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Scanning RTB Landing Pages

Applies to: All users · needs the matching permission on your account

What this is#

When you send your ad zones' traffic to an outside SSP network through a Selling SSP campaign, the ad that wins arrives from the buyer at the moment of the auction. It is never stored here, so there is no tag you could add to a scan task. What the buyer's bid does contain is where it sends the visitor.

The option Scan landing pages of winning bids on your SSP campaign records exactly that: for each winning bid, the landing page, with the country, device, operating system, browser and website it served on. The Ad Scanner then opens those pages the way they were served and reports what it finds.

When you'll use this#

  • You send pop, redirect or push traffic to an outside SSP network and want to know where its buyers send your visitors.
  • A visitor complains about a page they landed on after an ad on your site, and the buyer was an RTB partner.
  • You want evidence before you ask your network to stop a bid source.

Step by step#

Switch it on#

  1. Open RTB → Campaigns, pick the Selling tab and edit the campaign.
  2. Switch on Scan landing pages of winning bids.
  3. Save.

From then on every winning bid's landing page is recorded. Nothing is recorded before you switch it on, so the history starts empty. Nothing about the visitor is stored beyond their country and device type; no IP address.

What happens next#

The pages are opened by an RTB scan task that your network runs; you can't create one in your own Ad Scanner. Each recorded page is opened:

  • through a proxy in the country it served in;
  • on the browser profile closest to the device, operating system and browser it served on;
  • with your website as the referrer, because many landing pages show a clean version to visitors who come from anywhere else.

The scans are recorded under your account, so they appear in your Reports tab with your network's task name.

Why a page is scanned soon, and then sampled again#

A recorded landing-page address usually carries a one-time id from the buyer. Opened hours later it often shows only the buyer's fallback page, which would scan clean and look like "nothing wrong". So pages are only scanned while they are fresh, and pages carrying the most wins go first.

Buyers often hand out a different landing page per visit from the same address. A repeat scan is therefore another sample of what the buyer sends, not a check whether something changed.

Options reference#

Item What to know
Scan landing pages of winning bids On the form of a Selling campaign. Off by default.
What is recorded The landing page of each winning bid, with country, device type, operating system, browser and your website. No IP address.
Who scans Your network's RTB scan task. The scan settings, frequency and number of pages per run are set there.
Where results show Your Reports tab, under your network's task.

What is not covered#

Not covered Why
Video RTB bids The click-through sits inside the VAST document, which isn't recorded. A video campaign with the option on records nothing.
CPM, flat-rate and direct-deal campaigns Only RTB wins are recorded. Scan those ads with a normal task instead; see Setting Up Scan Tasks.
The ad markup itself Only the landing page address is recorded, not the creative.

Blocking a bad source#

Nothing is blocked automatically. When a scan finds a harmful landing page, only your network can act on it, by hand: they can refuse the bid source, the buyer's tracking address the bid came through. That stops all traffic from that source, not one landing page, because the source rotates its landing pages and there is no narrower control. A domain that only appears further down the redirect chain can't be blocked this way, because the ad servers never see it. Send your network the report link and ask; see Acting on Findings.

Example#

Sofia sends her pop traffic to an outside SSP network through a Selling campaign. After visitors complain about fake virus warnings, she switches on Scan landing pages of winning bids. Her network runs the RTB scan task, and the next day her Reports tab shows a scan with Threats Detected: a landing page from Germany on mobile, reached through one buyer's tracker. She sends the report link to her network, who refuse that bid source.

Tips#

  • Leave the option on for campaigns whose buyers you don't know well. Switching it on later starts from an empty history.
  • Note what a bid source carries before you ask for a block: refusing it stops every bid from it, good and bad.
  • Use a normal URL Scan task for any fixed link you have; this option is for what you can't see in advance.

Troubleshooting#

Symptom Likely cause Fix
No RTB scans in Reports Your network doesn't run an RTB scan task, or the campaign has no wins since you switched the option on Ask your network whether RTB landing-page scanning is running.
The option is missing on the campaign form The campaign isn't a Selling campaign, or uses header bidding It applies to Selling campaigns only.
A video campaign records nothing Video RTB isn't covered Expected; see "What is not covered".
A landing page scans clean while visitors still complain The buyer showed a different page this time, or the bad page only shows in certain countries or devices Later samples may catch it; send your network the visitor's country, device and time.