As the industry continues to invest in brand safety and refined contextual advertising solutions, the updated taxonomy delivered by IAB Tech, Ad Product Taxonomy 2.0, has been released for public comment and once adopted, will significantly improve the programmatic ecosystem.
While much attention has shifted to safety in AI, the online advertising industry has for years known the importance of language and taxonomy as a critical piece of the puzzle. The new Ad Product Taxonomy 2.0 provides a significant new level of granularity and shifts the focus from concepts to products. An example cited by IAB Tech Lab involves the term “alcohol” which was once listed under the Food & Drink category. By focusing on the product, publishers are better equipped to discern whether a restaurant review or recipe blog is harmlessly referencing alcohol or whether an actual ad for an alcoholic product has entered the site.
Any category of advertising that is potentially deemed inappropriate, banned, or undesirable by publishers must first be identified and the most powerful tool is the use of granular and standardized taxonomy. A great example of the power of taxonomy is the work done by IAB Canada ahead of the last federal election. When many publishers and platforms made the decision to block political ads, IAB Canada delivered a real-time list of keywords that helped the supply chain quickly identify political ads so that they could take appropriate action.
When advertisers are equipped with the granularity offered by Ad Product Taxonomy 2.0, they are in a much better position to articulate where they would like to place ads and which areas are to be avoided. Moreover, Ad Product Taxonomy 2.0 can play a major role in compliance with legislation or self-regulation. Having the ability to better identify products like alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, CBD, and pharmaceuticals can prevent requesting ads from inventory where they are prohibited. Once public comment has been completed and Ad Product Taxonomy 2.0 is in production, a full change log will also be released on IAB Tech Lab’s new Taxonomy GitHub Repository.
Click here to read the original article published by IAB Canada.
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