This is a guest post written, which was written by Kathleen Booth in 2023.

Whether you're an online publisher, content creator, or app developer, your key money-making drivers start with targeted traffic, ad impressions, and user engagement. 

These days, maximizing ad revenue requires a deep understanding of various ad formats, networks, and monetization strategies. Factors that contribute to your overall ad revenue include how much advertisers pay for ad space and how effectively you're displaying ads. 

Creating quality content doesn't come cheap, and if you're investing time and resources to drive eyeballs to your website or mobile app, maintaining a flawless user experience should be your top priority.  

But even if you've curated the perfect browsing experience with subtle ad units that delight your targeted audience, failing to protect your site from malicious advertisers can lead to bad experiences that turn users away from your brand, cutting into your total ad revenue. This can significantly impact your monthly ad revenue and overall ad revenue.

Read on to learn more about how malvertising negatively impacts advertising revenue in this post by former Clean.io (now HUMAN Security) VP of Marketing, Kathleen Booth.

Playwire is committed to empowering publishers to maximize their yield and protect their publishing properties, which is why we take every step necessary to protect our publishers from day one. Learn more about how we do this.

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The Complete Ad Revenue Resource Center

Protecting Your Ad Revenue: Balancing User Experience and Monetization

Maximizing your ad inventory means keeping bounce rates low and session lengths long. If you succeed with these metrics, you'll increase the overall number of ad impressions delivered to each user, boosting your total ad revenue and monthly ad revenue. 

However, it also requires demand density - creating more competition for every visitor on your site. When you work to maximize yield through strategies like header bidding, sometimes bad actors find their way into your ad network, affecting how ad revenue is calculated. 

Malicious ads come in various forms and can wreak havoc on your user engagement, website KPIs, and advertising income. These harmful ads can appear in any ad format, from banner ads to native ads and video ads, and on any platform, including social media channels. They can negatively impact your cost per click (CPC) and cost per impression (CPM) rates. 

Any ads that misuse the original intent of an ad unit, fall under the umbrella of malvertising. They can significantly reduce the effectiveness of your ad campaigns and overall ad revenue, affecting both publisher sites and app developers.

Types of Disruptive Advertising

The first kind of bad ads are ones that are disruptive to your content. This means that they don't match your website's messaging, are advertising for a competitor, or take the form of pop-ups and redirects that frustrate your user.

While not particularly threatening to the user, they can do serious harm to your website's KPIs and brand reputation. Users will relate these frustrations and shady advertisements with your brand, and are likely to steer clear from your site in the future - or even worse, decide to use an ad blocker.

Malicious Ads

The second kind of ad offers real risks to those visiting your site. These ads are purposely deceitful and are usually affiliated with online scams and viruses.

Intrusive Ads

The first kind of bad ads are those disruptive to your website's content. These may not match your website's messaging, advertise for competitors, or take the form of pop-ups and redirects that frustrate your users. 

While not particularly threatening to the user, they can seriously harm your website's KPIs, user engagement, and brand reputation. Users will associate these frustrations and shady advertisements with your brand, likely steering clear of your site in the future - or worse, deciding to use an ad blocker, which can significantly impact your ability to generate revenue from displaying ads and reduce your overall ad revenue.

Malicious Ads

The second type of ad poses real risks to your site visitors. These ads are purposely deceitful and usually affiliated with online scams and viruses. They can compromise user security and trust, leading to long-term damage to your brand and ad revenue potential. 

Malicious ads can affect various metrics, including click-through rates, cost per click, and cost per impression, ultimately impacting how ad revenue is calculated.

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Read the publishers' guide to ad revenue.

Understanding Malvertising in Different Ad Formats 

Malvertising can affect various ad formats, each with its vulnerabilities: 

  • Banner Ads: Often targeted due to their prevalence, malicious banner ads can contain hidden scripts that redirect users or download malware. These can significantly impact your ad units' performance and overall ad revenue. 
  • Native Ads: These can be particularly dangerous as they blend in with your content, potentially tricking users into interacting with malicious elements. This can lead to decreased user engagement and negatively affect your website's ad revenue. 
  • Video Ads: Malicious actors may exploit video ad networks to deliver harmful payloads, affecting both basic video ads and rewarded video ads. This can impact the effectiveness of your ad campaigns and reduce advertiser interest. 
  • Programmatic Advertising: The automated nature of programmatic buying can sometimes allow bad actors to slip through, making vigilance crucial. This can affect how advertisers pay for ad space and impact your total ad revenue. 

Understanding how malvertising manifests in different ad types is key to protecting your revenue streams and user experience. By being aware of these threats, publishers can better safeguard their ad inventory and maintain a positive relationship with their targeted audience.

The Negative Impact of Bad Ads on Advertising Revenue

In both cases, these ads not only ruin your site experience but also destroy your ad revenue. Your website's KPIs are closely tied to your advertising income. Simply put:

  • More traffic means more ads served.
  • Longer user sessions allow for more ad impressions per user.

As a publisher or app developer, you want high page views and long session lengths to boost your revenue per user. This is particularly important for monetization strategies that rely on cost-per-impression (CPM) models and affect your overall ad revenue. 

However, if a user who would normally spend three minutes browsing your content (and viewing dozens of ads across multiple pages) is redirected immediately upon arrival, your session length drops from three minutes to 20-30 seconds. Consequently, the number of ad impressions you serve plummets from dozens to just a handful, making these bad ads a direct threat to your monetization strategy and total ad revenue. 

This can lead to a decrease in your overall ad impressions and potentially lower your CPM rates if advertisers perceive your site as risky due to malvertising incidents. Your monthly ad revenue and how ad revenue is calculated can be significantly impacted by these malicious activities. 

Listen to your audience, monitor your KPIs, and regularly explore the front end of your site. Pay attention to metrics like click-through rates (CTR) and cost per click (CPC), as these can be indicators of malvertising issues affecting your ad campaigns. 

If you're struggling to explain drop-offs in session lengths and spikes in bounce rates, it's likely your website or app is being attacked with malicious ads, impacting your ability to effectively display ads and maintain user engagement.

Key Metrics Affected by Malvertising 

Malvertising can significantly impact your ad performance metrics and overall ad revenue:

  • Click-Through Rate (CTR): Malicious ads may artificially inflate CTR, skewing your data and leading to misguided strategy decisions for future ad campaigns.
  • Bounce Rate: Users encountering malicious ads are likely to leave your site immediately, increasing bounce rates and reducing the effectiveness of your ad units.
  • Session Duration: Redirects and pop-ups from malvertising can drastically reduce the time users spend on your site, affecting how advertisers pay for ad space.
  • Ad Impressions: If users start avoiding your site due to bad experiences, your overall ad impressions will decrease, impacting your website ad revenue.
  • Cost Per Mille (CPM) and Cost Per Click (CPC): If advertisers perceive your site as risky due to malvertising incidents, these rates may start to go down, affecting how ad revenue is calculated for your publisher sites.

By understanding these impacts, you can better protect your ad inventory and maintain a positive relationship with both your audience and advertisers, ensuring a stable and growing ad revenue stream.

Prefer not to worry about the negative effects of bad ads? We've built protection right into our monetization platform. Contact our team to learn more about how you can increase yield and protect yourself from harmful advertising!

Fight Back With Your Wallet

We believe the only effective way to solve this problem is to make bad actors pay for the ads they're buying and destroy their ROI.

Our code uniquely fires at runtime, behaviorally blocking malicious experiences from disrupting your user experience. 

Not only are you and your users protected but you'll also get paid every time you serve an ad. The bad actor buys an ad, we render their image but prevent the malicious JavaScript from taking over the user experience. 

Eventually, these malvertisers will realize they're buying ads that aren't producing any engagement and will stop targeting your site because cleanAD has crushed that part of the value chain, bringing their ROI down to zero. Bad actors are the most sophisticated 'performance advertisers' on the planet. 

If their ROI isn't there, they'll stop their ad spend - which means they'll stop attacking sites protected by powerful cybersecurity providers. 

With cleanAD, you're not only protecting your ability to create content for your audience and their ability to safely enjoy that display or video content, but you're also joining a campaign to disincentivize malicious advertising as a whole.

Protecting Your Ad Stack from Malicious Actors 

To safeguard your ad revenue and user experience, consider implementing these strategies: 

  • Vet Your Ad Networks: Work with reputable ad networks that have strong anti-malvertising measures in place. This includes platforms like Google AdSense and other trusted partners that prioritize ad quality and user safety. 
  • Implement Real-Time Scanning: Use solutions that can detect and block malicious ads in real time before they reach your users. This helps maintain the integrity of your ad units and protects your audience engagement. Look for tools that can scan various ad formats, including native ads and video ads. 
  • Diversify Ad Sources: Don't rely on a single ad network. Diversification can help mitigate risks and potentially increase your overall ad revenue. This can include a mix of programmatic advertising, direct sales, and other monetization methods to optimize your total ad revenue. 
  • Educate Your Team: Ensure your ad operations team understands the signs of malvertising and knows how to respond quickly. This is crucial for maintaining the health of your ad inventory and protecting your revenue streams. Train them to monitor key metrics like click-through rates, cost per click, and cost per impression. 
  • Maintain Open Communication with Users: Encourage users to report suspicious ads, creating an additional layer of vigilance. This can help you identify issues quickly and maintain trust with your audience. Consider implementing a feedback system on your website or app to facilitate this process. 
  • Monitor Performance Metrics: Regularly review your website's ad revenue calculator and analyze metrics such as monthly ad revenue, ad impressions, and user engagement. This can help you identify potential malvertising issues early and take corrective action. 

By implementing these measures, you can better protect your ad space, maintain a positive user experience, and ensure a stable and growing ad revenue stream for your publisher sites or app development efforts.

Safely Maximize Your Ad Revenue 

One of the greatest benefits of Playwire is its ability to maximize your ad yield, but increasing that demand doesn't come without risks. 

Fortunately, with Playwire, you're automatically protected by cleanAD, saving your users from harmful and disruptive experiences, safeguarding your site KPIs, and still getting paid for any ad impression claimed by malicious ads.

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