Heavy Ad Detection is new from AdSecure and is aimed at identifying Ads that do not fit with the IAB Standards. Heavy ads can cause websites to load slowly or be blocked by Chrome.

What are Heavy Ads?

Heavy Ads are ads that violate Google's rules, and can get blocked by the Chrome browser. Any ad that meets one of the following criteria is classified as a heavy ad:

• Consumes more than 4MB of network bandwidth
• Uses CPU for 15 seconds or more within a  30 second window
• Uses CPU for 60 seconds or more in total

In 2020, in order to enforce its heavy ad policy, Google implemented Heavy Ad Intervention on Chrome 84 and above, aiming to block resource-intensive ads that use too much network bandwidth or user device CPU. It is also an effective way to keep end users away from crypto-mining attacks or non-compressed ad creatives that drain resources from their devices.

If an ad is heavy, then gets blocked by Google, the ad zone will be replaced with an error message as shown below. This may cause website quality disruption and poor user experience, negatively impacting the website quality, as well as publisher page performance and traffic volumes.

How to prevent heavy ads?

Publishers and ad platforms have several possible ways to prevent the problems caused by heavy ads:

• Educate inventory buyers on the heavy ads policy. Explain to them that their ads can get blocked by Google if they are heavy, and ask them to avoid creatives that fall into this category.
• Compress the ad creatives if the size is larger than 4MB before launching the campaign.
• Be extra careful with rich media ads containing large format video or audio
• Use third-party solutions or services to audit and verify the creative size. Be sure that they notify you whenever a heavy ad is spotted.
• Find out the source of the ad creative if the heavy ad error pops up, so you can stop more of such ads from being delivered.

AdSecure's Heavy Ad detection

To align with Google's Heavy Ad Intervention and reinforce AdSecure's IAB standards widget and related detections, AdSecure has released this new detection - Heavy Ad. Any ads scanned by AdSecure that violate Google's heavy ad policy will be detected and reported.

For Publishers, in addition to ensuring that your webpages are free of resource-intensive ads that slow down your user experience, Heavy Ad detection also helps to avoid penalisation from Google for poor site performance, and keep your site high in the rankings. For Ad Platforms, AdSecure automatically audits and validates all of your ads being served to your publisher and partner network. The detection ensures that they meet the Google Ads Standards and the ads won't get blocked, and also improves user engagement and overall conversion to maximise revenue for each campaign.

AdSecure's Heavy Ad detection is available now both via API and within AdSecure's user interface. Please contact support@adsecure.com to learn more.