IronSource: Account verification denied. "Your app doesn't match our current focus"

Unity Services
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I’ve been looking into upgrading the mediation adapter. Now that you have teamed up with IronSource, I have a story to share.

I’m a solo developer and last year I worked with IronSource, I spent a lot of time getting their ad network set up, when I went to verify my account I gave them the link to my app. They refused to verify my account with this message “Following careful review, we found that your app doesn’t match our current focus. Therefore, your account was not approved and your app can’t go live on the ironSource Network.”

Here’s the game that didn’t meet ‘their focus’.

iOS | Android

SuperSonic uses IronSource for their games, so what exactly does ‘their focus’ actually mean? I asked them for further explanation and my ticket was ignored. So, apparently it’s arbitrary and if IronSource denies you an account, it’s tough luck.

Is there any guarantee that IronSource won’t do this via LevelPlay? I had to switch back to UnityAds (not an easy task), but going forward I’d like to use mediation, but not if IronSource can deny you access after setting it up.

Just to clarify, you only can ask for account verification AFTER you publish your game. So for anyone out there implementing mediation, you should know that it’s up to IronSource’s whim whether you get on their network or not.

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It has just happened to me. I still don’t understand it. It is the official Unity Ads that is rejecting my app. They don’t say why. And they didn’t say anything when I bought the license. Now I need to research on the non official ways to show ads to be able to start my business, while with the previous framework there wasn’t any problem and it was way easier to integrate. Well done.

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Do somebody know how fix the same problem? IronSource responses with “Your app doesn’t match our current focus”.

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Sorry to hear that, I used the ‘legacy’ UnityAds (not mediation) with my game above after being rejected by IronSource and had no issue regarding ‘focus’.

I had sent IronSource an email for clarification but they flat out ignored it. However, you should try and see if they get back to you. What do you do if they ignore it? Unity needs to step in and clarify. When I got rejected, I didn’t complain here at the time because Unity Mediation was an option, but now that option has been re-routed to IronSource.

I thought the CEO called us big [cough]ing idiots for not using ads? Well, I feel like a pretty big [cough]ing idiot for even attempting mediation. Where is the support now that Unity bought IronSource? It’s just crickets in here.

There should be a pop-up when downloading the mediation package that warns developers that after implementing this, you might have to tear it back out again. Not because you did anything wrong, but because you don’t meet IronSource’s ‘focus’.

At the very least they should mention it as a precaution in this thread . If anyone has any experience implementing ads, they know it touches almost every part of their game and is not an easy thing to rip out.

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I’ve started to upgrade my Unity version, and now I get a message. “Advertisement Legacy package will soon be unsupported. If you are installing this package for the first time please use Advertisement with Mediation instead to ensure long term Unity Ads support”

A couple of things about this, first off there is no warning about using Unity Mediation and not meeting Ironsource’s ‘focus’. If you can make a pop-up telling people to move to mediation the very least you could do is warn them about this. Second, are you phasing out Unity Ads entirely? That seems to be exactly what this prompt is telling me but on the ‘current status’ thread there is no mention about Unity Ads ‘soon being unsupported’.

Can we get someone to reply to this, or are you just gonna pull an Ironsource and ignore it?

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AFTER?! That’s ridiculous.

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yeah, I couldn’t believe it… but, sign up for IronSource and see for yourself.

They will not verify your account until you have published. Only after you have implemented their code and published the game they will ‘consider’ it and can refuse you for no good reason. This is a serious issue, and by the looks of it they want to get rid of UnityAds and switch to mediation only. So unless you have an existing userbase of millions, forget about becoming an indie developer. That’s the message coming from IronSource and Unity.

If I’m incorrect on any of this, I’d love for someone in Unity to come here and correct the record because their silence isn’t helping.

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Am I the only stuck at this point? I’ve already sent the information they required ending with “Your ticket was closed” with no answer nor “account accepted or denied”.

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My guess is that they want games with a large existing or potential user base.

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+1 to this

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+1… just got refused after spending a hefty amount of time setting things up and implementing the migration from Legacy to Levelplay. This makes no sense whatsoever. I get told by Unity to do this, and then they flat out refuse my approval for no specific reason.

I guess it’s time to look for a competing mediation platform? Does anyone have any recommendations?

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I have the same problem too and no other solution other than migrating to other mediation?

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Glad I read all of this, sticking to legacy then. I hope Unity can help you guys fix this problem.

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+1… I wish I had seen this forum post before I sunk multiple hours getting ads integrated into my game through Unity LevelPlay.

I setup Unity LevelPlay on my IOS and Android game only to get a rejection due to my game not matching their ‘focus’. Any attempt to get clarification on what their ‘focus’ is was left unanswered. Any new support tickets I submit are unanswered and get closed a few days later. I have no time to move to a new mediation partner and this has been an incredibly frustrating process. Anyone seeing this post beware of Unity LevelPlay

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This happened to us, created also a thread there: Critical Issue: IronSource Account Deletion Causing Game Crashes and Unanswered Support Requests

This is outraging.
Having no other choice than using “LevelPlay” or whatever the new name is.

Our users were enable to use our games as the SDK integration resulted in crashes after ironsource closing our account.

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Looks like you’re right—we’ve already integrated their crap, and it makes me furious!

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Same thing here, just got refused for no reason. Took me days to set all up for nothing. IronSource is just bad joke, just do not go with IronSource it is waste of time!!!

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Same thing here too. After migrate the Unity Advertisement Legacy package to Ads Mediation package, the IronSource team does not want activate my account. Our game has 3 years old and always has used Unity Ads. They do not explain the reasons why they denied it.

All emails sent to them are answered with automatic messages saying that our game “does not match the current focus of our network”. What focus? They don’t say.

Unity recommends that we migrate the Advertisement Legacy package to Ads Mediation, but to use Ads Mediation the IronSource team needs to activate our account. And they refuse to activate our account. Even though the game has been on the market for 3 years.

EDIT: They approved the account when we had already given up. Things are working now.

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This is happening to me, folks. I sent an appeal, but I don’t think I’ll get a different response. I believe it’s this: they want games with a larger user base that have better profit potential. I’m an indie developer like you, and my app is very modest in the stores, earning less than $5 a month. I think they want more.

The fact is, I’m updating the app and came across this problem. /:

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I was really frustrated after reading about the denial, then I double checked the e-mail Unity sends us with the verification information.

As far as I understood in the bold lines, it doesn’t mean we won’t be able to monetize from the ironSource platform (or use their dashboard). What it means is ironSource may decline to serve ads in our apps or games.

“Please note, if you are using LevelPlay mediation, you can already start monetizing with the other mediated networks. This review process is only relevant for the ironSource Ads network.”

I’ll be calling the “meditated networks” just “bidders” or “mediators” here for simplicity.

Once inside the platform and all the information filled up, with the game connected to the App ID and adUnit ID, we can choose many mediators, ironSource being ONE of them (it’s also the name of the company which causes confusion).

I hope I’m right, but if you have ironSource, Unity Ads, Google Ads, Google AdMob and any other mediator, you will still monetize with them, but ironSource may decline to bid against them for deciding your game is not worth betting on, for example.

I still have a Legacy version of my project should I be wrong, but the first blips of monetization started to show for my project using LevelPlay while having both ironSource and Unity Ads as bidders in the list. So even if ironSource declines to serve ads through my game, Unity Ads may keep doing so.

Hopefully someone from the staff will confirm and clarify this. I still have the account pending message myself, but live ads started to be served, based on the performance data I got. If I’m wrong and my game that has been successfully serving ads for months now stops altogether, then I’ll release the new version with legacy Ads and think of other engines UNLESS I got something else wrong.

I read somewhere a staff member saying if you haven’t chosen Unity Ads with Meditation in the now legacy Unity Ads dashboard, then that changing to bidding as of January 2026 wouldn’t apply. This would mean since there’s no bidding in place for that choice, monetization would normally happen from Unity Ads alone.

If I understood it all correctly, then the whole migration is far from the doom and gloom I’ve also contemplated for a couple days until wrapping my head around it.