FAQ and Troubleshooting
Quick answers to the questions advertisers ask most. The task pages in this section cover each flow in depth — this page collects the "why did that happen?" moments.
Booking and paying
The checkout says my balance can't cover it
All Paid Promotion purchases are paid from your Onflow Ads wallet. When the balance falls short, the message tells you the exact shortfall — top up from the wallet page and check out again. Nothing was charged and your cart is untouched.
"Your reliability is X/10 — Paid Promotions needs at least 4/10"
Booking and bidding require a minimum reliability score (the floor is shown in the message and on your reliability page). Anything already in flight still finishes; you just cannot start new deals until your score recovers. Clean completions raise it — see the reliability pages of this guide.
The owner never answered my booking. Where is my money?
Back in your wallet, automatically. An owner has a live 24-hour countdown to accept; if it lapses or they decline, the full amount is refunded from escrow without you doing anything. The order shows DECLINED (or the lapse) with the refund in its timeline.
Can I change my ad after booking?
No — the creative is frozen into the booking; that is exactly what the delivery-proof archive later verifies. If the post must change, cancel under the cancellation rules and rebook.
Why did my cancellation carry a fee?
Cancelling is free while the order is still AWAITING ACCEPT. Once the owner has accepted (SCHEDULED), a late-cancellation fee compensates them for the slot they committed — the exact percentage and the resulting refund are shown on the cancel button and its confirmation before anything happens. A live or delivered placement can no longer be cancelled.
Auctions
I placed a bid and was instantly outbid — without anyone doing anything
Another bidder left an automatic maximum (proxy bid). The system answered your bid on their behalf with the minimum needed to keep their lead. Your funds were released back to your wallet the moment it happened, and the message tells you the new price to beat. On plans with proxy bidding you can set your own maximum so the same works in your favor.
Why must I attach an ad post before I can bid?
A winning bid settles instantly into a real booking, using the creative attached to the bid. Without it, the owner's sold slot would sit empty while everyone waited for the winner to come back and write a post. If you have no saved ad post yet, the bid form links you to the composer.
The countdown suddenly got longer
That is anti-sniping: a bid landing in the closing minutes extends the clock (the window is stated on the Auctions page). Nobody can steal a slot at the buzzer — if you are outbid late, you always get time to answer.
I'm the top bid but the card says "Reserve not met." Will I win?
Not at the current price. Some auctions carry a hidden minimum sale price; if the final top bid is below it, the auction ends unsold and every hold is refunded. Bid above the reserve — the badge flips to "Reserve met" — to be in a winning position. The reserve amount itself is never published.
It says I won, but the slot "couldn't be booked"
Rarely, the slot becomes unavailable between bidding and closing (for example, the listing went inactive). In that case your funds are returned in full and the auction closes unsold — a hold is never kept against a placement that cannot run.
Does a bid cost anything if I lose?
No. A bid holds the amount in escrow only while you lead; the moment you are outbid it is released back to your wallet in full. Only the final winner is ever charged — exactly their winning bid, never more.
Proof and reporting
How do I prove to a client that the ad really ran?
Three layers, strongest last:
- The "🔗 View live post ↗" chip on the order opens the actual Telegram post.
- The "🛡️ Delivery proof" panel shows the frozen, signature-verified proof trail — the creative as booked plus every monitor capture.
- On plans that include them, a Placement Proof Certificate freezes the placement's witnessed numbers into a signed document with a public verification page at
https://onflowads.com/verify/placement/...— your client opens the link themselves, no account needed, and the page proves the document genuine on its own. See Tracked links and delivery proof.
Can I get a second certificate for the same placement with updated numbers?
No — and that is the point. One certificate per placement, forever; asking again returns the original document (without spending your monthly allowance). Two certificates with different numbers for the same booking would be a forgery the platform produced itself.
A metric on my campaign shows blank. Did it deliver zero?
No. Across the marketplace, a number that could not be measured is shown as blank or "not measured yet" — never as zero. Blended CPM, for example, is computed from measured lines only and labelled with how many orders are in it.
Disputes and refunds
The post looks wrong — deleted early, edited, or never appeared
Open a dispute from the order's details within 14 days of delivery — see Raising a dispute. Held funds stay frozen while it is investigated. Many failure cases never need a dispute at all: monitor-verified failures auto-refund on insured plans, and guaranteed-view shortfalls make good automatically.
Where do refunds go?
Back to your Onflow Ads wallet, immediately spendable — auto-refunds (declined or lapsed bookings), cancellations, released auction holds, insurance payouts, and upheld disputes all work this way. Moving money out of the platform is a separate, stricter flow covered in the wallet section of this guide.
Is raising a dispute risky?
A genuine concern is always safe. But a concern our review finds unfounded costs −0.5 reliability, and a pattern of rejected concerns costs more — the dispute form says so before you submit. Check the live post and the delivery-proof trail first; they are the same evidence the review uses.