Google Ads HTML5 Validator Deprecated - Any alternatives?

If you're a user of Google Ads HTML5 Validator, you may have to find an alternative soon. For many years, Google's ad validator has been used by Ad Ops to check the quality assurance of HTML5 creatives. At the time of writing (April 2022), "deprecation of the HTML5 Validator has been postponed pending further evaluation". Google may however pull the plug any moment soon.

What are the alternatives?

Fortunately, Google's HTML5 ad validator is not the only one around. Here are 3 alternatives to validate HTML5 creatives for Google Ads.

• AdValify.io
  It measures ad load speed, the number of HTTP requests, initial load and subload, JavaScript errors and things like CSS/JS minification. You can customize the ad validation thresholds when a test should pass or fail. You can also generate a PDF report of the results or share the link with others.
• The Media Trust
  The Media Trust provides automation and monitoring services for organizations across the entire advertising technology ecosystem. It validates ad quality in-flight and monitors for malware/malvertising.
• Geoedge
  Known among Ad Ops for years, Geoedge can protect creatives in real-time. It has a 90-second verification process that gives you an overview of the ad quality. It's well-known for it's global infrastructure with servers over the world.

Quality Assurance tests for creatives

Direct-sold campaigns are commonly trafficked via third-party ad servers, which may invoke 4th parties that increase latency, drop cookies or break your page. The ad validation tool on AdValify.io covers most of the checks you would think of when validating new 3P tags. It's an indispensable tool for Ad Ops by flagging issues that 3P creatives may have before going live.

Automated Creative QA with APIs

You can use APIs to automate the whole creative QA process. Ask your ad server vendor to integrate the APIs in your portal, so you can evaluate new creatives before the campaign goes live.

Conclusion

Even though the ad validator of Google is still in the air, alternatives are available to continue the ad validation checks on HTML5 creatives.