Advertising
3 mins read

AOP to drive digital media clean up with Ad Quality Charter

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The Association for Online Publishing launches Ad Quality Charter aimed at creating a transparent, fraud-free, and high-quality ecosystem that delivers better experiences for all

The Association for Online Publishing (AOP) has today issued a call to arms for the industry to collaborate in raising digital media standards by signing a new Ad Quality Charter.

The charter is being officially launched at the AOP’s Inside Out Digital Publishing Convention taking place in London today. The charter outlines terms supported by the AOP and aims to take the lead in promoting premium verified quality audiences and inventory. Covering many issues currently topping the digital agenda — such as viewability, brand safety, and ad fraud — the terms form best practice guidelines the AOP is encouraging the entire industry to adopt.

The core tenets of the charter centre on applying assessment and verification measures that will provide a better quality media for advertisers and agencies, while also delivering valuable experiences for audiences and enabling publishers to secure their assets.

Richard Reeves, Managing Director at AOP, commented: “The AOP has made significant headway in raising the bar for online media through its integral role with JICWEBS, but to make the shift towards high-quality media permanent, the industry must work together to create standards that go above and beyond minimum requirements. With this charter the AOP hopes to create a more sustainable, accountable, and reliable future for premium digital publishing. If all members of the ecosystem can join forces, agree to ethical trading standards, and better media verification, there will be a real possibility of making this vision a reality and securing the long-term success of digital publishing.”

Key elements of the charter include:

Brand safety

To minimise the risk of ad misplacement, publishers should:

Fraud

Continually reduce and work to stamp out fraudulent activity in the following ways:

  • Commit to being independently verified by the Anti-Fraud Good Practice Principles for business trading digital display advertising
  • Use Fraud Detection / Non-Human Traffic tools verified under the JICWEBS Anti-Fraud Tools principles
  • Commit to 0% fraud as measured by independent third-party verification tools, billing only for human traffic

Viewability

Ensure ads have the opportunity to be seen and raise the viewability threshold by:

  • Either upholding the minimum MRC standards — 50% of display ads viewable for one second and two seconds for video — or exceeding them by ensuring 100% of display and native ads are viewable for one second (two for video)
  • Deliver bespoke viewability metrics defined by advertisers or agencies
  • Maximise viewability of advertising by optimising in-page placement based on user behaviour and content consumption

Following on from the AOP’s work as a founding member of the Joint Industry Committee for Web Standards (JICWEBS), the charter seeks to set a new benchmark for online media that will cleanse and protect the supply chain, allowing the ecosystem to flourish.