Q2 2023
Ad Quality Report
GeoEdge’s Q2 Ad Quality Report investigates the prevalence and source of advertising attacks targeting global audiences. This report focuses on clickbait advertising via programmatic channels during Q2 2023.
Top Findings:
- In the first half of 2023, the monthly average of malicious ads increased by 61% compared to the second half of 2022.
- Misleading product offers dominate as the primary form of advertising attack. Auto-redirect ads resurface, ranking as the second most common type of malvertising attack.
- Canada and Japan are facing a significant surge in malicious ads, posing a serious risk for end-users.
GeoEdge’s mission is to protect the integrity of the digital advertising ecosystem and to preserve a quality experience for users.
GeoEdge monitored and analyzed billions of advertising impressions across premium websites, apps, and SSPs to compile the research presented in this report. The data was collected using GeoEdge’s real-time ad security solution, which enables the measurement of quality and blocking of malvertising across devices and channels on live impressions.
GeoEdge has observed a significant rise in malicious ads in Japan (JP) and Canada (CA) during Q2 2023. In JP, two specific attacks are responsible for the surge: Post-click cloaking scams targeting desktop users since late April, and a highly obfuscated auto-redirect attack affecting both desktop and mobile users since mid-May. In CA, there has been a steady increase in various scams, such as misleading product offers, financial scams, and auto-redirects, since early April. Approximately half of these scams are served through Google’s Ad Exchange.
Malicious Activity Index 2022-2023
Top 5 most prevalent malvertising attacks:
Misleading Product Offer 1: Anti-Aging Cream
Misleading Product Offer 2: Hair Loss Pill
Misleading Product Offer 3: Miracle Diabetes Pill
Malicious Ads by Device
SSP Malicious Ad Index: Q1/ Q2 Comparison
When comparing to Q1, there has been a concerning global increase of 10% in malicious ads, and the performance of almost all Supply-Side Platforms (SSPs) has worsened.
In a similar fashion to Q1, SSP1 and SSP6 continued to be the most affected platforms during Q2, accounting for 73% of all blocked malicious ads this quarter. However, this is an improvement from the previous quarter’s figure of 87%.
SSP4 experienced a significant surge in malicious ads, growing nearly seven times in Q2. In Q1, SSP4 had the second-best quality score, making this a drastic change that we will closely monitor in the upcoming quarters.
On the other hand, SSP2 remains the top-performing SSP, maintaining a stable performance rate of 0.01%.
