By Joe Ranzenbach
In the not-so-distant past, independent viewability measurement presented one of the most complex challenges faced by mobile advertising. In response to the industry problem, IAB Tech Lab brought us together to develop a solution and in April 2018, the Open Measurement SDK (OM SDK) was brought to market. The OM SDK eliminated the need for multiple vendor integrations by supporting all of them and took into account input from across the ecosystem in the process.
Since its general availability release, over 50 OM SDK integrations have been certified via the IAB Tech Lab. With measurement coverage now across billions of mobile devices globally, industry scale for Open Measurement is becoming a reality. So much so that it was utilized in measurement for the majority of Integral Ad Science’s in-app impressions by the end of Q3 2019.
This progress is in large part due to the support of our community (our IAB Tech Lab Working Group features members from more than 65 companies) and tireless efforts from Commit Group members at Comscore, DoubleVerify, Google, Integral Ad Science, Microsoft, Nielsen, Pandora, and the IAB Tech Lab. Given the collaborative nature of this project, we continue to receive incredibly useful feedback and have incorporated it into the next major milestone in the Open Measurement initiative.
We’re excited to announce the release of OM SDK Version 1.3. It’s easier to integrate, easier to activate, and better-aligned with MRC guidelines. Since the API for Open Measurement (OMID) follows a semantic versioning system, OMID 1.3 will be a minor release and therefore will be backwards compatible with verification scripts using earlier release versions (e.g. 1.1, 1.2). For app and SDK integration partners looking to adopt the new features introduced in this release, code changes will be required to add new API calls and events.
While you can find a full list of updates here, there are three highly anticipated new features worth covering:
Audio Ad Measurement
By 2020, over 75% of internet users in the U.S. will listen to digital audio, meaning brands will have an even bigger opportunity to literally speak directly to their audience. So we’ve included audio ads as a new media type for measurement. Outside of display, video and native, this is our first time adding a new media type to Open Measurement; and, with over 35% of digital audio listeners tuning into Pandora, we are excited to partner with them as a fellow Commit Group member in doing so.
Content-Level Brand Safety
Brand safety for mobile in-app advertising has traditionally been limited to the scoring of the app itself as opposed to specific content within the app. This means that a news app would have a single set of scores for it rather than separate scores for each article that a user could read in the app.
The impact here can be significant for both publishers and advertisers. For instance, in the event of a terrorist attack, many advertisers are forced to cease delivery across the news category given the level of uncertainty around what their ads may display next to. These limitations are the result of a lack of information made available to ad technology: only an ID for the app is present.
In an effort to provide greater control to advertisers and better protect publisher yield, we are introducing the concept of content URLs for mobile in-app. With this new value, app publishers offering content with a web equivalent may now pass the corresponding web URL for verification purposes.
New Impression Definitions
The Media Rating Council (MRC) introduced new “Begin to Render” requirements for measurement of digital display impressions in 2018. Unfortunately, these requirements aren’t easy for all members of the ecosystem to abide by and have resulted in impression counting discrepancies between various vendors, ad servers, and publishers.
To remedy this and better align the industry with MRC guidelines, we’ve created a simplified system for impression definitions and introduced a new begin-to-render impression event.
Key Resources
To learn more about the OM SDK Version 1.3, OMID 1.3 API, onboarding process and compliance, please visit the OMSDK resources page at https://iabtechlab.com/omsdk, or reach out to omsdksupport@iabtechlab.com.
Register now for the “Upgrading to OM SDK 1.3” webinar on January 16, 2020 to get direct guidance from the OM SDK product and engineering team.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Joe Ranzenbach, Director of Product, Mobile & Video, Integral Ad Science