The Coalition for Better Ads will begin rollout of a voluntary Better Ads Experience Program to improve the online ad experience for consumers and promote marketplace adoption of the Better Ads Standards. The Data & Marketing Association is a founding member of the Coalition and is proud to support this initiative. It’s imperative for marketers to not only increase personalization and relevance, but to respect the preferences and interests of customers by avoiding the types of ads that have been identified as the most disruptive.
The Better Ads Experience will create a better environment for users and marketers, ultimately increasing value for all. The blog post announcing the program is now available on betterads.org, as well as the program framework. Google has also announced that they will support the Better Ads Standards starting on February 15, 2018.
In January 2018, the Coalition will begin rollout of the Better Ads Experience Program, a voluntary initiative for industry participants to improve the online ad experience for consumers and promote marketplace adoption of the Better Ad Standards. Based on a framework developed by the Coalition, the Better Ads Experience Program will certify web publishers that agree not to use the most disruptive ads identified in the Standards and will accredit browsers and advertising technology companies that will assess publishers’ compliance with the Standards and filter digital ads based on the Standards.
The Program will maintain a register of certified companies that will not have ads on their sites filtered based on the Standards by browsers and advertising technology companies that participate in the Program. If compliance issues arise, certified companies will be notified and have an opportunity to address violations or to pursue review by an independent dispute resolution mechanism available through the Program. Additional details about the program, including the registration process, fees, and other details, will be released in January for review by companies that are interested in participating.
The Better Ads Standards currently have been developed for the desktop and mobile web environments in Europe and North America. The Coalition’s extensive consumer research identified the following types of desktop ad experiences beneath the Better Ads Standard: pop-up ads, auto-play video ads with sound, prestitial ads with countdown and large sticky ads. For the mobile web environment, the following types of ad experiences fell beneath the Better Ads Standard: pop-up ads, prestitial ads, ads with density greater than 30%, flashing animated ads, auto-play video ads with sound, poststitial ads with countdown, full-screen scrollover ads, and large sticky ads.