Gold Standard

Find out more about the Gold Standard and its aims

Background

IAB UK is committed to building a sustainable future for digital advertising and, since it launched in October 2017, the Gold Standard has been a key part of this vision - driving positive change within the industry.

Initially launched with the support of 24 IAB UK Board Members, who signed an open letter to the industry committing to become certified, almost 100 companies have now achieved this goal.

The criteria for certification continues to evolve and Gold Standard version 2.0 is the latest update. The initiative has also expanded to include advertisers within its remit - helping to drive change downstream within the supply chain.

Aims of the IAB UK Gold Standard

  1. Reduce ad fraud through the implementation of, or by demonstrating support for, IAB Tech Lab's ads.txt initiative. Ads.txt allows domain owners to list who is authorised to sell their inventory, preventing the selling of spoofed or fake inventory. Version 2.0 additionally incorporates IAB Tech Lab’s sellers.json and SupplyChain Object initiatives.

  2.  Increase brand safety by becoming certified signatories of the TAG Brand Safety Certified Guidelines (for current non-signatories) or by continuing to have policies and processes independently verified (for current signatories).

  3. Improve the digital advertising experience for consumers by adhering to the standards set by the Coalition for Better Ads.

  4. Increasing transparency and user privacy within the supply chain by adopting IAB Europe’s Transparency & Consent Framework (TCF).

Please note: there is no cost to IAB UK members for participation in the Gold Standard itself. However, certification for the TAG Brand Safety Certified Guidelines does carry financial costs.

What is the IAB UK Gold Standard Group?

The Gold Standard Group is a cross-industry committee of IAB UK members that make key decisions on Gold Standard issues - for example, what different types of company have to do in order to comply with the Gold Standard. The members of the group are listed below:

Accenture, Adcolony, Bauer Media, Facebook, Google, GroupM, Index Exchange, Inskin, MG OMD, Mail Metro Media, NewsUK, OMD, OpenX, Publicis, Quantcast, Shpock, Spark Foundry, Teads, The Guardian, VDX.TV, Verizon, Xandr.

If you would like any more information on the Gold Standard group, please get in touch here.

Written by

IAB UK

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