Access the latest version of the interactive version of the guide here or download the new PDF version below.

IAB Europe Transparency Guide PDF

There have been industry wide calls to improve the quality of digital ad inventory and develop more robust digital measurement techniques. This is considered a vital step towards delivering more ‘realistic’ brand exposure metrics.
More accurate and consistent viewability measurement will help to establish a more reliable digital ‘opportunity-to see’, supporting the need for enhanced comparability with TV and progress towards digital ‘gross rating points’. The European Viewability Initiative will help to address the following macro, industry goals:

1. Raise minimum quality standards in digital advertising measurement for all stakeholders across Europe
2. Enhance the (internet) user experience in the context of changing user expectations
3. Measure digital ad exposure which is deemed a key step towards increasing confidence in digital ad trading
4. Improve confidence in the digital ad environment

In addition to the above, the primary technical objective is to help significantly reduce data discrepancies between different ‘viewability’ measurement tools via a set of Viewability Measurement Principles.

Download the overview below.

There have been industry wide calls to improve the quality of digital ad inventory and develop more robust digital measurement techniques. This is considered a vital step towards delivering ‘realistic’ brand exposure metrics. More accurate and consistent viewability measurement will help to establish a more reliable digital ‘opportunity-to-see’, supporting the need for enhanced comparability with TV and progress towards digital ‘gross rating points’.

These Principles will help our industry to achieve the following macro goals:

1. To raise minimum quality standards in digital advertising measurement for all stakeholders across Europe.
2. To measure digital ad exposure which is deemed a key step to increasing confidence in digital ad trading.
3. To enhance the (internet) user experience in the context of changing user expectations.
4. To improve confidence in the digital ad environment.

The Principles form part of the European Viewability Certification Framework which has the primary goal of helping to significantly reduce measurement discrepancies across the different viewability tools.

Download the principles below.

Operational Efficiency across Multiple Screen Sizes

The portfolio’s ad units integrate aspect ratio-based flexible ad sizes, and also incorporate the LEAN Principles of lightweight, encrypted, AdChoices supported, and non-invasive advertising within all of its mobile, display, and native ad formats. This ad portfolio is based on HTML5 technology and also includes guidelines for new digital content experiences such as augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), social media, mobile video, emoji ad messaging, and 360-degree video ads.

After the draft portfolio was released for public comment in September 2016, it received industry-wide feedback and underwent extensive testing in both the US and Europe. IAB Europe is grateful to the following European publishers that have been involved in the testing process: Ciao People, DMG Media, G+J e|MS, INM, iq Digital, Journal Media, Media Impact, United Internet Media. Some of these test pages can be viewed here.

The flexible ad size recommendations are based on the proliferation of consumer devices in terms of sizes and resolutions, operational efficiency for publishers delivering content across multiple screen sizes, and the need for creative fidelity. Accordingly, flexible size ad specifications define aspect ratio based ad units that maintain their aspect ratio, adjust to the screen size, and can be integrated in responsive website designs.

Transitioning to the New Standard Ad Portfolio

A transition guide for publishers and advertisers is available here detailing how to transition to LEAN and flexible ad size specification. The Tech Lab will support the transition from earlier standards and recommendations through a series of webinars, the release of user-friendly demo pages, as well as additional transition guidance. To allow for testing, the Tech Lab is releasing an open source utility for publishers to enable them to quickly insert a flexible-sized ad container and ad server tag for all IAB ad units.

Commenting on the launch of IAB’s New Standard Ad Portfolio Suzanne McElligott, CEO, IAB Ireland and member of the IAB Europe Board said “The strength of the IAB network lies in the collaboration of national IABs across markets in the development of global digital advertising solutions. IAB Ireland members are committed to the early adoption of IAB best practice and welcomed this opportunity to work with IAB Tech Lab.”

Doug Farrell, Group Head of Digital, DMG Media Ireland added “As Chair of IAB Ireland’s Display Council I am very pleased that Irish publishers DMG Media, INM and Journal Media with input from Core Media, Group M, Havas, OMD and IPG Mediabrands have shared valuable learnings with IAB Tech Lab in testing the new flexible ad formats.”

Andreas Kühner, Chairman, Unit Ad Technology within BVDW (rep. IAB Germany): “We welcome the step to replace the fixed Adsizes to gradually pave the way for real cross device delivery and we are looking forward to working with IAB Tech Lab to specify the details of the operational deployment of the Flex Ads.”

For more information, please contact:

Marie-Clare Puffett, IAB Europe (puffett@iabeurope.eu)

About IAB Europe

IAB Europe is the leading European-level industry association for the online advertising ecosystem. Its mission is to promote the development of this innovative sector and ensure its sustainability by shaping the regulatory environment, demonstrating the value digital advertising brings to Europe’s economy, to consumers and to the market, and developing and facilitating the uptake of harmonised business practices that take account of changing user expectations and enable digital brand advertising to scale in Europe.

Due to the nature of EU law, this Guidance should only be used as a first step to figuring out compliance. Each national legislature might implement laws differently, and local regulators may interpret the rules more or less stringently than others. Therefore IAB Europe always recommends consulting local IABs and self-regulatory organisations where appropriate.

Download the document below.

Advertising in a video player, be it on a desktop or a mobile device presents distinctive technical challenges as compared to the more traditional browser-delivered advertisement, which in turn translate to specific challenges related to providing enhanced notice and choice for ads delivered in such environments. Due to these technical issues, the Technical Specifications, when laid out initially by IAB Europe and adopted by the EDAA, did not describe how enhanced notice and choice should be provided in video advertising scenarios.

Currently the state of technology and widely-adopted industry standards has evolved significantly; these Guidelines have been developed, therefore, to support companies to give users access to the same insight into, and control over video advertising as they enjoy in the more traditional desktop environment.

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The International IAB US/ABC UK Spiders & Robots List is a key resource for digital media owners to minimise non-human traffic being counted in their web analytics. Established and launched in 2006 by ABC and the IAB US, it is a list of known robotic user agents that is updated and shared with subscribers each month. Media owners can apply the list to their digital analytics, and this ensures that these known robotic user agents can be recognised and separated for reporting.

Why do robotic user agents need to be separated?

Robotic user agents explore the internet and index content so relevant sites can be easily found for search purposes or for ad placement. They are entirely legitimate and provide a useful and effective function. However, as a side effect of exploring the internet, they can significantly impact ad impression and site traffic counts if included in a company’s analytics. Traffic consisting of robotic user agents is non-human rather than fraudulent; the technology exists to be helpful to internet users and has not been ‘disguised’ as a human user. This means that they can be easily detected and filtered by implementing the Spiders & Robots list.

Why is it useful for digital media owners?

Implementation of the Spiders & Robots list is a fundamental step for companies who want to promote transparency and trust in digital ad trading by minimising non-human traffic counted in their web analytics. Implementation of the list is required in the U.K. via the JICWEBS Web Traffic Standards, and in the U.S. via the IAB's Ad Impression Measurement Guidelines.

Why is it useful for digital media buyers?

Media agencies and advertisers can trade with greater confidence with media owners who demonstrate a commitment to transparent trading, as it provides reassurance that digital campaigns are reaching their intended audience.

How does the list fit into the work being done on Anti Ad-fraud?

It is important to filter out known non-human activity as a basic first measure to reduce any invalid traffic being reported in web analytics. Fraudulent activity from unknown sources is now being addressed by industry representatives through JICWEBS and with ABC in their ongoing work to reduce exposure to ad fraud.

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To stop spiders affecting your data download the registration form below and send it to the IAB Europe Team: communication@iabeurope.eu.

Note: IAB Europe members get a special discount on the subscription rate.

Following on from the PC and Tablet in-page Brand Builder formats published last year, IAB Europe’s Mobile Ad Formats Task Force identified two key challenges in the mobile landscape:

• The landscape of mobile ad formats across Europe is extremely cluttered (verified through a survey conducted by IAB Europe). This means that planning and booking mobile branding campaigns is complex and costly creating an entry hurdle especially for medium-budget campaigns.
• There is a constant growing number of mobile devices leading to a plethora of different screen sizes and resolutions. This results in an increasing number of (device specific) aesthetically unpleasing placement of ads within web pages and apps, i.e. ads originally developed for one screen size appearing on a device with a different screen size.

The recommendation aims to achieve the following objectives:

1. Drive brand investment into digital
2. Fuel the increase of brand advertising on mobile through Programmatic Trading
3. Simplify the landscape of mobile ad formats across Europe
4. Reduce the processes and costs related with planning and booking national and Europe-wide brand advertising campaigns

This blueprint outlines IAB Europe's goals and recommended actions for online audience measurement and ad effectiveness metrics and KPIs, which aims to drive further brand advertising investment into digital channels by increasing advertiser confidence and to improve best practice across Europe.

The blueprint forms part of the Metrics & KPIs pillar of IAB Europe’s Brand Advertising Framework and provides recommendations for deliverable metrics and measuring online audience and ad effectiveness metrics. The key objectives of the blueprint are:

• To guide the development of audience measurement across the increasing number of digital platforms
• To promote compatible and standardised sets of metrics applicable to all major media channels
• To encourage closer cooperation between separate audience and brand KPI measurement initiatives in individual markets to provide a more holistic, media neutral data set for advertisers, planning and buying agencies, and media owners and vendors of advertising inventory.

The blueprint has been produced by IAB Europe’s Brand Advertising Committee and is based on:

• key findings from the IAB Europe Metrics and KPIs survey
• outreach to Joint Industry Committees and measurement organisations across Europe
• best practice from around the globe
• feedback from the IAB Europe network