How IAB Standards Impact Ad Viewability and User Experience What Are the Advantages of Implementing IAB Standards?
3 min read
IAB Standards
The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is playing a crucial role in the rapidly expanding digital advertising landscape by establishing universal standards to streamline the advertising process, ensuring success in the rapidly evolving digital advertising landscape where innovation and growth are key.
The Role of IAB in Digital Advertising
fosters transparency, accountability, and innovation.
• Provides guidance for publishers and advertisers.
• Adherence to IAB standards, including standard ad sizes, impacts market success.
Key Benefits of IAB Standards
IAB standards provide a common framework for publishers and advertisers, offering numerous advantages:
Brand Safety and Reduced Ad Fraud: IAB standards ensure that your brand remains protected and that ad fraud is minimized, creating a safer advertising environment for all stakeholders.
Consumer Privacy and Responsible Data Use: These standards safeguard consumer privacy and encourage responsible data usage, instilling trust in your audience.
Consistency in Ad Measurement and Experiences: IAB standards maintain consistency in ad measurement and experiences, allowing for reliable performance assessment.
Efficiency and Transparency: These standards drive efficiency and transparency in ad measurements, optimizing your advertising campaigns.
Striking a Balance Between Publishers and Users
IAB standards also aim to maintain a delicate balance between the interests of publishers and users. The objective is to deliver ads that do not drive users to resort to ad blockers. In a world where over a third of internet users aged 16–64 use ad blockers, finding this equilibrium is essential for sustainable growth.
The IAB New Ad Portfolio
The IAB Tech Lab introduced the IAB New Ad Portfolio in July 2017, replacing previous creative display guidelines for desktop and mobile. These guidelines provide comprehensive recommendations for advertising experiences across digital platforms, including mobile apps, websites, social media, messaging apps, and emerging digital experiences.
Ad Size Flexibility and LEAN Principles
The New Ad Portfolio focuses on creating lightweight, cross-screen, and flexible-sized ads. These ads adhere to LEAN principles (light, encrypted, AdChoices supported, and non-invasive) and aim to deliver a superior user experience. They prioritize user respect, control, and choice in advertising interactions, ensuring a non-disruptive experience.
IAB Standard Ad Sizes
IAB standard ad sizes have become the cornerstone of the New Ad Portfolio. They include common dimensions such as:
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728×90 (leaderboard)
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300×250 (medium rectangle)
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160×600 (skyscraper)
These sizes are considered the most profitable ad sizes in the ad tech industry and are widely embraced by publishers.
Experimenting with Ad Sizes
While these three ad sizes are prevalent in the digital advertising industry, publishers are encouraged to experiment with different ad sizes to discover what delivers the highest returns. This flexibility can also help combat banner blindness, a concern that arises when relying solely on popular or standard ad sizes.
Source: IAB (PDF download)
Embracing IAB Standards
In the digital advertising landscape, embracing IAB standards is not mandatory, but it is a choice that can significantly impact your success. By following these guidelines, you can simplify the creation of ad inventory, ensure that ad units display consistently across multiple devices, explore new technologies, improve user experiences, and maximize ad revenue. The commercial advantages of IAB standards, particularly standard ad sizes, are clear.
