Avoiding malicious and aggressive ads is crucial, as they can reduce your website’s organic traffic and cause Google to deprioritize it in search results. Additionally, large paid-inventory companies such as PB Web Media may block your site, further hindering your ability to attract paid traffic. Maintaining ethical advertising practices protects your online reputation and ensures sustained visibility and growth.

1. Malware detection

Detecting malware is challenging for webmasters due to its elusive nature. Gathering reports from visitors can provide important insights, enhancing the likelihood of pinpointing the source of malicious ads. To effectively combat this issue, use a combination of antivirus software, third-party ad checkers, and quick responses to visitors’ abuse requests.

Antiviruses

We recommend Avast as a primary free-of-charge antivirus, renowned for its effectiveness and popularity among users and webmasters. Additionally, consider supplementing Avast with other reputable options like ESET, Kaspersky, Norton, Malwarebytes, and McAfee.

For thorough scanning of both your domain and advertiser sites, using VirusTotal is highly recommended. This platform employs over 70 antivirus scanners and URL/domain blocklisting services, along with a diverse array of tools to extract signals from analyzed content, ensuring a careful examination of potential threats.

Malware ad checkers

It is advisable to use third-party malware ad checkers for scanning ad chains to pinpoint the origins of problematic ads. The most common malware ad checkers are Adsecure, Adsexplorer, and GeoEdge. These tools offer distinct features and functionalities specifically developed for varied needs within the industry.

Adsecure is primarily focused on detecting and preventing malicious ads and malware within digital advertising ecosystems. It specializes in real-time scanning of ad creatives and landing pages to identify any potential threats to user security and privacy.

The service is used by a wide user base, including prominent market players such as Exoclick, Pushground, Bidvertisers, and Richads. PB Web Media’s brand security team also relies on Adsecure for ad monitoring.

Note: The minimum package starts at $200. However, AdSpyglass provides a few free Adsecure scans for its users. To claim this offer, please reach out to your AdSpyglass manager.

AdsExplorer is a versatile tool designed to provide insights into the digital advertising landscape, offering competitive intelligence and ad creative analysis.

Ad networks like Hilltopads, Traffic Shop, and others utilize it to monitor ad campaigns and redirect chain analysis to create protection strategies.

Note: The minimum package begins at $900, yet AdSpyglass users have the opportunity to scan their traffic via AdsExplorer. To access this feature, contact your AdSpyglass manager. 

GeoEdge detects and blocks malicious or inappropriate ads based on factors such as geographic location, device type, and user demographics.

Although it is less popular within the adult industry, it is effectively used by networks such as Traffic Stars, MGID, and Adtelligent.

A notable benefit is the availability of a free plan for publishers, allowing a single site to be scanned up to 20 million times per month.

Investigation

Suspicious offers or interactions with fraudulent ads can worsen your site visitors’ experience. To identify suspect content or verify the legitimacy of advertising sources, we’re here to help ensure a secure online environment. Here are your options:

a) Initiate the investigation by contacting your AdSpyGlass manager. Our team will assist you in finding the suspicious offer and rechecking it. Providing clear information enables us to identify the advertising, locate its source, and contact either the network or the advertiser. In cases of false positive results, this information aids in providing accurate feedback. The following information will be helpful:

• Description of the issue
• Timestamp
• Geographic location or IP address
• Device, browser, and platform information
• Settings used
• Source URL (Path)
• AdSecure\Geoedge\Adsexplorer report(s)
• Screenshots and/or screen recordings

Attention! If you collaborate with PB Web Media, we recommend that you CC support@adspyglass.com when reporting abuses by email. It will facilitate a quicker investigation from our side.

b) Incorporate a button on your website to report bad experiences, allowing both you and us to be notified. This feature automatically gathers most of the necessary information, enabling us to determine whether the visitor’s negative experience is linked to fraudulent or malicious activity.

2. User experience

The content and presentation of advertisements on your site are important. Follow these guidelines for content landing pages on your website:

• No unsolicited downloads without visitor consent.
• No popunders that appear without user interaction.
• No ads blocking visitors using an anonymous proxy.
• Avoid pure push notifications. We recommend in-page push ads instead.
• Ensure video players have essential functionalities: play button, pause button, full-screen button, scrub bar, and volume control for desktop traffic.
• Avoid popunders that open after any delay.
• Interstitial, slider, and out-stream advertising formats are required to include both a close ad button’ and a skip button that appears after a certain duration.

Please ensure that all your basic codes adhere to the specified format requirements.

3. Demand control

Controlling your ad demand is a vital measure to thwart malicious activities that involve malware and viruses. Advertising may expose users to fraud, fake tech support, and phishing attempts.

Direct advertisers

Working directly with advertisers offers assurance that your ads are clean. You will have full knowledge of the ads targeted at users, and direct communication with the advertiser helps quickly resolve any issues.
AdSpyglass offers the Flat Deal Manager tool for managing direct advertiser flat deals.

Moreover, If you’re seeking new advertisers and need assistance with ad quality verification, we suggest the Media Kit and Flat Deal Buffet.

Through these features, you will have the opportunity to promote your websites with our assistance. Moreover, we’ll conduct thorough verification of the advertiser’s creatives utilizing tools like Adsecure, Adsexplorer, Avast, Virustotal, and other third parties. 

Safe ad networks

Based on extensive experience in traffic distribution, we recommend networks where advertising quality issues are infrequent, including Exoclick, Trafficstars, TrafficShop, Twinred, and JuicyAds. You can also review network ratings and read reviews on our blog.

Marketplace setup

Connecting to Marketplace is a highly effective method for discovering clean and safe demand. At AdSpyglass, we have extensive experience in identifying and blocking malicious offers, ensuring that your advertising remains secure. By using our marketplace, you benefit from our rigorous verification processes and a commitment to maintaining a safe advertising environment. Options include:

• Enabling Traforama with 300+ direct advertisers. Our team thoroughly verifies all direct advertisers’ offers using tools such as Adsecure, Adsexplorer, VirusTotal, Avast, and others;

• Enabling both direct advertisers and trusted ad networks you prefer. In this section, you can select the ad networks you prefer. Additionally, we will only include demand that is permitted by the publisher’s spot settings, ensuring that aggressive offers are excluded.

Deactivate the “Allow aggressive offers” checkboxes in the “Marketplace Settings” section for your spots to ensure only clean offers checked by our team are accessible.

You can block specific offer verticals from direct advertisers, such as SmartLink or YouTube offers.

4. Inappropriate content detection

Our platform not only discourages but also prohibits the utilization of the following content categories on publishers’ websites. Please make sure there are no the following content groups on your website:

• Exploitation and sexualization of minors;
• High-risk investments, rapid enrichment schemes, and financial pyramids; 
• Promoting illegal activities; 
• Drugs, digital drugs;  
• Knowingly false information; 
• Weapons and explosives; 
• A call to join religious groups and participate in religious ceremonies; 
• Intentional self-harm, mutilation, suicide propaganda; 
• The spread of the illicit trade in human organs; 
• Escort services; 
• Goods and services against human rights and freedoms; 
• Publications containing hostile statements or attacks on an individual, or organization based on: 
• Publications containing a direct or hidden context of threat, harassment, and violence; 
• Hate speech, criminal or terrorist-related content; 
• Mentioning of events or customs that cause harm to a person in a degrading, unfriendly, or offensive manner; 
• Content related to hacking into computer systems, and programs;
• Fake tech support services;
• Pages that include browser/tab lockers, hidden redirects, or parent page redirects;
• Any other illegal goods, services, or transactions.

Summary

To protect your website from the detrimental effects of malicious and aggressive ads, which can lead to a decline in organic traffic, lower search rankings on Google, and potential blacklisting by major paid-inventory companies like PB Web Media, it’s recommended to adopt several proactive measures. These include:

• Using antivirus solutions such as Avast and the VirusTotal checker for early detection of threats. 
• Employing ad malware scanning tools such as Adsecure, Adsexplorer, and GeoEdge can further enhance your defense by identifying harmful ad content before it affects your site and visitors. 
• Conducting thorough investigations into any abuses and opting for a friendly ad setup are also crucial steps in maintaining a secure and positive user experience. 
• Working with direct advertisers or choosing only trusted ad networks can significantly reduce the risk of inadvertently hosting harmful ads. 
• Lastly, avoiding the distribution of prohibited content ensures compliance with web standards and reduces the risk of punitive actions. 

Implementing these strategies minimizes risks and preserves your site’s integrity and user trust. AdSpyglass can help implement these protective measures effectively, maintaining your site’s user-friendliness and ensuring a safe environment for your audience while protecting against potential threats and compliance issues.

Note: This article was developed with the assistance and guidance of PB Web Media.

Need more choice?

If one ad network is not enough to cover your needs, and your website has a pretty high traffic level, you need to stay connected to several ad networks. Which ones are better for your project? Implement AdSpyglass solution, and reap benefits from multiple ad networks and efficient traffic distribution. 

With AdSpyglass you get:

• +50% to your profit from ad networks. Calculate your income
• detailed statistics for all your ads in real time
• 100% fill rate

Not enough information? Watch our demo video, “how it works” video, or read the AdSpyglass review.