Ad Tech

Demystifying App-ads.txt

As you may have seen, on March 13th we released the final version of app-ads.txt, the mobile and native app follow-up to ads.txt. In this post I’d like to address some of the misconceptions and clarify the value prop around app-ads.txt. Background on ads.txt If you recall, ads.txt (Authorized Digital […]

The Three Deadly Sins of ads.txt and How Publishers Can Avoid Them

In this blog post, we will address some misconceptions and attempt to clarify how publishers should go about deploying and managing ads.txt. Why only three sins and not seven? ads.txt is not complicated enough for seven! ads.txt was never intended to solve every fraud problem in ad tech; it was […]

GDPR Consent Strings and URL Length: An Advisory from IAB Tech Lab

By Sam Tingleff One of our members recently brought to our attention a concern around the impact of GDPR consent strings on URL lengths. It seems worth a short discussion and an advisory. The Transparency and Consent Framework introduces the concept of a “consent string”, which is a piece of […]

Upgrading Video Ad Delivery Workflows with VAST 4.1

By Pieter Mees, Timothy Olds, Simon Trasler Possibly one of the most important new features in VAST 4.1 (Digital Video Ad Serving Template) is the specification of how to perform ad requests, which tackles a number of long-standing industry challenges and opens a path to more efficient video advertising. This […]

VAST Interactive Templates: Simplifying Interactivity Standards with VAST 4.1

By Michael Tuminello, Aron Schatz, Jesse Leikin VAST (Digital Video Ad Serving Template) and VPAID (Digital Video Player Ad Interface Definition), despite being old enough to pre-date the rise of mobile and over-the-top (OTT) advertising, have thus far resisted a wholesale update.  However, as detailed in the IAB Tech Lab’s […]

OpenMedia specs, including OpenRTB 3.0 Finalized and Ready for Adoption

By Jennifer Derke Today, IAB Tech Lab’s OpenRTB working group announced that the much-anticipated OpenRTB 3.0, AdCOM 1.0, and Ad Management 1.0 specifications are finalized and ready for industry adoption. Ads.cert: Signed Bid Requests remains in beta for continued early implementations, and participation with the working group to work on […]

IAB Tech Lab Releases Final Version of VAST 4.1

By Amit Shetty The Digital Video Ad Serving Template Version 4.1 (VAST 4.1) was released for public comment on June 14th 2018, and received an unprecedented amount of feedback, reflecting the level of interest in this release of VAST. Following discussions in the Digital Video Working Group, we are now […]

Announcing a new working group to tackle industry issues: IAB Tech Lab’s “Programmatic Practices Task Force”

By Jennifer Derke The digital advertising industry is grappling with important questions about the programmatic supply chain. In an open ecosystem with significant proprietary technology, supply and demand partners may not know how each other’s platforms make decisions. Highlighted in recent trade press, unexpected practices or algorithmic behavior can have […]

What it means for a DSP to support Ads.txt

What it means for a DSP to support ads.txt – and why it’s important By now your DSP has probably said that they “support ads.txt”. But what does that actually mean, and should you care? The ads.txt specification aims to address counterfeit inventory by giving content owners and distributors a […]

A simple tool to help you achieve brand safety: the ads.txt aggregator

By Jennifer Derke The IAB Tech Lab ads.txt aggregator tool crawls the web, providing regular updates on brand safe inventory, so you can be sure you’re investing your money in the right places. Specifically, the Aggregator:   Eliminates ad fraud (specifically, misrepresented domains) by crawling the web – more than 2M […]