What’s New in CTV Ad Format Signaling

Finalizing signaling for the CTV Ad Portfolio

CTV is often lauded for its hybrid capabilities, meaning the ability to both garner big-screen engagement and optimize using real-time digital signals. The combination has strong appeal for buy and sell side alike, driving rapid growth for the medium.

The boom of CTV advertising with a projected $80B market still faces challenges. In some respects, the adtech framework of CTV is still nascent, with much work currently being completed by the IAB Tech Lab to develop interoperable standards.

So far, CTV standards released include initiatives across supply chain transparency, ad fraud, contextual targeting, creative reporting and more.

CTV Ad Format Signaling is one such initiative created in response to emergent ad formats seen in CTV, like Pause Ads and Home-screen units.

These formats have been running in-market for some time, but in silos, through custom integration paths. This means buyers lack consistency and, in some cases, transparency around how ads render and perform. It also means buying models are limited, because DSPs and SSPs trade on the “universal language” of OpenRTB, and until now, that language didn’t describe these formats.

What is CTV Ad Format Signaling?

CTV Ad Format Signalling introduces or amends specific metadata fields within bid requests and bid responses. This allows publishers to signal exactly the ad opportunity available and buyers to respond through real-time bidding (OpenRTB).

Six formats are covered:

Pause Ads
Menu/Home Screen Ads
Overlay Ads
Screensaver Ads
In Scene
Squeezebacks

You can view examples of these formats here.

What are the Key Changes?

Rather than inventing new objects, the proposal extends what the industry already uses:

Expanded AdCOM enumerations for plcmt (identifying the format), pos (on-screen position), and playbackmethod.
VAST NonLinearAds now carries <MediaFiles>, applying the same delivery model that linear ads have always used, so NonLinear response can deliver a static image, a cinemagraph, or full-motion video file. Pause, Screensaver, Overlay, Squeezeback, and In-Scene ads all use the Video request object paired with NonLinear VAST delivery, to match the typical workflow the industry operates on.
Menu/ Home-screen ads take a different path, transacted via the Native object in OpenRTB. Menu ads are rendered by the CTV platform rather than delivered as a single finished creative, which is exactly what Native was built for.

What this means for YOU

If you’re an advertiser or agency:

You can now buy these new CTV ad formats through your DSP with clear transparency into how the ad will render and be reported on.

If you’re a publisher:

You can make new ad formats available to programmatic demand and signal them to buyers clearly. Using the new signals and VAST changes, you can block the creatives your placement cannot support, and stay resilient when receiving creatives you didn’t expect.

If you’re ad tech:

The standard requires that SSPs, exchanges, DSPs, SSAI/CSAI, and measurement partners carry the new enumerations and honor VAST changes to communicate and measure these new ad formats. Additionally, DSPs must integrate the new signals to decision on and communicate these new ad formats.

For technical specs and the full documentation regarding the updated VAST and AdCOM standards, please refer to the CTV Ad Format Signalling documentation and implementation guidance.