Online advertising in the UK is diverse, but whether it's paid ads on platforms and the internet, claims on company websites and social media channels or influencer ads, we are the UK’s frontline regulator for online ads.

Find out how we regulate online ads

We should all be able to trust the ads we see, hear and interact with wherever they appear. By strengthening our proactive, tech-based regulation and partnering with other regulators, we’re keeping online ads legal, decent, honest and truthful.

AI Ad Monitoring System

Most businesses online are responsible and follow the advertising rules, but we take action to tackle those that don’t. As part of that, we’re making world leading use of technology to help us identify and tackle age-restricted ads, for instance for alcohol or gambling, that may be served inappropriately to children. And we’re using artificial intelligence and data science to help us act at scale and speed in monitoring online ads and to carry out enforcement work.

The ASA’s Active Ad Monitoring system is a cutting-edge AI-powered tool designed to proactively identify non-compliant ads across the internet. Our system is already having a significant impact, processing more than 3 million ads per month and assisting our team in identifying ads that breach advertising rules.

Influencer ads

We’re working with tech platforms and networks to remove problem ads including misleading social influencer posts.

The ‘Influencers’ guide to making clear that ads are ads’ is a best-practice guide on how to ensure that advertising content posted by influencers is clear about what it is.  While it’s written with an influencer’s perspective in mind, the guidance is also useful for brands and agencies. It is intended to provide the reader with a good understanding of the laws and rules that apply to them and how to make sure that they are following those rules for the benefit of their audience and the wider influencer marketing industry.

And we’re playing our part in helping disrupt fraudulent and criminal scam ads through our scam ad alert system. We also provide a range of advice and training to help advertisers get their ads right and we work closely with a network of partners to boost protections for consumers and business in the online space.

Find out more