IAB Standards and IAB Standard Ad Sizes

contents

The digital advertising industry's rapid growth has made it vital to implement a universal set of standards in order to streamline the advertising process.

This is where the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), and its standards, comes in. This globally recognized organization sets the bar for industry best practices and guidelines, fostering transparency, accountability, and innovation within the advertising ecosystem.

For publishers, understanding and adhering to these IAB standards, including IAB standard ad sizes, can significantly improve their ability to succeed in a dynamic and competitive market.

The IAB's standards help publishers and advertisers follow a unified set of technical measures and solutions. These standards:

Ensure brand safety and lower ad fraud
Safeguard consumer privacy and enable responsible data use
Maintain consistency in ad measurement and experiences
Drive efficiency and transparency in ad measurements

The IAB Standards can simplify and speed up your advertising journey — *Source:* *IAB Tech Lab*

IAB standards serve as a set of best practices for publishers and advertisers alike, while helping to maintain a balance between publishers and users. The goal is to facilitate advertising that doesn't encourage users to download ad blockers. This is a key goal for many advertisers, given that 42.7% of internet users around the world regularly use ad blockers, with nearly a third of American users doing the same.

Another key goal behind the standards is the promotion and maintenance of brand safety. According to the latest IAB Europe’s Guide to Quality report, 69% of consumers value companies that are genuine and authentic, while 49% would actively lobby against a brand if it were promoted alongside inappropriate content. Such statistics not only underscore the importance of protecting advertisers’ reputations - and, therefore, brand safety - but also the importance of IAB standards, given their role in helping advertisers present a professional face to their audiences at all times.

Let's review the IAB's New Ad Portfolio, as well as the body's standard ad units, to understand how these guidelines can streamline your digital advertising experience.

What Are IAB Standard Ads?

IAB Standard Ads are a widely accepted set of digital advertising formats and specifications that have been set by the International Advertising Bureau (IAB).

The standards serve to establish uniformity in ad creation and delivery, which ensures compatibility across publishers, platforms and devices.

About the IAB and the IAB Tech Lab

IAB

The IAB, established in 1996, is the leading association in the digital advertising field. It focuses on creating standards and guidelines for the advertising industry, along with educating those working in the sector.

IAB Tech Lab

The IAB Technology Laboratory (Tech Lab) is a nonprofit organization that was established in 2014 to develop foundational technology and standards for the advertising industry.

The IAB Tech Lab comprises ad tech firms, digital publishers, marketers, agencies, and other member companies. It ensures that multiple parties can collaborate on ad fraud, consumer privacy, ad measurement, and programmatic effectiveness.

The body's responsibilities include the Open RTB real-time bidding protocol, Open Measurement SDK for viewability and verification, ads.txt anti-fraud specification, Project Rearc for identity addressability, VAST tags and video specification, data accountability and consumer privacy.

IAB New Ad Portfolio

The IAB Tech Lab released the IAB New Ad Portfolio in July 2017. The New Ad Portfolio guidelines replaced all previous creative display guidelines for desktop and mobile—including rich media units, Universal Ad Package (UAP), and other ad units-related guidance.

The IAB describes the New Ad Portfolio's guidelines as a “comprehensive recommendation” of advertising experiences across mobile apps, websites, social media, messaging experiences, and new digital experiences such as virtual reality and augmented reality.

User intent and user privacy were the driving force behind the majority of the changes to IAB standard ads.

The IAB New Ad Portfolio comprises native ads, display ads and new media experiences such as emoji ads, virtual reality ads, augmented reality ads and 360-degree image and video ads.

The transition's main focus was to create lightweight, cross-screen, and flexible size ads that execute LEAN principles.

The New Ad Portfolio focuses on a more satisfactory user experience, more rapid load performance and non-disruptive ad content based on the following principles:

Respect: A user's primary objective is consuming publisher content.
Control: A consumer can control his/her advertising experience.
Choice: A consumer can decide what type of content they want to experience and for how long.

Flexible Ads

The major transition has been toward flexibility in terms of ad pixel sizes.

A flexible ad unit ensures that ads can be integrated with both website and mobile-friendly designs, and at the same time, that they maintain their aspect ratio and modify according to the screen size. Flexible ad units also improve operational efficiency for publishers.

LEAN Ads

The new IAB standards focus on LEAN (light, encrypted, AdChoices supported, and non-invasive) ads. Here’s a breakdown of what this means.

Light

Publishers should focus on keeping ads light to ensure fast page loads and a seamless user experience. This involves minimizing file sizes and following strict data call protocols, such as minimizing the use of, or eliminating, CSS, Javascript and other render blocking scripts.
Other options include using subload for rendering ad experiences that require heavy files and minimizing the number of files requested during initial loads. User initiation should also be required for any ad functionality that entails large file downloads.
The benefits of applying this principle include improved website performance, lower battery usage on mobile devices, and an overall enhanced user experience.

Encrypted

Ad delivery should be secured using HTTPS/SSL to protect user data from exposure to malware. This involves encrypting communication between a user's device and ad servers.
By applying this principle, user trust and safeguards against harmful ads are enhanced.

AdChoices Supported

Transparency and user control in advertising are essential. Publishers can realize this by supporting the AdChoices program, which enables users to opt out of interest-based advertising, affording them with greater choice.
As with encryption, this principle reinforces user privacy and builds trust.

Non-invasive

Publishers should avoid disruptive ad formats that negatively impact users' browsing experience.
This can be achieved by adhering to the Coalition for Better Ads standards and avoiding using intrusive ad formats such as pop-ups and auto-expanding ads without a clear close button for users.
Again, applying this principle helps enhance user satisfaction, as well as create a more pleasant online experience, in general.

Along with these key LEAN principles, publishers should also ensure that they implement these specific measures.

User-initiated ad expansion

Ad viewers should be able to expand ads on their own - for example, by clicking or tapping them - instead of ads automatically expanding

Clear close buttons

Ad viewers should be able to easily close expanded ads, when they choose to do so

Flexible ad formats

Publishers should use flexible ad formats that adapt to different screen sizes and website designs

Privacy regulations

Publishers must comply with key data privacy regulations, such as the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the US’s California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)

Non-blocking ad scripts

To avoid delays, when ads aren’t meant to block content loading, publishers must ensure they’re requested in a non-blocking manner.

Publishers can review the full specs of flexible and LEAN ads.

IAB Standard Ads

To combat the problem of different ad sizes, the online advertising industry standardized ad sizes so publishers and advertisers don't have to worry about running ad campaigns.

IAB standard ads commonly refer to a set of the three most common ad sizes: 728×90 (leaderboard), 300×250 (medium rectangle) and 160×600 (skyscraper).

These sizes are now part of the broader New Ad Portfolio and are considered the most profitable ad sizes in the ad tech industry.

By embracing common ad sizes, publishers can maximize their websites' display ad earnings. As such, publisher adoption of these sizes is likely to remain high.

IAB Standard Sizes for Ads

Leaderboard, medium rectangle and skyscraper are typically what you will see on most web pages.

However, the New Ad Portfolio also includes other ad sizes, including smartphone banner (300×50, 320×50), billboard (970×250), and portrait (300×600).

While the digital advertising industry favors three ad sizes, publishers should experiment with different ad sizes to find which delivers the highest returns. Using different ad sizes can also help counter banner blindness..

Benefits of IAB Standards

IAB standards simplify the creation of ad inventory.
The IAB New Ad Portfolio adopts sizes based on aspect ratio as opposed to fixed pixel sizes, allowing ad units to display consistently across multiple devices.
The IAB offers guidelines for publishers exploring new technologies around social media, augmented, virtual reality, and even emoji ads.
The New Ad Portfolio focuses on faster load performance to provide a better user experience and make sure that ads render as quickly as possible.
Publishers looking to monetize their sites through ad networks, such as Google AdSense, will find that IAB standard ads maximize their display ad earnings.

Final Thoughts

While the IAB recommends advertisers and publishers follow its standards and practices, these guidelines are not mandatory.

However, given that the digital advertising industry's three most popular ad sizes are part of the IAB New Ad Portfolio, it seems clear that most within the industry understand the commercial advantages of standard sizing.

In order to remain relevant and increase revenue, publishers' should work with the IAB's recommended practices and guidelines.

Publift helps digital publishers get the most out of the ads on their websites. Publift has helped its clients realize an average 55% uplift in ad revenue since 2015, through the use of cutting-edge programmatic advertising technology paired with impartial and ethical guidance.

‍Contact us today to learn more about how Publift can help increase your ad revenue and best optimize the ad space available on your website or app.