PromoRepublic can now check the images in a post the same way it already checks captions — reading the text printed on an image and rating its design quality, and blocking anything that breaks your brand's rules before it goes live. The checks run automatically the moment a post is saved or scheduled, so your locations get instant feedback instead of an after-the-fact takedown.
💡 Why this matters for your brand
If you run marketing across dozens or hundreds of locations, most of your compliance risk doesn't sit at headquarters — it sits in the graphics your franchisees create and upload themselves. Two problems come up again and again:
The image loophole. A franchisee knows a claim is blocked in the caption, so they put it inside the image instead — where caption checks can't see it. In regulated categories (retail, health and wellness, finance), a single "cures" or unapproved product claim on a local graphic is a real liability. Image text checking closes that gap.
Brand drift. Locally-made promos tend to wander from brand standards — overloaded with text, mixed fonts, clashing colors. Multiply that across a network and your brand starts looking inconsistent in exactly the places customers actually see it. The design quality check stops the worst offenders before they publish under your name.
The payoff is twofold: fewer compliance escalations landing on the corporate team, and immediate, self-serve correction for the franchisee — the guardrail does the enforcing, so your HQ marketing lead isn't policing every location by hand. It's brand governance that scales with the network instead of with your headcount.
🔍 What gets checked
There are two independent checks. You can turn on either one, or both.
Image text check. Right after an image is uploaded, PromoRepublic reads the text printed on it and checks that text against your brand's restricted-word lists — the same lists that already govern captions. Word lists can vary by country, and each location is checked against the rules for its own country.
Design quality check. Each image is also given a design rating based on how busy it is:
Rating | Meaning |
🟢 Clean | Little or no text, simple composition. |
🟡 Busy | A moderate amount of text or visual elements. |
🔴 Overcrowded | Heavy text, many fonts and colors competing in one design. |
You choose the busiest rating you're willing to accept. Set the threshold to "busy" and clean and busy images pass while overcrowded ones are blocked; set it to "clean" and only clean images pass.
The checks happen automatically at save time — nobody has to trigger them. Because analysis runs in the background at upload, it's usually finished long before anyone clicks Schedule.
🎯 What's in scope
The checks apply to images uploaded directly into the post editor — typically the photos and graphics your franchisees add themselves, which is where the risk lives.
Brand-controlled creative is treated as pre-approved and is not checked: brand templates, designs built in the graphics editor, library and stock assets, and AI-generated images all pass through untouched.
Enforcement applies everywhere a post is saved or scheduled — the post editor, the calendar, and bulk publishing all run through the same check.
👀 What your team sees
When a check doesn't pass, the person saving the post sees a pop-up at the moment they save or schedule. There are three possible messages.
Pop-up | What it means | Can it be dismissed? |
🚩 "Review content" | Restricted words found on an image. Names the flagged words and claim category, links to your compliance policy. | Yes — "I understand, continue" (matches caption behavior) |
🧹 "Image doesn't meet design requirements" | Image exceeds your design threshold. Shows thumbnails of the specific failing images. | No — image must be replaced or simplified |
⏳ "Checking your images" | Analysis still in progress (rare — usually happens when scheduling within a second or two of upload). | Click "Try again" after a few seconds |
📝 Example
A franchisee of a wellness brand uploads a locally-made promo that reads "Cures cold & flu fast!" with a neutral caption. Previously this would have published, because caption checks couldn't see the image. Now, on Schedule, the image text check finds "cures" on your restricted list and shows the "Review content" pop-up naming the word and claim category. The franchisee edits the image to remove the claim (or acknowledges and continues, if your policy allows that judgment call).
If that same franchisee instead uploads a flyer crammed with five fonts and three paragraphs of text, the design quality check blocks it outright and they replace it with a cleaner visual.
🛠️ Best practices for admins
Include word variants. Matching is whole-word: "Covid" does not catch "Covid-19." List hyphenated and common variants separately. This applies to captions and image text equally, since both draw from the same lists.
Start at the "busy" threshold. It blocks only clearly overcrowded designs. Move to "clean" only if you hold very strict visual standards — it will block a large share of the text-bearing graphics your franchisees make.
Set expectations on scope. The check covers directly-uploaded images. If you want template renders or AI-generated images covered too, that's a configuration request to your account team — not something toggled on your side.
Decide how hard the word block should be. By default the word warning is acknowledgeable — a franchisee can continue past it. If you need a hard block on image text with no override, tell your account team when you request activation.
📌 Good to know (limitations)
Only directly-uploaded images are checked. Graphics-editor designs, brand templates, library and stock assets, and AI-generated images bypass both checks by design. Don't assume "no post can ship with non-compliant creative" — this is a strong safety net, not an absolute guarantee.
Text recognition isn't perfect. Heavily stylized, decorative, or very small fonts can be missed.
The word check can be bypassed; the design check cannot. "I understand, continue" clears the word warning, matching caption behavior. An overcrowded-image block must be fixed.
One acknowledgment covers the whole save. If a user clicks "I understand, continue" on a caption warning, the image word check is skipped for that same save. The design quality check still applies regardless.
Location-specific images swapped in at publish time (dynamic image fields) are only checked if they were attached when the post was saved.
❓ FAQ
The caption is clean, but the post is still blocked for restricted words. Why?
The words were found on an attached image, not in the caption. The pop-up lists the exact words. Check the text printed on your images and either edit the image or use "I understand, continue" if your brand permits it.
An image keeps getting blocked for design quality and I disagree with the rating.
The rating reflects the amount of text and the number of fonts and colors in the design. Simplify: less text on the image (move it to the caption), fewer fonts, cleaner layout. If the threshold feels too strict across the board, your account team can adjust the acceptable level for your brand.
"Checking your images" won't go away.
Analysis normally takes seconds. Click Try again after a short wait, or close and re-save. If it persists for several minutes on the same image, contact support with the post and image details.
A post with a restricted word on the image published anyway. How?
Usually one of three expected reasons: the image was added via a template, the graphics editor, or AI generation (none of those are checked); someone clicked "I understand, continue"; or a stylized font evaded text recognition.
Our own brand template posts are getting blocked.
Template renders are out of scope, so this shouldn't happen. Almost always the image was uploaded directly rather than rendered from a template — check how it entered the post. If it still happens, contact support.
How do we turn this on or adjust it?
Activation, choice of checks (image text, design quality, or both), and the design threshold are all configured by PromoRepublic per brand. Have your restricted-word lists (if not already set up for captions) and your preferred strictness ready, and contact your PromoRepublic account team.