Channel vetting
We review every YouTube channel and podcast before money is committed. Each review ends in a written memo with one of three outcomes: pass, conditional pass or decline.
Vetting memo
One memo per channel or show: what we reviewed, what we found with timestamps, the score against your floor and thresholds, and the outcome. A conditional pass names its condition, such as a script review or an excluded episode type.
What we check
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The back catalog
We watch or listen to the most recent episodes and the most-viewed ones in full, then read transcripts for the rest of the past twelve months. Anything below your suitability floor is logged with its timestamp.
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The audience
We compare the audience a creator describes with the platform analytics they share with us (age, country, device and returning viewers) and look at views per video over time for jumps that the content does not explain.
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Bought engagement
We look for signs of purchased followers, views or comments. Since August 2024 the FTC’s rule on reviews and testimonials has made it unlawful to buy or sell fake indicators of social media influence (16 CFR Part 465, 89 FR 68077, 2024-08-22).
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Disclosure history
We check how past sponsorships were disclosed: whether the creator used YouTube's paid promotion setting, whether the disclosure was spoken or shown inside the video, and whether it came before the endorsement. YouTube puts compliance with the law on creator and brand alike, which means the setting is a starting point only (YouTube Help, retrieved 2026-10-05).
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Suitability against your floor
You write the floor (content you will never appear next to) and the thresholds (content you accept with conditions) before the review starts, and we score the catalog against both. Defining both, and selecting a vendor to score transcripts, is what the IAB buyer checklist recommends (IAB, 2023-10).
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Category rules
For fintech, insurance and health brands we flag past content that makes claims your legal team would not allow near your name, such as promised returns or treatment advice, and note whether the host has repeated them in earlier reads.
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Sponsors and conflicts
We list the channel’s sponsors over the past year, so category conflicts are visible and exclusivity can be priced before the buy.
Vetting memo
Example channel A, personal finance
| Where | Finding | Checked against | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ep. 131, 14:02 | Host describes a savings product as “guaranteed to beat inflation” | Category rule: no promised returns | Fail |
| Ep. 127, 31:40 | Strong language in a listener call-in segment | Threshold: accepted outside the ad break | Pass |
| Ep. 119, 02:15 | Previous sponsor disclosed only in the description | Disclosure history | Note |
| Channel | Views per episode steady against subscriber growth over 12 months | Bought engagement | Pass |
Conditional pass. Every script goes to the client’s legal team, and no read may sit next to the host’s investing segment.
Why vetting is our job
Google Ads inventory settings (Expanded, Standard and Limited) control where paid ads appear on YouTube (Google Ads Help, retrieved 2026-10-05). They do not review a creator’s own channel before a sponsored integration, so that review has to happen before the booking. Since the WFA discontinued GARM on August 9, 2024 (WFA, retrieved 2026-10-05), we write suitability categories from your own policy and name the scoring vendor’s framework where one is used.
Terms used on this page
- Suitability floor
- Content the brand will never appear beside, set down in writing before vetting begins.
- Suitability threshold
- Content the brand accepts subject to a condition, for example strong language in a comedy show.
- Conditional pass
- A vetting result that approves a channel subject to a stated condition, for example legal review of each script.
Start with one flight
Send us your category, budget range and what your finance team needs to see. We reply with how we would vet, buy and measure a first flight.
Submit a brief