From July 9, Chrome will filter all ads on sites anywhere that keep failing the Better Ads Standards. Check the Ad Experience Report in Search Console, remove failing formats such as pop-ups and autoplaying sound, and request review.

What happens tomorrow

From tomorrow, July 9, Chrome will filter ads on websites anywhere in the world that repeatedly show the ad formats the Better Ads Standards rule out.

The filter has applied in North America and Europe since February last year. Tomorrow it extends to every other country.

When Chrome filters a site, it removes all of its ads, not only the offending ones, including ads served by Google itself.

For a publisher whose site has passed since last year, nothing changes. For one that has never checked, or has added ad partners or formats since, today is a good day to look.

Where the standards come from

The Better Ads Standards are published by the Coalition for Better Ads, an industry group of advertisers, publishers and technology companies, Google among them.

The coalition asked people to rate ad experiences on desktop and mobile, and identified the ones they found most annoying, the kind most likely to push somebody into installing an ad blocker.

Those became the standards. Chrome enforces them, which gives a voluntary industry standard real weight, since Chrome is the browser a large part of any audience uses.

The formats that fail

The fourth is the one that catches ordinary publishers. A sticky banner that looks modest on a laptop can fill much of a phone screen, though nobody added it to annoy anyone.

Phones have stricter rules overall. On mobile, any ad that fills the screen before the page appears fails, countdown or not.

How Chrome decides

Google reviews a sample of pages from a site, on desktop and mobile separately, and records the result in a report the publisher can see.

A site can be passing, in warning, or failing. Thirty days after a site is told it is failing, Chrome begins filtering its ads across the whole site.

Visitors see a small notice that ads were blocked, with an option to allow them on that site. Otherwise, the ads stay off until the site passes a new review.

Where failing formats come from

Publishers rarely choose a failing format on purpose. It usually arrives through somebody else's code.

A new ad partner's tag, a video player that sets itself to autoplay with sound, or a sticky unit switched on in a plugin's settings. Each can introduce a failing experience without anybody editing the site.

And you may never see it. Ads vary by visitor, place and device, and plenty of site owners view their own pages on a desktop, logged in, with an ad blocker running.

Reading the Ad Experience Report

The report lives in Search Console, which means the site has to be verified there by somebody at the business who will actually read it.

It shows a status for desktop and for mobile, and lists any failing experiences found, with the specifics of what the reviewer saw.

A status of not reviewed simply means Google has not looked yet. It is not a pass.

Search Console also emails verified owners when violations are found. If the only verified owner has left the business or was a former contractor, those warnings go nowhere.

A worked example

A regional food and recipe site run by two people earned its income from display ads, managed partly through an outside ad partner.

Last year the partner added a video unit, and later a sticky banner on phones. Both were switched on in the partner's dashboard, not on the site.

On some phones the video started with sound, and the sticky banner grew taller when larger ads were served into it. The owners, who checked the site on a laptop with an ad blocker, never saw either.

When the owners finally opened the Ad Experience Report, the mobile site was failing. The notice had gone to the developer who built the site years earlier.

The video was set to start muted and play only when tapped, and the sticky unit was held to a small fixed height. Both changes were confirmed on real phones before a review was requested.

The report returned to passing. Nothing about the recipes changed.

Fixing and asking for review

The fix is the same in outline every time: find the failing format, remove or change it, and confirm the change on a real phone and a real computer without an ad blocker.

Then request a review from the report, describing what changed. Until the site passes, any filtering continues.

If an ad partner's settings caused the problem, ask them in writing to keep those formats off your site, and check the report again after any change they make.

Beyond the filter

These formats annoy readers whether Chrome filters them or not. A pop-up over a recipe, or a video talking from the corner of a page, sends some readers away for good.

Google's mobile search has, since early 2017, also treated intrusive interstitials, large pop-ups that cover content as a visitor arrives from search, as a negative signal.

A separate Abusive Experiences Report covers worse behaviour, such as ads that imitate system warnings or redirect visitors without a click. Chrome acts on those too.

The counter-case

A business website that shows no ads is not affected at all, and need not do anything.

A publisher running a few standard display units in ordinary positions is very unlikely to fail. The standards target specific formats, not advertising in general.

And a passing report is a snapshot. It does not guarantee that a partner will not switch something on next month.

If your site shows ads, check the report now, and again after any change to partners or formats.

This week

  1. Verify the site in Search Console if needed.
  2. Open the Ad Experience Report for desktop and mobile.
  3. Check who receives Search Console email.
  4. View your pages on a phone without an ad blocker.
  5. List every ad partner and the formats they serve.
  6. Remove any failing format and request review.
  7. Recheck the report after every partner change.

Step five is the one most publishers have never done. A site's ads are often assembled from several partners over several years, and the format that fails is usually one nobody remembers agreeing to.

The other change to how display ads are sold this year is covered in Ad Manager is moving to a first-price auction.

Frequently asked questions

What changes on July 9?

Chrome's ad filter, which has applied in North America and Europe since February 2018, extends to sites in every country that repeatedly fail the Better Ads Standards.

What does Chrome actually block?

All ads on a filtered site, not only the failing ones, including ads served by Google. Visitors see a notice that ads were blocked, with an option to allow them.

Which ad formats fail the standards?

Pop-ups, video that autoplays with sound, prestitials with a countdown and large sticky ads, plus on phones flashing ads, full-screen scrollovers and pages crowded with ads.

Where do I check my site's status?

In the Ad Experience Report in Search Console, which shows desktop and mobile separately as passing, warning, failing or not reviewed, with examples of any failures.

How long before ads are filtered?

Chrome begins filtering a failing site's ads thirty days after the owner is notified, and continues until the problem is fixed and the site passes a new review.

Why would I not see the failing ad?

Ads vary by visitor, place and device, and many owners view their sites on a laptop with an ad blocker. Check on a real phone without one.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Ads on your site from several partners?

Open the Ad Experience Report today. We will check every format your pages actually serve, on phones and desktops.

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