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Ad Scanner: Overview

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

What this is#

The Ad Scanner opens ads the way a real visitor meets them: in a real browser, on a chosen device, and if you want from a real IP address in a chosen country. While the ad loads it records everything the ad does, then writes a report: malicious or suspicious domains, forced redirects, pop-ups, push-permission prompts, browser alerts, crypto miners, fingerprinting scripts, hidden page-covering frames and more.

You decide what is scanned and how often. Every scan produces a report with a screenshot, the full chain of redirects and requests, and every finding, at its own link that you can send to whoever served the ad.

The Ad Scanner reports. It never blocks or pauses anything by itself: what you do with a finding is your decision. See Acting on Findings.

Find it as Ad Scanner in the main menu. It appears when the scanner is enabled for your account, for advertisers and publishers alike. If you don't see it, ask your account manager.

When you'll use this#

  • Before you let a new ad network, tag or VAST feed run on your sites.
  • To keep checking, on a schedule, that the networks in your smart zones stay clean.
  • When a visitor complains about a redirect or pop-up, to find out which network served it.
  • To show a partner proof of a bad ad: send them the report link.
  • To check the landing pages that outside buyers send your visitors to through an SSP campaign.

How a scan works#

  1. A scan task says what to scan. Either items you add yourself (Manual: an ad tag, a piece of HTML, a page URL or a VAST URL) or the networks in your smart zones (Smart Zones). See Setting Up Scan Tasks.
  2. The scanner runs the task on its interval. Each run opens every item in a browser profile from the task's list (a desktop browser, a phone, a tablet, a smart TV…), through a proxy in one of the task's countries when Location Proxy is on.
  3. It records what the ad does. Pop-ups, redirects, alerts, permission requests, scripts and every domain contacted. For an Ad Scan it also clicks the ad and scans the landing page.
  4. Every domain it saw is checked. Against a list of known malware domains and against domain-reputation services. See Domain Reputation & Domain Check.
  5. It writes a report. You find it under Reports, and the Overview sums up the period. See Reading Scan Reports.
  6. It tells you, if you asked. With Notify me about this task switched on, a finding reaches your notification channels.

The five tabs#

Tab What you do there
Overview Scans, scans with issues, clean scans, issue rate and active tasks for a date range; scan activity over time; top countries; the most flagged items.
Tasks Create, edit, pause and delete scan tasks; add manual items.
Reports Every single scan, with a link to its full report.
Stats Scan totals per date, task or country.
Domain Check Look up an ad domain and see on which of your ad zones the scanner has seen it.

Three scan types#

Scan type What it does
Ad Scan Renders the creative (an ad tag URL or HTML) the way a site shows it, records what it does, then clicks it and scans the landing page.
URL Scan Opens a URL as a full page and follows it through every redirect to the final landing page. Use it for pop, redirect and push links.
VAST Scan Loads a VAST tag, follows the wrapper chain to the media file and the click-through, and checks what they call.

The scan type and the target are fixed once a task is saved. To change either, create a new task.

Setting it up, in order#

  1. Publishers with smart zones: switch on Scanning enabled on each smart zone you want scanned. It is off for new smart zones. See Setting Up Scan Tasks.
  2. Create a task: Tasks → New Task. Start with Hourly and one or two Total Scans.
  3. For a Manual task: save it, then add your items on the Manual Items tab.
  4. Switch on Location Proxy with the countries your traffic comes from.
  5. Switch on Notify me about this task with Serious findings only.
  6. After the first runs, open Reports and read a few reports, so you know what a clean scan of your inventory looks like.

Example#

Lena runs a tube site and adds a new pop network to her smart zones. She switches on Scanning enabled on those smart zones, then creates a task named "New pop network": URL Scan, target Smart Zones, the new network ticked, Hourly, mobile and desktop browsers with Random browser per scan, and Location Proxy with the Tier 1 countries. She switches on Notify me about this task for serious findings. Two days later an alert arrives: a pop-up to a page flagged as malicious, seen from Brazil. View Report shows the redirect chain; she sends the report link to the network and switches that smart zone off until they have fixed it.

Tips#

  • Scan from the countries you actually get traffic from: bad ads are often aimed at a few countries only.
  • Use Every Minute only for short investigations. It scans a lot and uses proxy bandwidth.
  • Domain Check is the quickest way to answer "where did that ad run?" after a complaint.
  • Scan tasks can also be managed through the API, with an API key that has the Ad Scanner scopes. See API Keys.

Troubleshooting#

Symptom Likely cause Fix
No Ad Scanner in the menu Not enabled for your account Ask your account manager.
Smart Zones is not offered as a target You have no smart zone networks yet Connect a network first; see Smart Zones.
A task never produces reports Task paused, no active manual items, or no smart zone with Scanning enabled See Setting Up Scan Tasks.
Every scan is clean but visitors still see bad ads The bad ad only shows in some countries or on some devices Add Location Proxy countries and more browsers.