IAB Bids to Standardise Reporting Terminology

In the US, the IAB's Tech Lab has released for public comment OpenData 1.0, a proposed standard nomenclature for reporting campaign performance metrics.

The non-profit Tech Lab was established by the IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) in 2014 in New York and San Francisco, and helps companies implement technical standards across the interactive marketing and digital advertising arena. The new spec was developed by a Task Force and looks to provide publishers, agencies, and data management vendors with a common language and mapping tool to improve workflow in day-to-day campaign analytics processes.

The spec identifies a need to simplify and speed up the process of merging data for reports to advertising clients, by implementing standardized field headers. A unified set of terms will include 'Flight', 'Purchase Order', 'Strategy', 'Target', 'Rotation' and 'Anonymized ID'; and will also cover 'dimensions' such as 'ad tag', 'creative' and 'placement'; and metrics such as 'impressions' and 'clicks'. The proposals should also help the management of extract, transform and load (ETL) data processes.

IAB Tech Lab SVP and GM Dennis Buchheim (pictured) says OpenData will 'create standards to reduce friction in the flow of one of digital's most valuable currencies - data', adding: 'this is just the beginning, with audience segment data next on the docket'. David L. Smith, CEO, Mediasmith, and Co-Chair of the lab's OpenData Task Force, says the move should alleviate the challenge created for today's marketers in 'organizing copious amounts of data' by 'inconsistencies in header fields when data is transferred between various parties'.

The proposals are available for public comment through March 13th - see www.iabtechlab.com/opendata and email questions and comments to opendata@iabtechlab.com .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.