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As AI transforms advertising, organizations need a clear, structured understanding of its applications across the marketing and media value chain. The IAB AI in Advertising Use Case Map, developed with industry leaders, provides a comprehensive guide to current and emerging AI applications. What it is: Real-world AI use cases organized by category, maturity (established vs. … Continued
While the use of AI in digital advertising is not new, advances in generative AI are creating new efficiencies and creative capabilities across the campaign lifecycle. Despite the buzz, legal and regulatory uncertainties remain a key challenge to adoption. IAB’s AI Governance and Risk Management Playbook is designed to help brands, agencies, and publishers navigate … Continued
Generative AI is transforming how advertisers innovate, strategize, and execute campaigns. By leveraging technology that creates text, images, audio, and video from learned patterns, advertisers can streamline workflows, deliver personalized customer experiences, and optimize campaigns with unprecedented precision. IAB has released the Generative AI Playbook for Advertising, providing guidance into the practical applications of generative … Continued
This document is intended to be an informational guide to understanding Artificial Intelligence and functions to help organizations evaluate different AI use cases against their own brand and business requirements. This document is developed by a subcommittee of the IAB Tech Lab Board of Directors. It seeks to evaluate the landscape and foster discussion on … Continued
The IAB Legal Affairs Council Generative AI Working Group has published its white paper, Legal Issues and Business Considerations When Using Generative AI in Digital Advertising. This new, comprehensive whitepaper addresses the legal and business issues concerning the creation, training, and implementation of generative AI in digital advertising. Generative AI has captured the limelight over … Continued
As AI assistants become embedded in our daily routines—across phones, smart speakers, dashboards, and wearables—audio is emerging as a vital interface for interaction, discovery, and commerce. With over 1 billion users already engaging with platforms like Meta AI, Alexa+, and ChatGPT, we are quickly entering a future where conversations are the customer journey. This guide … Continued
Digital Audio is one of the most underutilized channels in media planning—despite its reach, engagement, and proven ROI. IAB’s new guide, “Measuring Digital Audio in Media Mix Models (MMM),” explores why audio investment lags and how the industry can fix it. Why This Matters Although 80% of Americans listen to Digital Audio monthly, the channel … Continued
Earlier this year, IAB published a guide called Podcasting in the Creator Economy that highlighted the benchmark beating capability of podcasters to create value for advertisers due to the uniquely high levels of influence they have with global consumers. Among many of the key takeaways in the guide were the fact that 90% of the … Continued
Getting Audio & Podcasting on the Media Plan: A Guide for Mutual Success dives into the untapped potential of digital audio in marketing, spotlighting how brands can reach highly engaged audiences and leverage the trusted connection audio listeners have with content. The guide reveals a notable gap between consumer audio usage and brand investment, presenting … Continued
Podcasting in the Creator Economy: A Long-Term Opportunity is a follow-up to the “The Creator Economy Opportunity” research released by IAB in December 2023. This guide focuses on the power of podcasting as a vehicle for influence and engagement and provides best-in-class examples of brand-creator partnerships. Podcast creators attract benchmark beating levels of attention and … Continued
Podcasts offer advertisers hyper-focused audiences that remain attentive even during ads. Podcast listeners have been shown to be the most loyal and engaged audience of any digital medium. The stakes for revenue in podcasting are growing, and the need to attract buyers will become more competitive over time. To foster a fair market for podcast … Continued
IAB and IAB Europe have released Demystifying Incrementality in Commerce Media. As commerce media continues to experience explosive growth, with ad spend forecast to exceed $150 billion across the US and Europe, marketers face increasing pressure to prove that their investments are delivering meaningful business outcomes. In this environment, incrementality has become one of the … Continued
As customer journeys grow more complex and privacy rules tighten, commerce media is emerging as a powerful solution—transforming owned assets like websites, apps, and first-party data into revenue-driving ad channels. It offers unmatched precision, transparency, and access to real transaction data for marketers and media experts. Defining Commerce Media and Its Ecosystem breaks down what … Continued
IAB and IAB Europe have collaborated with numerous Retail Media Networks and retailers to release the final In-Store Retail Media: Definitions and Measurement Standards, after two months of open feedback. These standards have been created to address the rapidly expanding in-store Retail Media opportunities and offer unified definitions, measurement standards, and guidelines for ad formats … Continued
IAB’s Retail Media Advanced Measurement & Data Collaboration guide delves into incrementality measurement, highlights the role of data collaboration, and provides actionable insights for moving forward and driving retail media success. Key highlights include: Incrementality in Retail Media: Essential for measuring true marketing impact, especially within retail’s closed-loop ecosystem. Challenges in Data Integration: Walled gardens … Continued
The IAB Measurement, Addressability and Data Center has launched the Digital Out of Home (DOOH) & In-Store Retail Media Playbook. The playbook focuses on how brands and retailers can partner to enhance the in-store experience to deliver a comprehensive, shopper-centric approach. It examines the strategic partnerships that drive a unified commerce experience within physical store … Continued
On September 13, 2023, the IAB/MRC released the initial draft of the Retail Media Measurement Guidelines for public comment, engaging industry stakeholders to shape standards that resonate with their practical needs and aspirations. In January, IAB proudly unveiled the final version of these guidelines, a testament to collaborative expertise and industry-wide consensus. This comprehensive framework … Continued
The Creator Economy is set to skyrocket to nearly $500 Billion in the coming years. But with rapid growth comes the need for clarity, alignment, and scalable strategies. That’s why IAB collaborated with industry leaders to launch the Creator Economy Definitions and Taxonomy—a shared language to define and standardize key terms and concepts across the … Continued
As digital video formats continue to expand across web, social, CTV, and streaming platforms, the ability to consistently measure them has become more complicated—and more essential. From impression delivery to audience reach to outcome attribution, the signals, standards, and methodologies vary widely across environments. The IAB Anatomy Series was created to help the industry navigate … Continued
IAB and IAB Europe have released Demystifying Incrementality in Commerce Media. As commerce media continues to experience explosive growth, with ad spend forecast to exceed $150 billion across the US and Europe, marketers face increasing pressure to prove that their investments are delivering meaningful business outcomes. In this environment, incrementality has become one of the … Continued
The IAB, in collaboration with the Media Rating Council (MRC), formed the Attention Task Force to bring together industry experts and stakeholders. Through this effort, the IAB and MRC have released the Attention Measurement Guidelines for public comment. Developed with input from over 200 industry leaders across advertising, media, and measurement, these Guidelines establish a … Continued
IAB and IAB Europe have collaborated with numerous Retail Media Networks and retailers to release the final In-Store Retail Media: Definitions and Measurement Standards, after two months of open feedback. These standards have been created to address the rapidly expanding in-store Retail Media opportunities and offer unified definitions, measurement standards, and guidelines for ad formats … Continued
A well-implemented cross-channel measurement strategy provides a unified view of campaign performance, helping marketers understand how different channels contribute to overall success. By integrating data from multiple sources, marketers can gain holistic insights into consumer behavior, optimize media spending, and improve customer experiences. Implementing an effective cross-channel measurement framework requires: Careful planning Diverse tool integration … Continued
IAB’s Retail Media Advanced Measurement & Data Collaboration guide delves into incrementality measurement, highlights the role of data collaboration, and provides actionable insights for moving forward and driving retail media success. Key highlights include: Incrementality in Retail Media: Essential for measuring true marketing impact, especially within retail’s closed-loop ecosystem. Challenges in Data Integration: Walled gardens … Continued
In collaboration, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and Media Rating Council (MRC) have released their Augmented Reality (AR) Measurement Guidelines to establish clear and consistent definitions and measurement guidelines for ads within Augmented Reality campaigns. The IAB AR Measurement Guidelines Task Force, working with MRC, set forth guidelines for advertisers and marketers to quantify how much media … Continued
On September 13, 2023, the IAB/MRC released the initial draft of the Retail Media Measurement Guidelines for public comment, engaging industry stakeholders to shape standards that resonate with their practical needs and aspirations. In January, IAB proudly unveiled the final version of these guidelines, a testament to collaborative expertise and industry-wide consensus. This comprehensive framework … Continued
The MRC and IAB Tech Lab have updated the IAB Digital Video Ad Impression Measurement. These Guidelines represent a subset of measurement guidelines for digital video ads online, specifically, on-line browser or internet activity, mobile (web and application) activity and Over The Top (OTT) activity that involves digital video and audio advertising content. An addendum … Continued
IAB and MRC, with the assistance of the IAB Tech Lab, have introduced a revision to the Desktop Display Served Impression Guideline, shifting desktop digital ad measurement away from a minimum of “count-on-ad-insertion” approach to a “count-on-begin-to-render” model. With this move, mobile and desktop measurement will be more closely in sync with digital video measurement, … Continued
On November 17, 2015, the Media Rating Council (MRC) issued Social Media Measurement Guidelines V1.0. The guidelines establish a detailed set of methods, definitions and common practices for entities that measure social media activity. This version incorporates cross-industry feedback captured during a 30-day public comment period. All measurers seeking MRC accreditation for any Social Media … Continued
Measuring audience reach has to do with establishing the number of people that visit a site—either directly or indirectly. These measurements are called “uniques” and play an important role in marketing and decision-making. The Audience Reach Measurement Guidelines help to ensure that companies audited for audience reach measurement are transparent and accountable in order to … Continued
These guidelines are intended to cover the measurement and disclosures related to dynamic, inapplication advertisements that appear on mobile devices. These guidelines are not intended at this time to cover the following: hard-coded advertising, or sponsorships or advertising in a non-mobile environment (the nature of the environment generally can be determined based on the operating … Continued
The Mobile Web Advertising Measurement Guidelines have been developed by the membership of the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), IAB, and Media Rating Council (MRC) in close collaboration with other stakeholders. Contributors to these guidelines are representative of the key parties in the mobile marketing ecosystem, and include handset manufacturers, wireless operators, ad servers, content providers, … Continued
The Guidelines for the Conduct of Ad Verification consist of a common set of methods and practices for conducting ad verification services. Ad verification is a service that offers technology to ensure that ads appear on intended sites and reach the targeted audience. A source of guidance to any company engaged in ad verification, the … Continued
Clicks on ads generate revenue in direct response ad campaigns and therefore need to be clearly defined. An addendum to the 2004 Ad Impression Measurement Guideline, the Click Measurement Guidelines include details about the origins of a click, when to count a click, which clicks are valid and/or fraudulent, and the difference between a clickthrough … Continued
The growth of and dependence on third-party ad servers (TPAS or 3PAS) and application service providers (ASPs) necessitated oversight on these campaign relationships. Agencies or Publishers that use an ASP for counting ad impressions may engage in counting activities that affect counts recorded in the systems of their vendor ASPs. When an ASP is audited, … Continued
An addendum to the 2004 Ad Impression Measurement Guidelines, the Rich Internet Application (RIA) Guidelines accounts for measuring ads in an online application where the page may change periodically while the ad is inserted dynamically and independent of page loads. An example of an RIA is an online email application or game site. Since the … Continued
These foundational measurement guidelines, released in September 2004, introduced common practices for measuring ad impressions. The IAB Ad Impression Measurement Guidelines have become the standard by which ad-tracking companies are evaluated. In general, these guidelines outline client-side ad counting. In a server/client relationship where the ad is served from the ad server to a client, … Continued
Curated Audiences (formerly Seller Defined Audiences or SDA) is an addressability specification incubated within Project Rearc. It allows publishers, DMPs and data providers to scale first-party data responsibly and reliably without data leakage or reliance on deprecated IDs and/or new, untested technologies.
The Global Privacy Protocol (GPP) is a protocol designed to streamline the transmission of privacy, consent, and consumer choice signals from sites and apps to ad tech providers; it enables advertisers, publishers and technology vendors in the digital advertising industry to adapt to regulatory demands across markets.
Most organizations engaging in digital marketing and advertising must share data across their internal departments and with other organizations, that frequently includes personal data of individuals. As organizations pursue deploying privacy technologies to their operations, Data Clean Rooms (DCR) have become increasingly sought-after as mechanisms to facilitate data sharing for organizations with first party data.
ID-Less Solutions Guidance provides a comprehensive review on how ID Solutions and ID-Less Solutions compare. It focuses on providing a concrete definition of what exactly an ID-Less Solution is and what it is not. Additionally, it provides a review of many common use cases – including measurement, fraud, frequency capping, etc – and how they … Continued
PAIR protocol version 1.1 Finalized. This latest update to Open PAIR (v1.1) is a major milestone in refining the protocol to enable wider industry adoption, by clarifying the definitions of several of the terms in the protocol and improving the integration with prebid with a new Open PAIR module.
Originally published in Dec 2018, and deprecated in 2023, the Guidelines for Identifier for Advertising (IFA) on OTT platforms are recommendations on how to maintain a high-quality advertising experience within over-the-top television (OTT) environments. Those technical guidelines provide instructions on best practices for delivering targeted ads, as well as controlling ad frequency and rotation across … Continued
The IAB Tech Lab Spiders and Robots list helps companies identify automated traffic such as search engine crawlers, monitoring tools, and other nonhuman traffic that they don’t want showing up in their analytics and billable counts.
The ACIF (Ad Creative ID Framework) specification and the ACIF Validation API Specification v1.0 have both been finalized. ACIF was developed by the IAB Tech Lab Advanced TV Commit Group to support advertisers and publishers deliver better consumer experience for video advertising on various devices including Connected Television (CTV).
Attribution Data Matching Protocol (ADMaP) is a privacy-centric protocol that enables advertisers and publishers to measure attributions using Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs) in a Data Clean Room (DCR) and protecting their user’s Personal Identifiable Information. ADMaP is designed to use authenticated and deterministic first-party data for which data providers have necessary consent for measurement purposes … Continued
The Content Taxonomy provides a “common language” that can be used when describing content. Typical uses of the content taxonomy are contextual targeting and brand safety.
With the introduction of IAB Tech Lab’s Audience Taxonomy 1.0, the industry now has a common nomenclature for audience segment names to improve comparability of data across different providers. It is a key element in IAB Tech Lab’s Data Transparency Standard (datalabel.org), which facilitates consistent labeling of audience data by first-party and third-party sources. The … Continued
The Ad Product Taxonomy was launched by IAB Tech Lab in July 2022 to establish a standardized nomenclature for describing the product or service being advertised. It aims to provide publishers with stronger control over the types of ads that get delivered via automated channels. It joins sister taxonomies managed by IAB Tech Lab – … Continued
The Digital Advertising Industry Requirements for Proprietary Ad Systems built by Platforms and OS Providers grew out of the next stage of the Privacy Sandbox Requirements that were on the roadmap of the Privacy Sandbox Task Force.
The IAB Ad Creative ID Framework (ACIF) Ad Ops Guide is a comprehensive resource designed to streamline the ad tracking and management process across digital video platforms, particularly in Connected TV (CTV). Created by the IAB Tech Lab, ACIF addresses the challenges of ad creative consistency and transparency in a fragmented digital advertising ecosystem. By … Continued
The Accountability Platform is a specification for open, auditable data structures and standard practices to detect miscommunications and demonstrate, via standard data structures and reporting, accurate communications across the digital advertising supply chain of data use preference and restriction signals set by users and the digital properties they visit. The Accountability Platform specification has been … Continued
A VAST Tag is an XML that represent a video ad. The VAST Tag Validator is a tool that allows developers and ad operations to test and validate their VAST XML.This tool (along with the linked XSDs and sample VAST Tags) is intended to help developers and ad operations efficiency and accurate implement VAST.
Following changes to the Privacy Sandbox timeline after the publication of the Fit Gap Analysis, IAB Tech Lab widened the remit of the Privacy Sandbox Task Force to include all Proprietary Ad Systems built by Platforms and Operating Systems. This resulted in the renaming of the Task Force to being the Private Ad Systems Task … Continued
This document is intended to be an informational guide to understanding Artificial Intelligence and functions to help organizations evaluate different AI use cases against their own brand and business requirements. This document is developed by a subcommittee of the IAB Tech Lab Board of Directors. It seeks to evaluate the landscape and foster discussion on … Continued
The Ad Creative ID Framework (ACIF) was created by IAB Tech Lab to simplify ad creative management and tracking across platforms. With combined CTV and linear TV ad spend nearing $100 billion in 2027 (eMarketer, 2024), the rise of streaming platforms and diverse ad formats has made ad tracking and measurement complex. The ACIF introduces … Continued
Fideslang ( fee-dez-læŋg, derived from the Latin term “Fidēs” and “language”) is a taxonomy developed to standardize the way privacy and governance-related data elements, purposes of data use, and subjects are labeled and described. This taxonomy provides an interoperable standard designed to assist businesses in navigating the complex landscape of global privacy regulations.
The Open Measurement Software Development Kit (OM SDK) is designed to facilitate third party viewability and verification measurement for ads served to web video and mobile app environments. The IAB Open Measurement SDK (OM SDK) offers common code and libraries for facilitating third-party access to measurement data. Sites and apps that integrate the OM SDK … Continued
VAST is a Video Ad Serving Template for structuring ad tags that serve ads to video players. Using an XML schema, VAST transfers important metadata about an ad from the ad server to a video player.
Developed by members of the OpenDirect Working Group, OpenDirect 2.0 allows for improved order management.
IAB Tech Lab’s Rearc Addressability and Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs) Working Group has developed the ID solutions guide as an informational guide for advertisers, publishers, media agencies, data collaborators, & ad tech vendors to demystify the landscape, better understand the scope and scale of ID solutions and the technology, so that they can evaluate different … Continued
Differential Privacy, a rigorous mathematical definition of privacy has emerged as a leading technique to analyze and draw inferences from data sets in a way where one cannot determine if a particular individual was present in the data or not.
The Data Deletion Request Framework is a specification that facilitates the handling of deletion requests in accordance with the changing landscape of consumer privacy rights as dictated by privacy laws. The Framework builds upon IAB Tech Lab’s portfolio of privacy compliance initiatives, including the Global Privacy Platform, the Accountability Platform, and the Privacy Taxonomy project. … Continued
Podcasts offer advertisers hyper-focused audiences that remain attentive even during ads. Podcast listeners have been shown to be the most loyal and engaged audience of any digital medium. The stakes for revenue in podcasting are growing, and the need to attract buyers will become more competitive over time. To foster a fair market for podcast … Continued
The IAB Tech Lab Data Transparency standard establishes minimum disclosure requirements for audience data providers
The IAB Tech Lab Data Transparency standard establishes minimum disclosure requirements for audience data providers. These disclosure requirements are intended to establish a baseline level of transparency for data buyers about aspects of data collection, processing, and modeling that inform data quality and applicability, regardless of buyer use case.
This guide is part of a series of Programmatic Guides that IAB Tech Lab is providing to address the many technical components involved in executing programmatic ad campaigns. This guide focuses on the use cases involved in a programmatic campaign for connected TV (CTV). And since CTV often works with partners in server-side ad insertion … Continued
“ads.cert” is the umbrella marketing term for an IAB Tech Lab protocol suite that provides an open standard cryptographic security foundation for the programmatic advertising ecosystem. Using these solutions helps participants assure that they obtain genuine ad trade opportunities that have been secured against misrepresentation. Any party buying, selling, or facilitating ad trades can deploy … Continued
Open Private Join and Activation (OPJA) is a specification that will enable an advertiser to reach an audience of users with which they have an existing relationship (for example, a list of the advertiser’s customers or of users subscribed to the advertiser’s loyalty program) without the need for tracking users more broadly across the internet … Continued
This guide is part of a series of Programmatic Guides that IAB Tech Lab is providing to address the many technical components involved in executing programmatic ad campaigns. This guide focuses on the use cases involved in a programmatic campaign for connected TV (CTV). And since CTV often works with partners in server-side ad insertion … Continued
IAB Tech Lab offers access to an aggregation of ads.txt, app-ads.txt and sellers.json files published around the internet. The ads/app-ads/sellers aggregator is now a part of the IAB Tech Lab’s Transparency Center.
The IAB New Ad Portfolio replaces all the previous creative display guidelines for mobile and desktop – including the Universal Ad Package (UAP), rich media units, and other ad units’ related guidance. Streamline design and cross-screen production in this mobile world.
The Digital Services Act (DSA) is a regulation that applies to online intermediaries and platforms and is applicable in the EU. It lays down transparency obligations in relation to advertising; these obligations apply to Online Platforms, “Very Large Online Platforms” (VLOPs), and “Very Large Online Search Engines” (VLOSEs) as defined by the Digital Services Act.
The IAB Tech Lab stewards technical specifications for the IAB Europe Transparency & Consent Framework. The specifications will be maintained by a working group of the IAB Tech Lab going forward, in a collaboration between IAB Europe and IAB Tech Lab that leverages IAB Europe’s policy and legal expertise and IAB Tech Lab’s technical expertise.
IAB Tech Lab has a tool for managing and maintaining SKAdNetwork ID list. Advertisers, DSPs, and networks can register their SKAdNetwork IDs and IAB Tech Lab will publish a list of all registered IDs that can be downloaded by app developers and publishers. The SKAdNetwork, where SK stands for StoreKit, is part of an Apple … Continued
Real-time Bidding (RTB) is a way transacting media that allows an individual ad impression to be put up for bid in real-time. This is done through a programmatic on-the-spot auction, which is similar to how financial markets operate. RTB allows for Addressable Advertising; the ability to serve ads to consumers directly based on their demographic, … Continued
Standardizing how requests (and responses) are made is key to allow any two entities to “speak” to each other. While OpenRTB exists as a standard for transacting ad inventory in an RTB transaction, there are a number of other scenarios where no standard exists. For example, making a subsequent request for ad creatives (whether in … Continued
buyers.json and DemandChain Object are two new buy-side transparency standards being introduced by the IAB Tech Lab (the third being the Ad Product Taxonomy). These standards help address the challenges around malvertising and nefarious ads, by providing transparency around the entities that are involved with publishing such ads. The first, buyers.json, is a mechanism for … Continued
As part of a broader effort to eliminate the ability to profit from counterfeit inventory in the open digital advertising ecosystem, ads.txt provides a mechanism to enable content owners to declare who is authorized to sell their inventory. The mission of the ads.txt project is simple: Increase transparency in the programmatic advertising ecosystem. ads.txt stands … Continued
Ad management occurs when a buyer (or a representative party) submits creatives for creative approval, supply platforms approve or disapprove of those creatives, and buyers receive feedback accordingly. Before the publication of this technical standard, supply platforms have relied on proprietary methods and tools for ad management, or none at all. This process is important … Continued
IAB Tech Lab believes that the next generation of standards will evolve as code. We are enthusiastic about supporting the industry in this regard and facilitating the governance and management of relevant open source projects that will support evolution, deployment and adoption of standards via code development, as well as foster innovation while identifying and … Continued
MRAID, or “Mobile Rich Media Ad Interface Definitions” is the common API (Application Programming Interface) for mobile rich media ads that will run in mobile apps. This is a standardized set of commands designed to work with HTML5 and JavaScript that developers creating rich media ads use to communicate what those ads do (expand, resize, … Continued
The digital video marketplace continues to diversify and increase in complexity. From the players embedded on websites, to varied screen sizes of mobile devices, and to the increasingly high resolutions of connected TVs, developing ad creatives that can play cross-screen has become more challenging.
The US State Signals are a set of specifications for privacy strings for multiple US states that must be used in conjunction with the Global Privacy Platform (GPP). Currently specifications have been developed to support privacy signals from five US states (California, Virginia, Colorado, Utah, and Connecticut). Additional privacy strings will be developed to support … Continued
The IAB Tech Lab has introduced two new technical specifications aimed at increasing trust of the supply chain, specifically on the supply-side of real-time bidding and programmatic buying. The first, sellers.json, enables buyers to verify the entities who are either direct sellers of, or intermediaries in the selected digital advertising opportunity for purchase. The second, … Continued
SHARC is a standardized ‘safe ad container’ API that enables interactive ads to be served across mobile-app, web, and other HTML-enabled environments, in a secure iframe which prevents the ad from being able to access sensitive page and user data.
The latest iteration of SIMID (v1.2) adds support for responsive ads by signaling a -1 to report “unknown size.” It also provides instruction on how to execute and “L-shaped” ad space, also called “squeeze-backs. This ability always existed in SIMID and this version simply provides the explicit instructions to do so. To increase security, v1.2 … Continued
IAB Tech Lab has worked closely with data providers to develop an industry-first standard aimed at bringing transparency to the data marketplace. This work is ultimately intended to align with IAB Tech Lab’s Data Transparency Framework Proposal, published for public comment in May 2018.
The new OpenData standard impacts companies who receive data reports from sources such as ad tech vendors, data management platforms, and other partners. For example, an agency or a publisher may receive reports (delivered in excel format or via API connections) from partners that have varied header field names. The process of merging these reports … Continued
As part of a broader effort to eliminate the ability to profit from invalid traffic, ad fraud, and counterfeit inventory in the open digital advertising ecosystem, the SupplyChain object enables buyers to see all parties who are selling or reselling a given bid request. This extension object can be used with OpenRTB 2.5. It was … Continued
The SafeFrame Implementation Working Group had worked on and released for public comment SafeFrame 2.0. However, as part of the public comment period, enough feedback came back for features we could not fully support on the current SafeFrame framework. One of the key principles for the version 2.0 update was to enable the cross-platform use … Continued
The Best Practices for the Disclosure of Ad Fraud Attacks is a product of IAB Tech Lab’s Programmatic Supply Chain Working Group. It develops and consolidates best practices to drive alignment and consistency across the industry when it comes to ad fraud disclosure. This guidance comprises a set of guiding principles that can be expanded … Continued
In January 2023, IAB Tech Lab announced a new workstream committed to working with the industry to produce guidance, tools, and initiatives that can be used to reduce the carbon impact of the programmatic supply chain.
Use CTV to refer to a specific type of device Use OTT to refer to content Over the last few years, streaming services have exploded and have made the terms “OTT” and “CTV” (defined below) popular. Unfortunately, people also tend to use them interchangeably, which is fine for casual conversations, but makes for some real … Continued
In 2016, the Header Tag Task Force assembled within the IAB Tech Lab to determine the appropriate scope for standards development in header bidding. Considering the recent growth of header bidding yield management strategies, the IAB Tech Lab Board of Directors determined a need for baseline open protocol for integrating header tag technology with an … Continued
These guidelines are intended to cover the measurement and disclosures related to dynamic, in-application advertisements that appear on mobile devices. These guidelines have been developed through the joint efforts of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), Interactive Advertising Bureau Technology Laboratory (IAB Tech Lab), the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) and the Media Rating Council (MRC).
In 2016, the Header Tag Task Force assembled within the IAB Tech Lab to determine appropriate scope for standards development in header bidding. Considering the recent growth of header bidding yield management strategies, the IAB Tech Lab Board of Directors determined a need for baseline open protocol for integrating header tag technology with an ad … Continued
Dynamic Ad content standards is a structured system of meta-data for creative components and asset variations of the creative components that may be used in an advertisement. It also defines a standard delivery structure that is extensible for custom asset types.
These viewability guidelines are designed for mobile (web and in-app) advertising. This document supersedes all previous MRC guidance on the measurement of viewable impressions of advertising that appears in mobile environments effective upon issuance and serves as permanent guidance (subject to periodic updates; future iterations of these guidelines will be managed in coordination with the … Continued
The IAB Opt-in Value Exchange Advertising Playbook is designed to help brand marketers and their agencies identify the various Opt-in Value Exchange advertising options available today. It is the first guide of its kind to provide guidance on creative delivery, what to buy how to buy, and measurement to help brands who are new to … Continued
HTML5 for Digital Advertising 2.0 is a guide to help ad developers produce ads in an HTML5 format that meet IAB Display Creative Guidelines for desktop and mobile display ads.
Version 1.2 of the OpenRTB Dynamic Native Ads API Specification has been finalized. Some of the added features include support for third-party ad serving, dynamic creative optimization (DCO), privacy flags, and new event tracking options.
By making this code available, the IAB Tech Lab hopes to help you have better communication with your site visitors about ad blocking and to get a more consistent understanding of the scope of ad blocker usage.
The digital video marketplace includes platforms that extend to mobile, television, and an array of other technologies and devices. The specifications outlined below have been updated to support cross-screen ad execution, and provisions have been made for varied quality files that improve “intelligent” selection in vendor-served ads (3rd party) and server-side ad stitching practices. Supporting … Continued
The IAB Video Multiple Ad Playlist (VMAP) specification is an XML template that video content owners can use to describe the structure for ad inventory insertion when they don’t control the video player or the content distribution outlet.
Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH) advertising is one of the fastest-growing channels in digital media, with a U.S. market expected to hit $3 billion in 2025*. As DOOH becomes a key part of omnichannel campaigns, understanding how to measure its impact is essential for marketers, agencies, and media owners alike. Despite the momentum, the DOOH landscape is … Continued
DOOH features and capabilities have considerably evolved over the last few years, but its definition hasn’t been updated. In partnership with members of the IAB DOOH Committee, we’re excited to release a formal definition for the entire industry to align to and build upon. Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH) refers to digital media used for marketing purposes … Continued
The IAB Measurement, Addressability and Data Center has launched the Digital Out of Home (DOOH) & In-Store Retail Media Playbook. The playbook focuses on how brands and retailers can partner to enhance the in-store experience to deliver a comprehensive, shopper-centric approach. It examines the strategic partnerships that drive a unified commerce experience within physical store … Continued
Automating Invoicing in Digital Advertising: Streamline operations. Eliminate manual processes. Accelerate invoice processing. Despite the digital transformation of media and marketing, invoicing remains one of the last strongholds of outdated, manual workflows. From emailed PDFs to snail-mailed paper bills, the financial operations underpinning digital advertising still rely on slow, error-prone processes that create unnecessary friction, … Continued
Curated Audiences (formerly Seller Defined Audiences or SDA) is an addressability specification incubated within Project Rearc. It allows publishers, DMPs and data providers to scale first-party data responsibly and reliably without data leakage or reliance on deprecated IDs and/or new, untested technologies.
Most organizations engaging in digital marketing and advertising must share data across their internal departments and with other organizations, that frequently includes personal data of individuals. As organizations pursue deploying privacy technologies to their operations, Data Clean Rooms (DCR) have become increasingly sought-after as mechanisms to facilitate data sharing for organizations with first party data.
Originally published in Dec 2018, and deprecated in 2023, the Guidelines for Identifier for Advertising (IFA) on OTT platforms are recommendations on how to maintain a high-quality advertising experience within over-the-top television (OTT) environments. Those technical guidelines provide instructions on best practices for delivering targeted ads, as well as controlling ad frequency and rotation across … Continued
A Critical Step Toward Standardized, Scalable, and Flexible Advertising Agreements The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is seeking public comment on the General Terms for Advertising Agreements, a baseline set of contractual terms that, when used with the forthcoming transaction addenda, will establish a consistent set of terms that can be leveraged across all types of … Continued
The IAB Tech Lab Spiders and Robots list helps companies identify automated traffic such as search engine crawlers, monitoring tools, and other nonhuman traffic that they don’t want showing up in their analytics and billable counts.
Last Updated: February 25, 2025 While many companies continue to produce traditional fixed-size ad formats, it is essential for brands, advertisers, publishers, and creative agencies to embrace the benefits of the IAB New Ad Portfolio. Flexible ad sizes improve delivery across diverse screen sizes and devices while future-proofing campaigns for emerging technologies such as augmented … Continued
The Content Taxonomy provides a “common language” that can be used when describing content. Typical uses of the content taxonomy are contextual targeting and brand safety.
The Open Measurement Software Development Kit (OM SDK) is designed to facilitate third party viewability and verification measurement for ads served to web video and mobile app environments. The IAB Open Measurement SDK (OM SDK) offers common code and libraries for facilitating third-party access to measurement data. Sites and apps that integrate the OM SDK … Continued
The Data Deletion Request Framework is a specification that facilitates the handling of deletion requests in accordance with the changing landscape of consumer privacy rights as dictated by privacy laws. The Framework builds upon IAB Tech Lab’s portfolio of privacy compliance initiatives, including the Global Privacy Platform, the Accountability Platform, and the Privacy Taxonomy project. … Continued
The IAB Tech Lab Data Transparency standard establishes minimum disclosure requirements for audience data providers
The IAB Tech Lab Data Transparency standard establishes minimum disclosure requirements for audience data providers. These disclosure requirements are intended to establish a baseline level of transparency for data buyers about aspects of data collection, processing, and modeling that inform data quality and applicability, regardless of buyer use case.
“ads.cert” is the umbrella marketing term for an IAB Tech Lab protocol suite that provides an open standard cryptographic security foundation for the programmatic advertising ecosystem. Using these solutions helps participants assure that they obtain genuine ad trade opportunities that have been secured against misrepresentation. Any party buying, selling, or facilitating ad trades can deploy … Continued
IAB Tech Lab offers access to an aggregation of ads.txt, app-ads.txt and sellers.json files published around the internet. The ads/app-ads/sellers aggregator is now a part of the IAB Tech Lab’s Transparency Center.
The IAB New Ad Portfolio replaces all the previous creative display guidelines for mobile and desktop – including the Universal Ad Package (UAP), rich media units, and other ad units’ related guidance. Streamline design and cross-screen production in this mobile world.
Standardizing how requests (and responses) are made is key to allow any two entities to “speak” to each other. While OpenRTB exists as a standard for transacting ad inventory in an RTB transaction, there are a number of other scenarios where no standard exists. For example, making a subsequent request for ad creatives (whether in … Continued
buyers.json and DemandChain Object are two new buy-side transparency standards being introduced by the IAB Tech Lab (the third being the Ad Product Taxonomy). These standards help address the challenges around malvertising and nefarious ads, by providing transparency around the entities that are involved with publishing such ads. The first, buyers.json, is a mechanism for … Continued
As part of a broader effort to eliminate the ability to profit from counterfeit inventory in the open digital advertising ecosystem, ads.txt provides a mechanism to enable content owners to declare who is authorized to sell their inventory. The mission of the ads.txt project is simple: Increase transparency in the programmatic advertising ecosystem. ads.txt stands … Continued
The IAB Tech Lab has introduced two new technical specifications aimed at increasing trust of the supply chain, specifically on the supply-side of real-time bidding and programmatic buying. The first, sellers.json, enables buyers to verify the entities who are either direct sellers of, or intermediaries in the selected digital advertising opportunity for purchase. The second, … Continued
SHARC is a standardized ‘safe ad container’ API that enables interactive ads to be served across mobile-app, web, and other HTML-enabled environments, in a secure iframe which prevents the ad from being able to access sensitive page and user data.
IAB Tech Lab has worked closely with data providers to develop an industry-first standard aimed at bringing transparency to the data marketplace. This work is ultimately intended to align with IAB Tech Lab’s Data Transparency Framework Proposal, published for public comment in May 2018.
The SafeFrame Implementation Working Group had worked on and released for public comment SafeFrame 2.0. However, as part of the public comment period, enough feedback came back for features we could not fully support on the current SafeFrame framework. One of the key principles for the version 2.0 update was to enable the cross-platform use … Continued
The Best Practices for the Disclosure of Ad Fraud Attacks is a product of IAB Tech Lab’s Programmatic Supply Chain Working Group. It develops and consolidates best practices to drive alignment and consistency across the industry when it comes to ad fraud disclosure. This guidance comprises a set of guiding principles that can be expanded … Continued
In January 2023, IAB Tech Lab announced a new workstream committed to working with the industry to produce guidance, tools, and initiatives that can be used to reduce the carbon impact of the programmatic supply chain.
Dynamic Ad content standards is a structured system of meta-data for creative components and asset variations of the creative components that may be used in an advertisement. It also defines a standard delivery structure that is extensible for custom asset types.
By making this code available, the IAB Tech Lab hopes to help you have better communication with your site visitors about ad blocking and to get a more consistent understanding of the scope of ad blocker usage.
The Guidelines for the Conduct of Ad Verification consist of a common set of methods and practices for conducting ad verification services. Ad verification is a service that offers technology to ensure that ads appear on intended sites and reach the targeted audience. A source of guidance to any company engaged in ad verification, the … Continued
Just launched! The IAB Gaming Measurement Framework is a new industry framework that brings clarity, consistency, and confidence to gaming ad campaigns—a channel where over 80% of U.S. internet users identify as gamers. Developed in collaboration with industry leaders, the framework outlines standard gaming ad formats by media type (Display, Video, Audio, and Custom) and … Continued
Today, 84% of U.S. internet users aged 16–64 identify as gamers. Among Gen Z and Gen Alpha, that number jumps to 90–95%—underscoring gaming’s critical role in modern media consumption. As brands increasingly turn to gaming to reach and engage audiences, understanding the full spectrum of advertising opportunities within gaming environments has become essential. IAB’s Gaming … Continued
Casual games have become a cornerstone of the gaming industry, particularly on mobile and web platforms – popular examples include Candy Crush Saga, Angry Birds, FarmVille, and Words with Friends. Approximately 200 million people in the U.S. play casual games for an average of about 30 to 60 minutes per day. The casual gaming market … Continued
In collaboration, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and Media Rating Council (MRC) have released their Augmented Reality (AR) Measurement Guidelines to establish clear and consistent definitions and measurement guidelines for ads within Augmented Reality campaigns. The IAB AR Measurement Guidelines Task Force, working with MRC, set forth guidelines for advertisers and marketers to quantify how much media … Continued
The regulatory landscape for video advertising is shifting faster than ever. From AI accountability battles to expanding youth protections and state-level enforcement, marketers, agencies, and publishers face growing complexity in how they plan, buy, and measure campaigns. The newest IAB Video Compliance Brief distills the latest developments shaping the industry into one concise resource. Designed … Continued
The Global Privacy Protocol (GPP) is a protocol designed to streamline the transmission of privacy, consent, and consumer choice signals from sites and apps to ad tech providers; it enables advertisers, publishers and technology vendors in the digital advertising industry to adapt to regulatory demands across markets.
Video advertising is evolving—and so are the regulations governing it. The latest IAB Video Compliance Brief delivers a concise overview of the most urgent legal developments affecting video ads, from state privacy laws to AI oversight. With 20+ states enacting new privacy rules, tighter FTC regulations on subscription services, and increasing scrutiny of AI in … Continued
As privacy laws, AI governance, and FTC rules rapidly evolve, advertisers face growing complexity in video ad compliance. From tightening data privacy laws and AI restrictions to new subscription billing rules and children’s privacy protections, understanding the shifting landscape is critical. The IAB Video Compliance Brief, a new quarterly series from the IAB Media Center, … Continued
Last Updated: February 25, 2025 While many companies continue to produce traditional fixed-size ad formats, it is essential for brands, advertisers, publishers, and creative agencies to embrace the benefits of the IAB New Ad Portfolio. Flexible ad sizes improve delivery across diverse screen sizes and devices while future-proofing campaigns for emerging technologies such as augmented … Continued
Compliance with U.S. state privacy laws is paramount in the fast-evolving landscape of digital advertising. Most U.S. state privacy laws require a controller to conduct a data protection assessment for personal information processing activities that present a heightened risk of harm to consumers. Such activities generally include processing personal information for purposes of targeted advertising, … Continued
Getting Audio & Podcasting on the Media Plan: A Guide for Mutual Success dives into the untapped potential of digital audio in marketing, spotlighting how brands can reach highly engaged audiences and leverage the trusted connection audio listeners have with content. The guide reveals a notable gap between consumer audio usage and brand investment, presenting … Continued
Fideslang ( fee-dez-læŋg, derived from the Latin term “Fidēs” and “language”) is a taxonomy developed to standardize the way privacy and governance-related data elements, purposes of data use, and subjects are labeled and described. This taxonomy provides an interoperable standard designed to assist businesses in navigating the complex landscape of global privacy regulations.
The IAB Legal Affairs Council Generative AI Working Group has published its white paper, Legal Issues and Business Considerations When Using Generative AI in Digital Advertising. This new, comprehensive whitepaper addresses the legal and business issues concerning the creation, training, and implementation of generative AI in digital advertising. Generative AI has captured the limelight over … Continued
Differential Privacy, a rigorous mathematical definition of privacy has emerged as a leading technique to analyze and draw inferences from data sets in a way where one cannot determine if a particular individual was present in the data or not.
IAB’s Class Action Litigation Working Group has released two highly anticipated white papers, covering the spate of lawsuits brought against participants in the digital advertising industry under the Video Privacy Protection Act and state wiretapping laws. These white papers provide valuable key elements of claims, strategies for successful defenses, and guidance on technical implementations. The … Continued
IAB’s Class Action Litigation Working Group has released two highly anticipated white papers, covering the spate of lawsuits brought against participants in the digital advertising industry under the Video Privacy Protection Act and state wiretapping laws. These white papers provide valuable key elements of claims, strategies for successful defenses, and guidance on technical implementations. The … Continued
The Digital Services Act (DSA) is a regulation that applies to online intermediaries and platforms and is applicable in the EU. It lays down transparency obligations in relation to advertising; these obligations apply to Online Platforms, “Very Large Online Platforms” (VLOPs), and “Very Large Online Search Engines” (VLOSEs) as defined by the Digital Services Act.
The IAB Tech Lab stewards technical specifications for the IAB Europe Transparency & Consent Framework. The specifications will be maintained by a working group of the IAB Tech Lab going forward, in a collaboration between IAB Europe and IAB Tech Lab that leverages IAB Europe’s policy and legal expertise and IAB Tech Lab’s technical expertise.
The US State Signals are a set of specifications for privacy strings for multiple US states that must be used in conjunction with the Global Privacy Platform (GPP). Currently specifications have been developed to support privacy signals from five US states (California, Virginia, Colorado, Utah, and Connecticut). Additional privacy strings will be developed to support … Continued
Blog Post: Advertisers’ Guide to the IAB MSPA The IAB Multi-State Privacy Agreement (MSPA) is an industry contractual framework intended to aid advertisers, publishers, agencies, and ad tech intermediaries in complying with five state privacy laws that will become effective in 2023 (in California, Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah). The MSPA is not a “model contract” … Continued
New state privacy laws coming into effect in 2023 include new requirements for companies to respond to, and in some cases pass on, consumer requests to access, delete, or correct their personal information. This chart summarizes those requirements in a succinct, one-page chart. Five new privacy state laws are taking effect in 2023: California Privacy … Continued
The Best Practices for the Disclosure of Ad Fraud Attacks is a product of IAB Tech Lab’s Programmatic Supply Chain Working Group. It develops and consolidates best practices to drive alignment and consistency across the industry when it comes to ad fraud disclosure. This guidance comprises a set of guiding principles that can be expanded … Continued
The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and 4A’s (American Association of Advertising Agencies) have released the final version of the Standard Addendum for Digital Video Advertising in TV Long Form Video (“LFV Addendum”). This Addendum amends and supplements the standard internet advertising terms and conditions, last modified in 2009. The LFV Addendum is intended to be voluntarily used … Continued
Version 3.0 of the Standard Terms and Conditions for Interactive Advertising for Media Buys of One Year or Less (“Standard Ts&Cs) covers a broad range of interactive advertising issues and scenarios. Version 2.0, released in 2002, served the market well for a number of years but as the industry matured, new technologies became available, and … Continued
As digital video formats continue to expand across web, social, CTV, and streaming platforms, the ability to consistently measure them has become more complicated—and more essential. From impression delivery to audience reach to outcome attribution, the signals, standards, and methodologies vary widely across environments. The IAB Anatomy Series was created to help the industry navigate … Continued
The regulatory landscape for video advertising is shifting faster than ever. From AI accountability battles to expanding youth protections and state-level enforcement, marketers, agencies, and publishers face growing complexity in how they plan, buy, and measure campaigns. The newest IAB Video Compliance Brief distills the latest developments shaping the industry into one concise resource. Designed … Continued
CTV. OLV. Social Video. FAST. Today’s video landscape is fragmented, fast-moving, and increasingly difficult to navigate. Platforms use different IDs, siloed metrics, and inconsistent buying mechanisms — making seamless cross-channel planning feel out of reach. IAB’s Unified Media Planning Playbook Across CTV, OLV, Social Video, and FAST cuts through the noise with a practical, actionable … Continued
Video advertising is evolving—and so are the regulations governing it. The latest IAB Video Compliance Brief delivers a concise overview of the most urgent legal developments affecting video ads, from state privacy laws to AI oversight. With 20+ states enacting new privacy rules, tighter FTC regulations on subscription services, and increasing scrutiny of AI in … Continued
The ACIF (Ad Creative ID Framework) specification and the ACIF Validation API Specification v1.0 have both been finalized. ACIF was developed by the IAB Tech Lab Advanced TV Commit Group to support advertisers and publishers deliver better consumer experience for video advertising on various devices including Connected Television (CTV).
The IAB Ad Creative ID Framework (ACIF) Ad Ops Guide is a comprehensive resource designed to streamline the ad tracking and management process across digital video platforms, particularly in Connected TV (CTV). Created by the IAB Tech Lab, ACIF addresses the challenges of ad creative consistency and transparency in a fragmented digital advertising ecosystem. By … Continued
A VAST Tag is an XML that represent a video ad. The VAST Tag Validator is a tool that allows developers and ad operations to test and validate their VAST XML.This tool (along with the linked XSDs and sample VAST Tags) is intended to help developers and ad operations efficiency and accurate implement VAST.
As CTV viewership and ad spending surge, the ad format landscape is evolving rapidly. However, a lack of standardization across platforms is slowing industry growth. IAB’s report, Connected TV (CTV) Ad Format Landscape: How Standardization Can Drive Programmatic Growth and Innovation, explores how innovation in immersive, interactive ads can benefit both advertisers and viewers, fostering … Continued
The Ad Creative ID Framework (ACIF) was created by IAB Tech Lab to simplify ad creative management and tracking across platforms. With combined CTV and linear TV ad spend nearing $100 billion in 2027 (eMarketer, 2024), the rise of streaming platforms and diverse ad formats has made ad tracking and measurement complex. The ACIF introduces … Continued
VAST is a Video Ad Serving Template for structuring ad tags that serve ads to video players. Using an XML schema, VAST transfers important metadata about an ad from the ad server to a video player.
IAB’s Class Action Litigation Working Group has released two highly anticipated white papers, covering the spate of lawsuits brought against participants in the digital advertising industry under the Video Privacy Protection Act and state wiretapping laws. These white papers provide valuable key elements of claims, strategies for successful defenses, and guidance on technical implementations. The … Continued
This guide is part of a series of Programmatic Guides that IAB Tech Lab is providing to address the many technical components involved in executing programmatic ad campaigns. This guide focuses on the use cases involved in a programmatic campaign for connected TV (CTV). And since CTV often works with partners in server-side ad insertion … Continued
The digital video marketplace continues to diversify and increase in complexity. From the players embedded on websites, to varied screen sizes of mobile devices, and to the increasingly high resolutions of connected TVs, developing ad creatives that can play cross-screen has become more challenging.
The latest iteration of SIMID (v1.2) adds support for responsive ads by signaling a -1 to report “unknown size.” It also provides instruction on how to execute and “L-shaped” ad space, also called “squeeze-backs. This ability always existed in SIMID and this version simply provides the explicit instructions to do so. To increase security, v1.2 … Continued
The MRC and IAB Tech Lab have updated the IAB Digital Video Ad Impression Measurement. These Guidelines represent a subset of measurement guidelines for digital video ads online, specifically, on-line browser or internet activity, mobile (web and application) activity and Over The Top (OTT) activity that involves digital video and audio advertising content. An addendum … Continued
The digital video marketplace includes platforms that extend to mobile, television, and an array of other technologies and devices. The specifications outlined below have been updated to support cross-screen ad execution, and provisions have been made for varied quality files that improve “intelligent” selection in vendor-served ads (3rd party) and server-side ad stitching practices. Supporting … Continued
