Quick answers to common Ad Quality questions.
What is Freestar doing to help their Publishers with Ad Quality?
What information do I need to provide when an unwanted ad is running on my site?
Why am I still seeing Political ads, if I have Politics blocked on my site?
Is it possible to block high-impact placements that are disrupting the layout of my site and UX?
How long does it typically take to get an Advertiser blocked with the SSP partners?
What is Freestar doing to help their Publishers with Ad Quality?
Freestar takes ad quality seriously, and works across multiple fronts to ensure publishers’ needs are met
- Freestar vets all demand sources carefully, and only works with high quality demand providers
-
Blocklists
- Freestar offers 3 different blocklist templates for all publishers, Default, Sensitive, and Political
- Freestar also offers the option for tier 1 and 2 sites to provide us with their own custom blocklists if they so choose
- We partner with The Media Trust, an industry leading ad quality vendor, explained further below.
- Lastly, we have a dedicated Ad Quality team of “Bad Ad Hunters.” They’ve seen a lot over the years and are battle-hardened. If you encounter any ad quality issues on your site, please contact Customer Success to open a ticket with our ad quality team.
What information do I need to provide when an unwanted ad is running on my site?
To report a bad ad to us, please provide as much information as possible, including:
- A HAR file (see below for more information on how to capture)
- A full page screenshot or video capture of the ad
- An explanation of why this ad is a problem (bad advertiser? wrong size? unexpected format?)
- URL where it occurred
- URL or landing page of the ad (where the ad clicked through to)
- Geo (city/state/country)
- Date, time and timezone when it occurred
- User’s IP address, if available
- Device and browser
Tips for getting a good screenshot:
- High resolution, PNG format
- Include enough of the page that we can see what ad unit is impacted
Tips for capturing a HAR file:
- Dev tools must be open before the ad loads in order to capture useful info
If Report This Ad is enabled on your site, please use it to report ads to us, as this tool will capture most of the information listed above. Please still reach out to the Freestar team so that a ticket gets opened to investigate and block the ad.
How do I capture a HAR file?
IMPORTANT! Dev tools must be open before the ad loads in order to capture useful info
For Chrome:
Open your browser and press
F12orCtrl+Shift+I(Cmd+Option+Ion Mac) to open Developer ToolsGo to the page where the issue is happening
Click the "Network" tab
Check "Preserve log" (top-left) so data isn't lost on reload
Reload the page or perform the action you're troubleshooting
When reproduced, find the download icon on the top-right of the Network tab (see screenshot below)
Click the ⬇️ down arrow icon (this is the "Export HAR" button)
A
.harfile will be downloaded to your computer
Why am I still seeing Political ads, if I have Politics blocked on my site?
This is typically due to the fact that ads can be mis-categorized, so while we may have the Politics category blocked across all partners, if the ad is being categorized as something different such as News, the category block won’t apply. There are also some partners that cannot support custom blocks through certain integrations like TAM. We have processes set up to avoid enabling sites with custom blocklists through these integrations, but occasionally sites slip through the cracks and are accidentally enabled through an integration that cannot support their blocklist.
Is it possible to block high-impact placements that are disrupting the layout of my site and UX?
If a high-impact ad displays that is not expected, let us know to investigate. There are two potential reasons this could be happening:
- It could be a misconfiguration, or a new product or integration we’re testing. If this is the source of the ad, our team can work with our SSP partners to exclude your site.
- Sometimes high-impact ads are trafficked as standard display, through the open market, and there is no easy way to block these programmatically. We are fully aware this is an issue and are engaging partners to address the issue more proactively. In the meantime, our team will investigate and block the offending creative ID if possible.
What is Report this Ad?
Report This Ad (RTA) was a joint effort built by Freestar and our ad quality partner, The Media Trust. When RTA is enabled, a “Report This Ad” link will appear below every ad unit. This link allows website users to report any ad they deem malicious or inappropriate and allows Freestar to investigate the ads based on the information provided. If you would like to enable this service, please contact us.
What does The Media Trust do?
Freestar partners with The Media Trust as part of our ad quality solution. The Media Trust is our defense against the fraudulent advertisers who are trying to victimize your users with phishing scams, virus downloads, and other security threats. The Media Trust scans ads in real-time, and if a malicious ad is detected, they prevent the ad from serving on the page—protecting both the user and the publisher. The cybersecurity team at The Media Trust is continually monitoring the industry and updating their blocking triggers as more threats are discovered.
The Media Trust also provides an extra layer of protection for our blocklists. Their real-time scanning can detect and block any brands or categories that are slipping past Freestar’s existing blocklists, and it provides us with data to see where these blocks need to be shored up.
When The Media Trust blocks an ad from serving, Freestar will immediately run a new auction, to ensure the ad slot does not go unfilled.
How long does it typically take to get an advertiser blocked with the SSP partners?
This is dependent on the SSP and their blocking capabilities. If the SSP has a self-service UI where blocks can be added directly from the Demand team, the blocks can be applied within 48 hours of opening a ticket. If the SSP has to apply the blocks on their end it can take anywhere from 1-7days for the partner to confirm, but typically the majority of the SSPs should have the blocks in place within the first 48 hours of opening the ticket.
Questions?
Feel free to contact us with any ad quality related inquiries.