Bad ads or Malicious advertising whatever you name it, the problem of programmatic ads being used for purposes other than advertising is an ongoing problem for publishers. As publishers, you are judged not only by your content but by the ads that you run to support that content. When users get malware warnings on your sites or are the victims of mobile redirects, it is the publisher’s reputation that suffers.
One of the most common advice that many publishers receive about handling bad ads, for example, forced redirect ads, is to raise their floor prices. Price Floors are fixed rates set by publishers that decide the minimum worth that advertisers should get explicit ad inventory. The point is that bad advertisers bid low and that setting price floors will price malicious ad campaigns out of the market and keep them off your website.
We’ve never been convinced by this argument at Mahimeta. On a theoretical level, we see no reason to accept that malicious ads will always be associated with low bids. If these scam ads were not profitable then the people behind them would be less attracted to them. If they are profitable then why bid low? On a more evidential level, we have also only seen limited success in using floor prices to handle malicious ads in the past.
According to our research and experiences, floor prices are not an effective tool for avoiding malicious ads. If you are worried about malicious ads and do not want to damage your website’s reputation, get in touch with us now. We will help you to combat this scam.