What ad verification covers
- Confirm ads display in the correct geographic markets.
- Check creative, placement and landing-page behavior by region.
- Spot misdelivered or broken placements before they waste spend.
- Compare how the same campaign looks in different countries, states or cities.
Advertisers and agencies run these checks on a schedule, not once. Delivery changes with budgets, targeting rules and publisher inventory, so a placement that was correct last week can drift.
Why location accuracy matters
Ad delivery is highly location-dependent. Verifying from a residential IP in the target market shows what real users see, instead of what your office network or a server range is shown. If a campaign is limited to one metro, only a visitor in that metro proves it works.
Nefo residential proxies reach 227 countries and territories, 22,417 cities and 14,252 ISPs/ASNs. Targeting lives in the username, so one proxy line can serve many markets: add -country-us for a country, -city-losangeles for a city, or an ASN token to compare carriers.
A simple ad verification workflow
- List the campaigns, placements and landing pages you need to confirm, with the market each one targets.
- Generate proxy credentials and set the country, state or city for the first market.
- Load the page or ad slot through the proxy in a headless browser, then capture a screenshot and the final landing URL.
- Repeat for each market by changing the targeting token, and compare creative, placement and redirect behavior.
- Log mismatches, such as the wrong market, missing creative or a broken landing page, and re-check after the fix.
Browser tools such as Playwright, Puppeteer and Selenium accept a proxy with a host, port, username and password, so the loop above is a short script.
Which proxy type and session mode to use
| Task | Proxy type | Session mode |
|---|---|---|
| Sweep many placements or markets | Rotating residential | Rotating, new IP per request |
| Follow one ad through click, redirects and landing page | Rotating residential | Sticky, 1 minute to 24 hours |
| Check how a mobile-first placement renders on a carrier network | Rotating mobile | Rotating, or sticky up to 2 hours |
| Repeat checks from one fixed address | Static ISP IP | Fixed for the rental |
Residential covers most verification work. Reach for mobile only when the campaign targets mobile carrier traffic, as explained in residential vs mobile proxies.
Targeting tips
- Start at country level, then narrow to state or city only for campaigns that target that area.
- Keep the same sticky session id while you review one flow end to end, and change it to start a new check.
- Run the same URL from two or three markets side by side to see where the delivery differs.
- Check big markets first: US, UK and Germany pages list the targeting available.
Cost and getting started
Rotating residential bandwidth starts at $4.50 for 5 GB ($0.90/GB), falls to $0.73/GB at 100 GB and never expires. Pay by card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, Alipay, Binance Pay or crypto. Create an account, buy a package, copy the host, port, username and password, and point your browser tool at the gateway gw.nefo.net:9000.
Ad verification is a legitimate lawful use. Respect each site's terms, robots directives and applicable law, keep request rates reasonable and avoid personal data you are not permitted to process. See the acceptable use policy.
What to record on every check
A verification run is only useful if you can compare it with the next one. Store the same fields every time so that a change in delivery stands out instead of getting lost in screenshots.
- The market: country, state or city, and the session id you used.
- The date and time of the request, since campaigns and budgets change during the day.
- A full-page screenshot of the ad slot and of the landing page.
- The final URL after every redirect, so a broken or swapped destination is visible.
- The page status and any error text, which separates a blocked request from a wrong creative.
Keep these records per campaign. When a placement is wrong, the market, time and final URL give the publisher or ad network something concrete to investigate.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Checking only from your office. Your own network shows the view of one place and may be personalized by your history.
- Changing the IP in the middle of a flow. Use a sticky session when you follow an ad to its landing page, so the site sees one visitor.
- Treating one market as proof for all. Check each country, state or city that the campaign targets.
- Running checks too fast. Keep a steady, moderate rate so your requests do not look like abuse.
If a page behaves differently on repeat, test it again from a second market and from a different session id before you report it. A pattern across markets is stronger evidence than a single failed load.
Frequently asked questions
Yes. Target the country, state or city in the proxy username, for example -country-us or -city-losangeles. Nefo residential proxies cover 22,417 cities, so you can check metro-level campaigns. See US city-targeted proxies.
Use rotating sessions for sweeps across many placements or markets, where each check is independent. Use a sticky session, held from 1 minute up to 24 hours, to follow one ad through to the landing page from one consistent location.
HTTPS is convenient for browsers and headless tools such as Playwright or Puppeteer. SOCKS5 is also available. Both work on every residential proxy.
Ad delivery depends on where and what kind of connection a visitor appears to use. A residential IP in the target market shows what real users see, while a server IP may be treated differently. See residential vs datacenter.
It depends on how many pages and creatives you load. Because the minimum is 5 GB for $4.50 and bandwidth never expires, you can run a small check across a few markets first and top up only when coverage grows.