RSoC Compliance in 2025: What Google Won’t Tolerate Anymore

If you’re running RSOC campaigns in 2025,  you should already know that this isn’t just another policy update. It’s a warning shot! Starting August 25, 2025, Google will enforce a new framework for AdSense for Search (AFS) publishers that could severely impact how much you earn from Related Search on Content (RSOC) placements. In this article, I’ll break down what’s changing, why it matters, and how you can stay ahead of the game and avoid getting knocked out. What Are Restricted Access Features (RAFs)? These are premium tools Google will provide to publishers who consistently play by the rules. They include: Custom Related Search Units — more than 5 search term suggestions, including partner-provided ones. Styling Control — tweak font, size, icons, layout. Make it look and feel native. Advanced Reporting — access to 500+ channels, block ID tracking, and click-position level data. Without RAFs, your monetization solution will be limited. Scaling will become harder, testing slower and overall optimization more complex. Google’s 3-Strike System: How Does it Work? Google will now use a “3-strike” system to decide who can use RAFs: ✅ First Strike: Probation (90 Days) You still have access, but you’re being watched. If another problem happens soon, you’ll be restricted. ⚠️ Second Strike: Restricted (90 Days) You lose RAF access for 3 months. No testing, no partner terms, no styling. ❌ Third Strike: Revoked You lose RAF access forever. No way to get it back. What Can Cause a Strike? 5 minor violations = 1 strike 1 major violation (think: deception, misleading UX, fake search intent) = instant strike You can sometimes appeal a violation. But strikes are not always removed, even if you win the appeal. Common Mistakes That Can Cost You Everything Here are common mistakes that can lead to strikes: Showing ads without real content on the page. Using fake search terms to trick the system. Bad page layouts that confuse users or push too many ads. Hiding real content behind ads. Even if your RPM is high today, one bad audit can shut it all down.   What Happens When You Lose RAF Access? Here’s what to expect when you lose RAF access. You can’t customize how your ads look You can’t use your own search terms or show more than one ad unit per page You lose access to deep reporting tools Some publishers might see a 30–60% drop in earnings without RAFs. Testing and improving campaigns becomes much harder.   How to Stay Compliant and Keep RAF Access Here are the steps to follow if you want to keep your features and protect your income: 1. Clean Up Your Account Go to your AdSense Policy Center. Fix any issues. If you think a violation is a mistake, submit an appeal. 2. Follow Google’s Rules Don’t show only ads on a page. Use real search terms that match your content. Make sure everything is clearly labeled. 3. Request for RAF Access Early If you have an AdSense account manager, ask them how to apply for RAF access. Let them know your account is clean. 4. Keep Up with Policy Changes Check the official policy page often. Google doesn’t always send updates directly. 5. Train Your Team Make sure your media buyers, content writers and developers understand the rules. One genuine mistake by someone could affect your whole account.   Final Thoughts This isn’t just a small update. Google is making big changes, and if you don’t follow the rules, you could lose a lot of income. If you act now, clean up your setup, and follow the rules, you’ll keep access to all the best tools. Don’t wait until August 25. Fix your account, protect your revenue, and stay ahead of the changes.  

Most media buyers think they need to hustle harder, launch more campaigns manually, and watch Ads Manager all day. But the real pros scale by building smarter systems, not by working more hours. In this guide, we’ll break down how top affiliates structure their Meta lead gen campaigns step by step. From choosing the right networks to launching at scale and automating the entire optimization flow. Pick the Right Affiliate Network Bad networks shave conversions, ghost you and delay payments. You need affiliate networks that pays on time, have high-performing offers, and provide good support when something breaks. Here’s a short list of good networks worth working with: Wisdom Leadnomics Madrivo Leadpier A4D Pro Tip: Applying for an account out of nowhere won’t get your hands on their offers. It’s best you attend shows and meet their reps in person if you want to get access to the best ones. Use an Agency Ad Account New ad accounts on Meta are limited to $50 per day. That makes it hard to test or scale anything properly. Instead, you should opt for agency ad accounts. In exchange of a small fee you get: Higher daily spending limits Fewer account restrictions or bans Access to better support. Set Up Multiple Facebook Fan Pages Meta has a default limit of 250 active ads per page. If you reach that limit, the page may get restricted or go through manual reviews, and you cannot launch more ads. Sometimes compliance checks may trigger at a lower limit, like 200-230 active ads. Here’s why you should have multiple fan pages: Avoid hitting the active ad limits. Reduce the risks if pages get restricted. Test creatives against different pages. Make it harder for others to copy your ads. Research Your Competitors Don’t guess what’s working, look at what’s already being run by other marketers. Use free tools like Facebook Ads Library or paid ones like Adplexity Social (recommended) or Pipiads to better understand what works. Look for: Angles and headlines that keep showing up Funnels that have been live for weeks (they’re probably working) Thank-you pages and follow-up offers Use Proper Tracking Meta’s web-based Pixel alone isn’t that accurate anymore. Ad blockers and browser restrictions get in the way, ruining data accuracy and quality. Instead, use performance-based trackers like ClickFlare to send conversion data to Meta through the Conversion API. Apart from tracking conversions accurately, you’ll be able to: Split-test different landing pages and offers Filter low-quality conversions Track Zip codes for better targeting Better data = better optimization = lower CPAs. Test and Target Properly Meta’s algorithm has become quite efficient when it comes to finding the right ads for the right audience. So instead of spending hundreds if not thousands of dollars testing a small quantity of ads running ABO campaigns, switch to CBO campaigns and test tens or hundreds in one go. Try this: Budget Settings: Campaign level / $200-250/day Conversion Settings: Max Conversions / Leads Location Targeting: Exclude low-performing states Ad Structure: 1 ad per ad set Number of Ads: 50 – 150 different ads Dayparting: Check with the call center hours Setting up campaigns from Meta’s interface might take a few hours. Instead, you can use TheOptimizer’s Meta Campaign Launcher that allows you to upload hundreds of ads and restructure them in just a couple of minutes. See this case study here. Use Automation to Save Time and Money Watching Ads Manager all day long isn’t a strategy and won’t get you far. Instead, you should leverage automation to control spend, scale what’s working, and stop what’s not. Here are some scenarios you should automate and why. 1. Dayparting Campaigns Your campaigns should run only during the time call centers are able to process lead calls. So, instead of running lifetime budget campaigns in order to daypart them, run daily budget campaigns using a dayparting rule like this. This rule will start the campaign every week day at 9am US/Central and pause the campaign at 7pm US/Central. Adjust the schedule according to your offer call center hours. This rule will start the campaign every weekday at 9 am US/Central and pause the campaign at 7 pm US/Central. Adjust the schedule according to your offer call center hours. 2. Pausing Underperforming Ad Sets – Stop Loss When testing hundreds of ads in a CBO campaign with one ad in each ad set, Meta will barely spend on the obvious losers. But it can still burn budget on ads that look good at first with decent engagement but fail to convert. That’s where things go wrong. Use this rule to pause underperforming ads that haven’t converted at 1.5x the average payout. This way you’ll tell Meta that you don’t want ads that generate high CPA leads. 3. Pause Poor Performing Campaigns – Stop Loss If your campaign doesn’t shape up in the first few days or within the first week, it’s better to turn it off rather than keep spending on it. Meta usually takes around 3 to 4 days to reach break-even. Sometimes it might take a few more days, but if you’re more than a week in and none of your creatives are profitable, it’s time to shut it down. Make sure you’re giving the algorithm enough time and data to optimize. Shutting campaigns down too early often leads to wasted spend and no real results. 4. Increase Budgets – Scaling This one is straightforward. Once you have a winning campaign with stable ROI, it is time to increase the budget. But do not overdo it. Each budget increase can cause your CPA to swing for a day or two. The following rule helps you stay consistent and in control when scaling. This rule makes sure you only increase budgets when the campaign has enough conversions and has maintained a stable ROI and CPA over the past few days. That way, you avoid scaling a campaign that is already losing performance. 5. Clone Winning Ad Sets to Other Campaigns – Scaling You should be running two types of campaigns. One for testing new ads and finding winners, and another for scaling and adding those winners to. With a rule like the one below, can constantly feed your scaling campaigns with fresh winners, helping them to stay profitable for longer. As you may notice in most of the automation rules above, we use CPA and ROI based on the tracker’s reported conversions and revenue, not the traffic source’s. This ensures you are optimizing based on accurate data. The main goal of automating these optimization tasks is to save you money and time in your daily routine. That way, you can focus more on creating better creatives and testing new angles, instead of constantly refreshing your screen and checking things manually. In conclusion… Strong creatives help, but they won’t fix a bad campaign setup. Start with a solid offer, use the right ad accounts, get your tracking in place, and automate your most frequent tasks. If you follow this structure, you’ll stop wasting money and start scaling with control. Just like the top affiliate marketers do.

When testing a new traffic source, most media buyers fall into the same pattern. They throw in random budgets, overcomplicate campaign structures, and try to figure things out through trial and error. It’s expensive. It’s messy. And most of the time it does not scale. Instead of guessing, we’ll walk you through the recommended campaign structure, ideal budget setup, and the automatic optimization rules that actually work on NewsBreak. This way, you can skip the costly learning curve and start optimizing like the top spenders from day one. Campaign Structure Before you start optimizing, you need a clean structure that gives the algorithm room to learn and you enough control to scale. Most campaigns underperform not because of bad creatives, but because they’re built on messy foundations. Here’s a simple structure that keeps things efficient and easy to manage: Campaigns 1 Campaign per funnel / product / offer Ad Sets per Campaign 2 ad sets per campaign Ads per Ad Set 3 ads per ad set Creative Grouping Separate videos and images into different ad sets Aspect Ratio Group 9:16 and 16:9 creatives separately This structure makes it easier for NewsBreak’s algorithm to process performance signals and helps you identify what’s working without added noise. Recommended Budgets The fastest way to stall a campaign on NewsBreak is by underfeeding the algorithm or overextending before you have data. A well-calibrated budget gives your campaigns enough room to perform while avoiding unnecessary spend during the learning phase. Use the table below as a baseline: Campaign Type Daily Budget Ad Set Count Creative Count per Ad Set Lead Gen Less than $200/day 2 2 to 3 creatives per ad set Lead Gen More than $200/day 2 3 to 5 creatives per ad set eCommerce Less than $200/day 2 2 to 3 creatives per ad set eCommerce More than $200/day 2 3 to 5 creatives per ad set Search Arbitrage From $50/day 2 2 to 3 creatives per ad set Search Arbitrage $100 or more per day 2 to 3 3 to 5 creatives per ad set These recommendations are based on real campaign data and give you the best shot at reaching enough conversions to exit the learning phase. Aim for 30 conversions within 4-5 days. Recommended Optimization Rules Even with the right structure and budget, campaigns still need ongoing management. But constantly monitoring performance by hand is not scalable, especially if you are running multiple ad sets or spending at higher volumes. This is where automatic optimization rules come in. They help you take action quickly, without lifting a finger. Here are 7 automatic rules you can set up right away: Pause Non-Converting Campaigns This rule pauses those campaigns that spent at least $200 in the last 3 days and have not generated a single conversion. It checks the performance every 30 minutes to catch underperforming campaigns on time and prevent ad spend waste. Pro Tip: Use this rule during new launches or when testing aggressive scale campaigns. Fast feedback loops prevent overspending, especially in volatile verticals.   Pause Low-Performing Ad Set This rule targets ad sets that are statistically worse than campaign averages. It pauses ad sets that have spent over $300, generated less than 30% of the campaign total conversions. It also checks if ad the ad set has a CVR below 70% campaign average, and a CPA that’s 10% higher than your payout.   Pro Tip: Switch conditions from CPA to ROI or ROI (tracker) if you are tracking the ROI and your conversion values are not static.   Pause Low CTR Non-Converting Ads This rule catches underperforming creatives and cuts them before they affect your return on investment. The rule is looking at non-converting ads if they have spent more than 100% of the Avg. CPA, have a CTR below 1%, and are performing worse than 60% of the campaign’s average CTR. Pro Tip: Low CTR is often a creative issue, not just audience mismatch. Use this rule to eliminate weak creatives early and free up budget for ads that actually generate interest. Alert: Check Performance – Not Enough Conversions This rule flags ad sets that are burning budget without delivering sufficient conversions. It sends you an alert when an ad set has spent over $400 in the last 5 days, generated less than 20 conversions, and have a CPA greater than $50. This is a classic quality-control filter to surface low-performing ad sets before they burn through more spend. Pro Tip: Keep this rule in alert-only mode to evaluate borderline ad sets before killing them, especially when testing new audiences or creatives. Also, if needed consider switching conditions from CPA based to ROI based. Increase Ad Set Budget Twice Weekly This rule gradually increases ad set budgets twice a week by 30%, but only if performance criteria are met. It checks if over the last 8 days the ad set has spent 5x the daily budget, generated at least 50 conversions, and consistently hit over 20% ROI for three days in a row for the last three days. Pro Tip: This rule changes budgets at midnight according to the account time zone. If your account reporting is in a different time zone, switch the time zone of the “Hour of Day” condition to yours.   Alert: Switch Ad Set to tCPA This rule sends you an alert for when its best to switch your ad sets from Max Conversions to Target CPA. It compares CPA across two time frames, a prior “good” window (13–5 days ago) and a recent performance window (last 5 days). If CPA was previously under $50 and has now climbed above $50, the rule sends an alert suggesting a switch to tCPA.   Alert: Add New Ads to Good-Performing Ad Set This rule helps you to identify ad fatigue on good performing ad sets. It checks if it has a significant ad spend over the last 7 days. Compares the CVR of the last 7 days if its less than 80% of that of 14 – 8 days ago. Does the same comparison for the ROI and also checks if it has generated over 100+ conversions over the last 14 days. Pro Tip: Adjust the “Hour of Day” condition to get alerts within your daytime hours to make sure you don’t miss the chance to refresh your creatives on good ad sets.   By following the right campaign structure, setting realistic budgets, and using data-backed automatic rules, you can cut out the guesswork and scale confidently. The rules we’ve outlined here follow NewsBreak optimization best-practices and what’s actually working for high-volume media buyers on their platform right now. So instead of reacting late or manually babysitting your ads, let automation do the heavy lifting. Stop Guessing. Start Scaling. Stop relying on guesswork. Start using proven rules that drive real results. Start running NewsBreak campaigns like a pro! 👉 Get Started for Free