---
title: "Use case: protect your inventory from bad creatives and bad traffic"
description: "A layered protection setup — banner moderation for what your advertisers upload, automated creative scanning for DSP demand, and the traffic-quality workflow for fraud."
type: "howto"
audience: [admin, network-manager]
keywords: [malware, malvertising, moderation, approval, creative scan, fraud, traffic quality, blocked]
ui_path: "Account → Pending banners; Admin → Demand partners (DSP) → DSP creative scan (or Account → RTB → DSP creative scan); Account → Traffic Quality"
---

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/llms.txt. Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. Append .md to any documentation page URL to get its markdown version.

# Use case: protect your inventory from bad creatives and bad traffic

Three independent layers, each catching what the previous one can't:

| Layer | Catches | Where |
|---|---|---|
| **Banner moderation** | What your OWN advertisers upload | Account → Pending banners |
| **DSP creative scanning** | What EXTERNAL programmatic demand renders | Admin → Demand partners (DSP) → DSP creative scan, or Account → RTB → DSP creative scan |
| **Traffic quality** | Fraudulent/suspicious traffic on your inventory | Account → Traffic Quality |

None of the three is a gate on the others: a creative can pass moderation and still deliver
bot traffic, and a placement scored Fraudulent keeps serving until someone stops it.

## Who this is for

Network administrators. No network role has any of the three surfaces out of
the box:

- **Pending banners** — reviewing creatives is an administrator capability, not part of any
  network role, and no role has it by default. It is granted under **Admin → Users & access → Admin
  roles & permissions**; if nobody in your network can open that page, ask Epom support or your
  account manager.
- **Traffic Quality** — off for every role until your network administrator switches it on for that role.
- **DSP creative scan** — the admin page is added to an admin role on request (ask Epom
  support or your account manager); the account-side **RTB → DSP creative scan** tab is off for every network role.

A network manager who needs Traffic Quality or the account-side scan console asks their network
administrator to switch it on for their role.

## Prerequisites

- **Layer 1** is switched on per role, not per network (an administrator step): a user's saves are
  moderated only when their role has moderation on — *soft*, or *with deactivation* — and
  someone must be able to review. A reviewer is never moderated themselves.
- **Layer 2** needs a scan provider set up for your network by Epom support and **Creative
  scan provider** set on each DSP partner you want scanned. Partners left on *None (trusted)* are never scanned.
- **Layer 3** needs Traffic Quality enabled for your network by Epom support, Advanced analytics
  available, and the tab switched on for the role.

## Steps

1. **Turn on moderation** (administrator step) for the roles whose uploads you want reviewed (see
   Prerequisites). The two modes differ: with moderation *with deactivation* a creative cannot
   be activated until approved and editing a moderated field switches it off again; with *soft*
   moderation an edit only sends the creative back to the queue and it **keeps serving while it
   waits**. Review at **Account → Pending banners**: the **Status** filter
   defaults to *Pending + Rejected*; click **Approve** or **Reject** on a row. **Reject** also
   switches the creative off, and approving does not switch it back on. Approve and Reject work
   one row at a time — **Delete** is the only action that takes a multi-row selection. The
   advertiser sees the status badge on the banner.
   ![Pending banners queue with per-row approve and reject buttons](https://epom.com/docs-images/ad-server/creative-policy-protection/approval-queue.webp)
2. **Enable creative scanning per DSP partner** (administrator step: set the scan provider on the
   partner). Creatives from that partner are scanned for malware and policy violations; a
   *Blocked* one never wins the auction — the runner-up takes over. The scan console shows each
   creative's status and is read-only: you cannot force a rescan or clear a verdict from it.

3. **Watch traffic quality.** The page scores placements — **Site**, **Zone** and
   **Placement** columns identify each row — with a **Score**, a **Level** (Clean, Suspicious,
   Fraudulent, Blocked), the share of proxy, emulator and duplicate traffic and named
   **Indicators**. The **Level** filter defaults to Fraudulent + Blocked. **Generate report** on
   a row produces a PDF for evidence. The page does not block anything: pausing or unlinking
   the placement, or tightening its pre-targeting, are separate steps you take on the
   placement.
4. **Make it a weekly loop.** Queue → zero, scan console → review new verdicts, traffic
   quality → review the Fraudulent and Blocked rows.

## Corner cases and gotchas

> **Corner case:** moderation applies at banner save time — already-approved banners are not
> re-queued when you first enable it. Do a one-time review of existing creatives if you're
> switching moderation on for an established network. Likewise a brand-new banner from a
> moderated user starts as *New*, not *Pending*, until they use **Submit for approval**.

## Per-role notes

- **Administrator:** the approval queue and the admin scan console are yours.
- **Network manager:** none of the three surfaces by default; ask your network administrator for Traffic
  Quality or DSP Creative Scan if you need them.
- **Publisher and advertiser:** they see only the effects — an approval badge on a moderated
  creative, or a blocked DSP creative losing the auction.

## Related

- [Moderate banners, sites and traffic quality](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/guides/admin/moderation-and-quality.md)
- [Plug DSP demand](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/use-cases/programmatic-dsp-demand.md)
- [Brand safety with category rules, domain lists and advertiser blocks](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/use-cases/brand-safety-controls.md)