Friday, June 16, 2017

IAB Is Developing a New Set of Standards


Due to growth in header bidding (“automated ad-buying process that lets publishers auction inventory to many potential buyers before taking the best offer, has been increasingly popular”), The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has drafted a new set of standards to help guide publishers and buyers. On Thursday, 15 June, the IAB released the short document titled “Standard Header Container Integration with an Ad Server.” The document focuses on standards around Line-item setup, data passed between container and ad server, and reporting and its discrepancies. The goal of the document outlined in the intro states:

“This document standardizes how header tags and containers interact with ad servers. This will allow for header bidding to scale with industry consensus on process within the ad server. Expected audience for this standard includes technical leads and product owners at sell side and at intermediary partner companies. Non-standard setups, yield management strategies, and current market adoption rates are outside the scope of this document.”

The set of standards, is open for review from now until 28 July. As far as adoption goes, it will greatly depend on the willingness of publishers to abide by and implement these guidelines. As the IAB has seen with previous standards (i.e. the 2012 IAB Display Advertising Guidelines), adoption is not guaranteed, but the largest publishers will likely decide its fate. Yet, if the guidelines allow header bidding to scale, as stated in the document, it should be beneficial for buyers and sellers. Adding simplicity and consistency to the header bidding process should be a win for all.

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