content, so the video is not eligible for advertising.

If you believe that your video is suitable for all brands, you can appeal the decision. An appeal gets sent to an expert reviewer and their decisions help our systems get smarter over time. Deleting the video and re-uploading won't help. Keep in mind that videos can only be submitted for review one time and the review decision cannot be appealed.

The "not suitable for most advertisers"

icon does not mean the video is limited in search and discovery. Advertiser preferences are not used to inform how videos display on YouTube. However, just as a video with profanity or violence may not be appropriate for every advertiser, such videos may not be widely recommended across all viewers.

How to check status & appeal

Check video monetization status

If you want to check the monetization status before making the video public, you can upload it as unlisted. We can typically classify videos within 2 hours after upload, but bear in mind that a video's classification may change later based on how viewers engage with your video.

If it's marked "Not suitable for most advertisers" and you think we got it wrong, you can appeal.

If your channel has more than 10,000 subscribers, we will review your unlisted video (regardless of view count). If your channel has fewer than 10,000 subscribers, keep in mind that we’re only able to review videos with at least 1,000 views in the past 7 days, so you may need to publish the video and get views before we can review it.

We do this because we want to make sure that videos from channels that could have early traffic to earn money are not caught in a long queue behind videos that get little to no traffic and have nominal earnings.

How monetization status is applied

In the first few hours of a video upload, we use machine learning to determine if a video meets our advertiser-friendly guidelines. This also applies to scheduled live streams, where our systems look at the title, description, thumbnail, and tags even before the stream goes live.

We know our system doesn’t always get it right, so if you see a yellow icon in your Video Manager and feel our automated systems made a mistake, you can appeal. Such appeals will help our systems get smarter over time.

If you’re not sure why your video has the yellow icon, review our advertiser-friendly guidelines, not just against the content of the video, but also the title, description, thumbnail, and tags. Additionally, blank videos or videos without a title or metadata likely don’t provide enough context to help our systems understand if the content is suitable for all advertisers, so it may lead to a yellow icon status for the video.

How to appeal

If you believe that your video is suitable for all brands, you can request manual review. We receive many requests to monetize videos every day and review these submissions as quickly as possible.

If your channel has more than 10,000 subscribers, we will review your unlisted video (regardless of view count). If your channel has fewer than 10,000 subscribers, right now we’re only able to review videos with at least 1,000 views in the past 7 days.

Follow these steps to appeal:

Sign in to YouTube and go to the video in your Video Manager.
Make sure that your content follows the advertiser-friendly guidelines. Keep in mind that advertisers have a choice about where to show their ads.
Click Request review and follow the on-screen instructions. You'll only see this option if your video is eligible for appeal. Once you submit, the text next to the video in Video Manager will update with your appeal's status.

You can see your videos that aren't suitable for all advertisers by clicking the drop-down menu next to View in the top right, then choosing Limited or no ads.

How does the appeals process work?

When you request a review (e.g. appeal the current monetization status), the video gets looked at by an expert reviewer (not a computer) who spends time watching the video and reviewing the video’s content, title, and metadata against our advertiser-friendly content guidelines.

Keep in mind that the video's icon status may change even after you've appealed. Our systems continue to run their scans until the appeal has been completed. You'll know when a final decision has been made on your appeal when you get an email update.

Learn more about monetization icon changes between green and yellow.

How long does review take?

We know these reviews are important to you and your revenue, so we strive to review as many videos as humanly possible, as quickly and accurately as possible. Because we’re a platform that has hundreds of millions of videos, we have to set parameters around which appealed videos get reviewed first to make sure we review those videos that are getting substantial traffic.

Right now, our team of expert reviewers look at appealed, public videos with more than 1,000 views in the past 7 days. If your channel has more than 10,000 subscribers, we will review any appeals for unlisted videos regardless of view count.