Frequently asked questions

What is GoAdScanner?

GoAdScanner is the ad scanner built into GoAdserver. It opens ads and their landing pages in a real browser, from the countries and on the devices you choose, and reports harmful behaviour: malicious domains, forced redirects, pop-ups, push and alert abuse, crypto miners, fingerprinting and more.

Is GoAdScanner a separate product?

No. It is a module of GoAdserver and works with your campaigns, SmartZones and RTB demand there. Your platform switches it on; with the user-level option, your advertisers and publishers get their own scanner as well.

What can it scan?

The ads of your active campaigns, the networks connected to your SmartZones, the landing pages of winning RTB bids for the campaigns you switch on, and items you add yourself: HTML code, a URL or a VAST URL. Scan types are ad scan, URL scan and VAST video scan.

How does it catch ads that only misbehave in some countries?

Each task can scan through location proxies in the countries you pick, with a choice of device and browser profiles and a random browser per scan. RTB landing pages are replayed in the country, on the device and with the publisher site they served on.

How often does it scan?

You set it per task: daily, hourly or every minute, with the number of scans per interval. Use every minute only for short investigations, as it uses a lot of scans.

What does a scan report show?

A verdict, a screenshot, every flagged event, each domain’s reputation, the full redirect and request tree with cookies, the VAST wrapper chain for video, and the scan context: country, device, browser and referrer.

Can I share a report with the network that served the ad?

Yes. Each report has its own address that opens without a login, so you can send it as proof.

Does it block bad ads automatically?

No. GoAdScanner reports and alerts; a person decides. You can pause a campaign or a SmartZone network, ignore a trusted domain, or, for RTB, refuse bids from a source. The ad servers apply that within 5 minutes.

Does it cover RTB ads?

It scans the landing pages of winning RTB bids for the campaigns that are switched on for scanning. Video RTB bids are not covered, because their click-through sits inside the VAST document, and CPM, flat-rate and direct-deal campaigns are not part of the RTB target.

Can it check video ads?

Yes. A VAST video scan follows the wrapper chain to the media file and the click-through and checks what they call.

Does scanning slow down ad serving?

No. Scans run on separate scanner servers, on their own schedule.

How do I get alerts?

Switch on notifications for a task and choose serious findings only or any finding. Alerts go to email, Telegram or your notification channels.

What does “Proxy Unavailable” mean?

The country proxy couldn’t be reached, so that scan ran from the scanner’s own connection instead. Read such a result with care: the ad may behave differently in the country you picked.

How much does it cost?

GoAdScanner is a module of GoAdserver, not a separate subscription; scans and proxy bandwidth count as usage on your platform. See the GoAdserver plans or talk with our team about switching it on.