Penetration Testing for UK Advertising & Marketing Technology
CREST-accredited penetration testing for adtech platforms, martech vendors, customer data platform (CDP) providers, ad-serving and campaign-management platforms, and marketing agencies running their own technology stack. Evidence for UK GDPR Article 32 across CDPs, tracking pixels, API tokens and bidstream integrations, with brand and client tenant isolation tested on every multi-tenant platform. Client-isolation focused.
- Unlimited retesting
- Unlimited pre-retesting
- No hidden fees
“I would highly recommend EJN Labs to any organisation seeking reliable, detailed, and well-managed penetration testing services, particularly for government or enterprise-level projects.”
“There wasn’t another company we could find that could deliver what we needed in the timeframe we needed. The client loved it, and we got instant ROI from the engagement.”
systems make up a typical advertising or marketing technology stack we test, from campaign managers and customer data platforms through to the APIs that move data to ad exchanges, data clean rooms and measurement partners.
What UK GDPR, Buyers & Enterprise Brands Expect
UK GDPR Article 32. Campaign, audience and customer data processed by adtech and martech platforms is personal data. Article 32(1)(d) requires a process for regularly testing, assessing and evaluating the effectiveness of your security measures. It does not name penetration testing as the method, but a test is the most direct evidence that your controls work. See our GDPR penetration testing page. UK GDPR Article 32.
PECR and consent. Platforms that set cookies, pixels or similar tracking technologies also sit under the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR), which the ICO enforces alongside UK GDPR. PECR governs consent for tracking and electronic marketing rather than security testing, so we test the underlying platform, including the tag and consent-management layer that PECR compliance depends on, separately from your legal consent review. ICO: Guide to PECR.
Enterprise brand vendor security. SOC 2 does not itself mandate a penetration test, but enterprise brand and agency clients increasingly ask their adtech and martech vendors for independent security testing evidence as part of vendor risk assessment, sometimes alongside a SOC 2 Type II report. This is a buyer expectation rather than a named legal requirement.
Who we test for. Adtech platforms, martech vendors, customer data platform (CDP) providers, ad-serving and campaign-management platforms, marketing automation and CRM software vendors, and agencies running their own technology stack. For the multi-tenant boundary between your brand or agency clients, see our multi-tenant SaaS page.
SCOPE
What We Test for UK Advertising & Marketing Technology
Customer Data Platforms & Client Isolation
Customer data platforms, ad-serving pixels and API tokens shared across multiple brand and agency clients on the same platform. Tenant isolation so one brand or client account cannot reach another’s audience segments, campaign data or API credentials.
Campaign Manager & Ad-Serving Platforms
Campaign management dashboards, ad-serving and creative-delivery platforms. Budget and spend-cap tampering, campaign-to-campaign data leakage, and role separation between agency, brand and publisher users.
Tag Management & Tracking Pixels
Tag managers, first-party pixel endpoints and consent-management platforms. Pixel governance, unauthorised tag injection, and whether a compromised tag could exfiltrate visitor or customer data from a client’s site.
Marketing Automation & List Management
Marketing automation platforms, CRM integrations and list-management tools. Marketing-list exposure, contact-record IDOR, segment-export controls, and separation between a brand’s own contacts and shared or purchased lists.
Bidstream, DSP & SSP Integrations
APIs behind programmatic bidding, demand and supply-side platform integrations, and third-party data-sharing feeds. OWASP API Top 10 testing for object-level authorisation, rate and quota abuse, and the trust boundary between your platform and the exchanges it connects to.
Cloud Infrastructure for Campaign & Audience Data
AWS, Azure and GCP configuration behind campaign, audience and measurement data stores. IAM scoping, encryption at rest, and multi-tenant boundaries on shared data-warehouse and data clean-room environments.
Corporate & Agency Networks
Internal Active Directory attacks and segregation between creative, media-buying and finance teams. Privileged access to ad accounts, billing systems and client credentials.
Phishing Defence
Targeted phishing simulation against media-buying, finance and account-management staff, using adtech-aware lures such as fake ad-platform billing alerts and agency invoice fraud.
OUR PROCESS
From Scope to Attestation in 4-6 Weeks
Scoping Call
30-minute technical scoping call covering your CDP, campaign platforms, tag and pixel setup, and any brand or client tenant-isolation requirements. Fixed-price quote within 24 hours.
Active Testing
3-15 days of hands-on testing by CREST-certified UK-based pen testers, against non-production environments with synthetic audience and campaign data wherever possible. Daily status updates.
Reporting
Executive summary plus full technical report with CVSS scores, reproduction steps, screenshots, and specific remediation. 60-minute walkthrough call.
Free Retest
After remediation, we retest at no extra charge. Letter of attestation provided for enterprise brand vendor assessments, SOC 2 evidence packs, or buyer due diligence.
CREDENTIALS
Verified Accreditations Auditors Accept
Every credential below is independently verifiable. UK procurement teams, FCA supervisors, ISO 27001 / SOC 2 auditors, and cyber insurance underwriters all recognise these standards.
GET YOUR QUOTE
Get a CREST adtech & martech pen test quote in 24 hours
A fixed-price quote back in one business day, from a named CREST assessor. No sales pipeline, no chasing.
- CREST and IASME accredited. Testing your auditors and clients already recognise.
- Fast-track testing within 24 hours where required. Free retest of every fix included.
- Live findings via your client portal, not a four-week PDF.
- Fixed price from £3,500 for a single-role, single-app scope, agreed up front. Most engagements run £5,000 and up. No day-rate surprises.
Dan WilcocksonFounder, CelloriUnder NDA Further named references available on a scoping call.
- We reply within one business day with a fixed-price quote from a named CREST assessor.
- You approve the scope and we book a start date, usually within 24 hours.
- Live findings land in your client portal as we test, with a free retest of every fix.
Get your fixed pen test quote in 24 hours
Quote request received
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COMPLIANCE READY
Reports Aligned to Every Framework
Findings map to specific control references in each framework, so your audit team submits the report directly without translation work.
UK GDPR
Article 32(1)(d) evidence that you regularly test the effectiveness of your security measures, for campaign, audience and customer data.
SOC 2
Not mandated by the Trust Services Criteria. CC4.1 names penetration testing as an example evaluation method, and enterprise brand buyers often expect a recent third-party test for Type II due diligence.
ISO 27001
Annex A 8.8 technical vulnerability management, once you declare that control applicable.
Cyber Essentials Plus
Often asked for by enterprise brand and agency clients running vendor security assessments. Certified directly by us as an IASME certification body.
Cyber Insurance
Findings and remediation documented against the questions on your broker or insurer’s proposal form. Requirements vary by insurer and policy.
NCSC Cloud Security Principle 3
Guidance for buyers of cloud-hosted adtech and martech platforms: look for externally audited evidence of regular penetration tests, including red-team and blue-team exercises.
PRICING
Indicative Engagement Pricing
Fixed-price quotes confirmed during scoping. Free retest, executive summary, walkthrough call, and letter of attestation included.
Depends on service + scope
External / web / API / mobile single-target engagement. CREST-certified delivery. Around 3 to 5 working days from kickoff to report.
Get a fixed quoteDepends on service + scope
Multi-target combined engagement (web + API + external + AD), or single complex target. Typically 7-10 days.
Get a fixed quoteDepends on service + scope
Full-stack engagement (multiple cloud accounts, hybrid AD, complex web + API + mobile). Typically 12-15+ days.
Get a fixed quoteWHY EJN LABS
What You Get From Advertising & Marketing Technology Penetration Testing
Six concrete differentiators competitors don’t all match.
CREST-Certified Testers, Verifiable
Every test by a CREST-certified pen tester (CRT, CCT APP, CCT INF where applicable). Verify our company status at crest-approved.org.
24-Hour Startup, Where Required
From signed scope to active testing in a single business day for incident response, audit deadlines, or regulator-driven timelines.
Live Findings, Not 4-Week PDFs
Critical issues reported during testing through your client portal. Your team remediates while testing continues.
Audit-Ready Reports
Executive summary plus full technical report with CVSS scores and explicit framework mappings (ISO 27001, SOC 2, PCI DSS, FCA SYSC).
Free Retests, Standard
Verify remediation of every finding before close-out. Letter of attestation for audit submission included. Most competitors charge £1,500-£3,000 per retest.
UK-Based CREST Testers
Every engagement performed by vetted, UK-based CREST-certified testers, matched to your needs, security clearance, and compliance scope.
FAQ
Frequently Asked
What is a penetration test and why would an advertising or marketing technology company need one?
A penetration test is a manual, hands-on security assessment where CREST-certified testers try to break into your systems the way a real attacker would, then report exactly what they found and how to fix it. For an adtech or martech company that usually means your campaign platform, customer data platform (CDP), or the APIs that move data to ad exchanges and measurement partners, so you can show enterprise brand clients, agencies and your cyber insurer that the platform holding their data has been independently tested.
Can you test our customer data platform (CDP)?
Yes. We test CDPs and similar audience-management platforms for tenant isolation between brand or agency clients on the same platform, segment and audience-list export controls, and how pixel and API credentials are scoped and rotated.
Do you test our tag manager, first-party pixels and consent-management platform?
Yes. We review tag manager configurations, including server-side containers, pixel endpoints and consent-management platforms, for unauthorised tag injection, data leaking to the wrong destination, and whether a compromised tag could pull data out of a client’s site or app.
Can you test our CDP before we onboard a major enterprise brand, including SOC 2 evidence?
Yes. We scope the engagement around the controls an enterprise brand’s vendor security team is likely to ask about, tenant isolation, data segregation and access control, and can time delivery of the report and letter of attestation to line up with a SOC 2 Type II audit window or a specific onboarding deadline.
How do you test for brand or client data isolation on a shared adtech platform?
We authenticate as two separate brand or agency tenants on the same platform, then attempt to reach the other tenant’s campaigns, audience segments, creative assets and billing data through direct object references, shared identifiers, and misconfigured multi-tenancy controls. See our multi-tenant SaaS penetration testing page.
How do you handle live campaign and customer data during testing?
We ask for a non-production or staging environment with synthetic or fully anonymised audience and campaign data wherever possible. Production testing against live campaign or customer data only goes ahead with an agreed restricted scope and safe testing windows around active campaigns.
Which advertising and marketing technology organisations do you test for?
Adtech platforms, martech vendors, customer data platform (CDP) providers, marketing agencies running their own technology stack, ad-serving and campaign-management platforms, and marketing automation or CRM software vendors.
What’s in the report?
Executive summary (board-ready), technical report with CVSS 3.1 scores, reproduction steps, screenshots, specific remediation guidance, and a 60-minute walkthrough call. Letter of attestation issued after free retest.
Do you sign NDAs?
Yes. We sign client-supplied NDAs as standard. Engagement data is protected under our ISO 27001 (BSI-audited) information security management system.
How quickly can you start?
From signed scope to active testing in 24 hours where required. Standard pipeline is 3-5 business days from initial scoping call to test start.
Are your testers UK-based and what certifications do they hold?
Every engagement is performed by vetted UK-based CREST-certified testers matched to your engagement based on security clearance, compliance scope, and sector specialism. Testers hold CREST certifications relevant to their discipline (CRT, CCT APP, CCT INF, CCSAM).
20+ CREST-accredited testing services in one place
Web, mobile, API, cloud, AI, infrastructure, red team. Pick the test that fits your environment.
Get my Advertising & Marketing Technology pen test scope
A CREST-certified UK-based pen tester will contact you within one business day with a fixed price aligned to your CDP, campaign platform and client-isolation needs.
