As a prequel to AdSecure’s soon to be released Violations Report Q3 & Q4 2021 we looked at 5 key insights related to ad security activity and ad quality issues, detected by AdSecure, that targeted the UK from July 1 to December 31st 2021.
#1: The second most attacked GEO
The UK was in second place for GEOs that malvertisers attacked the most, in first place was the US and in third place Thailand. Of the top three, the UK accounted for almosts a 5th of all of AdSecures detections at 19.7%
User security violations are considered the most damaging because they target unsuspecting victims to steal user data such as credit card and personal information and can take over an end user's device with malicious software for extortion or Cryptocurrency mining.
#2: A third of all Drive by Cryptomining detections globally
The UK accounted for a massive third of all global detections for Drive by Cryptomining at 34.38%. With the increase in Bitcoin values during 2021, this activity has been a key driver for Cybercriminals who hijack users' devices to secretly use CPU power to mine for Cryptocurrencies. Luckily, AdSecure has the technology to detects and stops this activity, protecting end users from harm.
#3: 1 in 11 of all Adware detections globally
Adware was still a popular choice for bad actors, the UK accounted for 8.39% of all Adware detections globally. Adware is software that downloads or displays unwanted ads when the user is online, it collects marketing data and other information without the user's knowledge, or redirects search requests to certain advertising websites.
#4: 1 in 30 UK ads scanned detected unwanted Adult content
Using AI technology AdSecure scans image creatives for unsafe content. AdSecure detected that 3.44% of scans for unsafe content detected Adult elements such as nudity, pornographic images or cartoons, or sexual activities. This type of content may not be desirable for a Publisher’s website to show, and even though a malvertiser may have used a non-adult related creative when the campaign was first approved, bad actors can change the creative after the approval process to show unsafe content. That is why AdSecure allows the scanning of campaigns before launch and while they are running to detect this type of activity from bad actors, protecting the brand image of the website where the ad is being displayed.
#5: 1 in every 21 UK ads were not aligned with IAB Standards
Ad campaigns aligned to the IAB standards lead to higher levels of user engagement and overall conversion, meaning that these standards play a key role in maximising revenue for each campaign. Additionally, website performance can be heavily impacted if industry advertising standards are not met. It can affect a website's Google ranking, it creates a bad user experience and end users are less likely to click on the ad, affecting publisher eCPMs.
AdSecure’s IAB Standards detection tool showed the following results for UK ad campaign scans:
IAB: Ad Dimension 1.14% detections
IAB: Ad Weight 1.21% detections
IAB: Ad Request Count 1.21% detections
IAB: Ad File Compression 1.07% detections
AdSecure’s IAB Standards detection tool help’s publishers and ad networks identify non aligned campaigns in order to stop the campaigns before they cause publishers problems, and are a way for ad networks to contact advertisers to inform them to resubmit creatives in order to meet the industry standards and help them maximise their campaign revenues.
If you monetize large volumes of UK traffic you should ensure that none of the above User Security, Experience and Quality Violations ever get a chance to be exposed to end users via your platform. AdSecure offers a 360 degree monitoring and protection for the ad supply chain of publishers and ad networks, by automating the ad verification process before ad campaigns go live & while they are running. Try out our free 14 day trial today!