Supply quality guidelines
Index Exchange (Index) is committed to maintaining a clean and fraud-free exchange by choosing to work with select, premium sellers, both publishers and intermediaries, that drive consistent traffic from loyal audiences.
We review all publisher inventory prior to onboarding to ensure their inventory aligns with Index’s quality standards as defined below. Publishers that don’t meet these standards will not be integrated, or if already integrated, will be deactivated.
Note: All publishers must sign and adhere to the terms and conditions outlined in our Master Services Agreement (MSA).
Quality standards
Index evaluates the aesthetic of a publisher’s or intermediary’s inventory to ensure that it’s visually appealing and meets the standards below:
- Contains minimal pop-ups.
- Easy to navigate.
- Contains low to moderate ad density.
- It's consistent in its layout across multiple tabs.
Note: These standards are based on subjective analysis and may change based on regional variations.
Prohibited/restricted publisher content
All direct publishers and intermediaries selling inventory on the Index platform will be rejected for onboarding or removed from the exchange if their inventory contains any of the following prohibited content. However, some exceptions may apply for restricted content only.
| Prohibited content category | Description |
|---|---|
|
Mature or sexually explicit |
Pornography, nudity, or depictions or descriptions of sexual acts, and mature or violent content. |
|
Copyright |
Infringing copyright laws or intellectual property rights (e.g. torrent sites are prohibited). |
|
Illegal |
Promoting illegal activity, is defamatory or infringes on the legal rights of others. |
|
Hate / Discriminatory |
Promoting discrimination by race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, disability, gender, age, or sexual orientation. |
|
Abusive website user experience |
Auto-directing on a page to a website intended/related to the original site, using artificial means to inflate traffic; any content that includes malware and misleading users to interact with advertisements. |
|
Terrorism |
Advocating or advancing terrorism. |
|
Virus / Malware |
Initiating downloads without user consent or infecting user machines with malware. |
|
Weapons |
Containing sales or instructions to create bombs, firearms, ammunition, or any other weapons. |
Restricted
| Restricted content category | Description |
|---|---|
|
Pharmacy |
Online pharmacies or sites providing medical advice/pharmaceutical recommendations. |
|
User-Generated Content (UGC) |
Any type of digital content that has been created by unpaid contributors. It can refer to pictures, videos, testimonials, tweets, blog posts, etc. UGC is considered restricted due to the unpredictable nature inherent to this media, which can be difficult to regulate and control. |
|
Dating |
Websites related to dating are considered restricted because of their adult-oriented services and the risk of adult content. |
|
Drugs / Alcohol / Tobacco / Gambling |
Websites related to legal drugs, alcohol, and gambling must have provided age controls. Content promoting illegal drugs is always prohibited. Tobacco, cannabis, and cannabis accessories are considered restricted content within jurisdictions where these products are legal. |
|
Cryptocurrency |
Cryptocurrency sites due to the unregulated exchange of money and a higher risk of fraudulent practices. |
|
News / Politics |
Sensitive news or political content. |
|
Anime / Manga |
Anime and Manga may be allowed in certain instances where the domain content meets all other Index standards (no excessive violence, nudity, etc.). |
|
Download / Freeware
|
High-quality download or freeware websites may be allowed in cases where the downloads are verified to be free of malware, require user consent to download, have transparent and expected behaviours, protect user privacy, among other user-safety requirements as applicable. |
Ads.txt monitoring
As part of Index’s commitment to anti-fraud measures within the exchange, all publishers must implement ads.txt to declare the authorized sellers of their inventory. This is to improve transparency into the inventory supply chain, help prevent domain spoofing, and unauthorized reselling of inventory. To learn more about this policy, see our Ads.txt and app-ads.txt exchange policy.
Invalid traffic (IVT) monitoring
Index is committed to operating a transparent and clean exchange. To make sure that we meet this goal, Index has a partnership with HUMAN, Inc. (Human; formally White Ops), the global leader in bot mitigation and fraud protection. To learn more about HUMAN, Inc., visit the HUMAN, Inc. website.
Index uses a tool called HUMAN, Inc. by MediaGuard to scan each advertising opportunity received by our exchange to filter out ad requests originating from bots or fraudulent traffic. Once an ad request clears this filtration step, it is assigned a lookupID. The lookupID is sent in bid requests to DSPs to indicate that MediaGuard has scanned the ad request and determined that it is not fraudulent. For more information about the lookupID sent in bid requests, see the Impression Extension Object in List of supported bid request fields.
In order to continuously monitor changing fraud risks, we also leverage a tool from HUMAN, Inc. called FraudSensor to scan post-bid traffic for fraud.
Brand safety
As part of our commitment to reducing ad fraud, improving the digital advertising experience, and increasing brand safety, Index is officially accredited with multiple industry certifications. In addition, Index is the first company to achieve the IAB UK Gold Standard 1.1 certification and is also certified under the JICWEBS brand safety standards.
Index has also achieved independent validation conducted by a Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG) designated auditor for the following TAG certification seals:
- Certified Against Fraud Seal
- Certified Against Malware Seal
- Certified Against Piracy Seal
- Inventory Quality Guidelines Certified Seal
These seals demonstrate Index’s dedication to combating and preventing invalid traffic, piracy, and malware. They also show our compliance with a clear, common language that describes advertising inventory and transactions across the advertising value chain.
