What triggers ESP “irregularities” flags on newsletter email marketing monetization features?

Hi! In most ESPs, “irregularities” on monetization features (ads, boosts/referrals, creator marketplaces) usually means their risk/fraud system thinks your audience or traffic isn’t “genuine” enough for advertisers—often triggered by suspicious acquisition sources, low-quality engagement, or patterns that look like click/sign-up fraud, even if you didn’t intend anything wrong.

Here are the most common operational triggers I see that get monetization access removed:

• Questionable subscriber acquisition
  • Big imports from another platform without clear consent history
  • Giveaways/sweepstakes, “freebie” funnels, or heavily incentivized signups (including “subscribe to get X” where X drives low intent)
  • Co-reg/lead-gen partners, pop-under traffic, or “newsletter directories” that send poor-quality signups
  • Referral programs that can be gamed (same person signing up multiple times, disposable emails, VPNs)
• Bot or low-intent signups
  • Sudden bursts of signups from a single ASN/hosting provider, weird geos for your audience, or many signups with no downstream engagement
  • High share of invalid/disposable/role-based addresses (ops@, info@, etc.)
• Invalid ad traffic / click irregularities (the big monetization killer)
  • Unusual click patterns (very high click-through rate concentrated in tiny cohorts, repeated clicks from same IP/device, click “storms” right after send)
  • Self-clicking or encouraging readers to click ads/boost links to “support” you (many networks treat this as invalid activity)
  • Incentivizing clicks (explicitly or implicitly) on sponsor/boost links
• Engagement and deliverability risk
  • Rising spam complaints, hard bounces, or unsubscribes (especially concentrated in a specific segment or source)
  • Sending to lots of inactive subscribers (low opens/clicks over time can be fine, but “dead list + sudden monetization” can trip risk)
  • Authentication gaps or inconsistency (SPF/DKIM/DMARC misalignment, frequent From/domain changes)
• Behavior that looks like policy evasion
  • Multiple accounts, rotating domains, or frequently changing tracking domains
  • Redirect chains/cloaked links, or heavily shortened links that obscure destinations (even if you’re doing it for analytics)

What to review first (fastest way to find the likely trigger)

If you only have an hour, focus on breakdowns, not overall averages:

1. Subscriber acquisition breakdown (last 30–90 days)

• New subscribers by source (referral/boost marketplace vs organic signup form vs import vs partner)
• For each source: confirmation rate (if double opt-in), bounce rate, complaint rate, unsubscribe rate, and early engagement (open/click within first 1–3 sends)

1. Complaint + bounce “where did it come from?”

• Identify if complaints/bounces are clustered in:
  • A specific acquisition channel
  • A specific campaign (especially ones with monetization placements)
  • A specific domain (gmail/yahoo/outlook/corporate) or country/region

1. Click pattern sanity check (especially on monetization links)

• Clicks on ads/boost links by:
  • Time (do clicks arrive in an unnatural burst within seconds/minutes?)
  • Geography (unexpected countries vs your normal readership)
  • Device/user agent (tons of identical user agents can suggest automation)
  • Repeat clicks (same subscriber hammering the same monetization link)
• Compare click behavior on editorial links vs monetization links. If monetization clicks are “weird” but editorial clicks are normal, that’s a red flag for invalid activity detection.

1. Volume changes + cadence

• Did you increase send frequency or start blasting a larger portion of the list after upgrading?
• Any sudden jump in audience size (imports, boosts, paid acquisition) right before monetization was disabled?

1. Authentication + domain consistency

• Confirm SPF/DKIM are passing and aligned to your From domain, and DMARC is in place (even a basic policy is better than nothing).
• Check that you didn’t change From domains, tracking domains, or link shorteners right as monetization started.

Practical “clean-up” actions that help in an appeal (even without knowing the exact reason)

If you’re going to escalate, it helps to proactively do a few concrete things and document them:

• Quarantine or remove subscribers acquired from the riskiest sources (boost/referral bursts, partners, suspicious forms) and send only to your most engaged segment for a couple weeks.
• Turn on double opt-in (at least temporarily) for new signups.
• Add stronger bot protection to forms (rate limiting, CAPTCHA, hidden honeypots).
• Stop any language that encourages clicking sponsor/boost links “to support the newsletter.”
• Run a re-engagement and then suppress inactive users (don’t keep mailing people who haven’t engaged in a long time).
• Keep monetization placements conservative (fewer units, clearer labeling, no misleading CTAs).

How to escalate when the ESP won’t share specifics

Most providers won’t disclose the exact trigger because it helps bad actors evade detection. The best escalation path is usually:

• Ask for a manual compliance/risk review specifically for “monetization eligibility / invalid activity,” not just general support.
• Provide a short, factual packet:
  • Your primary acquisition sources and what you changed recently (upgrade date, boost/referral start date, imports)
  • Confirmation method (single vs double opt-in), and any anti-bot controls
  • A screenshot/export summary of key metrics by source: complaints, bounces, unsubscribes, engagement
  • What you already did to mitigate risk (segments removed, DOI enabled, suppressions, form protections)
• Be very explicit that you’re asking: “What category of irregularity was detected (signups vs clicks vs deliverability), and what do you need to see to reinstate?”

If they still won’t engage beyond boilerplate, that’s often a sign the decision is unlikely to be reversed soon.

When it’s reasonable to migrate (and how to do it safely)

Migrating can make sense if monetization is core to your business and the provider won’t reinstate access after a good-faith review. The key is: don’t “lift and shift” the same problems into a new ESP.

If you migrate:

• Export only subscribers with clear opt-in history, and exclude the segments you suspect (risky sources, recent bursts, low engagement).
• Start sending to your most engaged users first (a warm-up approach), then gradually expand.
• Keep your From domain stable and set up SPF/DKIM/DMARC correctly on day one.
• Preserve suppression lists (bounces, unsubscribes, complainers) so you don’t recreate deliverability issues.
• Don’t rely on a new platform’s monetization tools immediately—build a clean engagement track record first.

If you want, tell me (1) roughly how you acquire subscribers (organic form, referrals, paid, boost marketplace, imports), (2) what changed in the 2–4 weeks before the flag, and (3) whether the irregularities mention was tied to “earnings/ads” vs “account deliverability.” I can suggest the most likely culprit and the first two reports to pull based on that.