New Guidelines Provide Technical Foundation for Better User Experience, Faster Ad Rendering, Viewability Measurement & VPAID Integration
NEW YORK – The IAB Technology Laboratory has released for public comment an update to the Mobile Rich Media Ad Interface Definition (MRAID). The revised MRAID 3.0 provides technical guidance for improved user experience, faster ad rendering, viewability measurement, and Video Player Ad Interface Definition (VPAID) integration, among other advancements. Developed by members of the MRAID Working Group, this release marks the first major overhaul to MRAID in more than four years, and not only advances the specs, but also makes them more developer-friendly.
“These revised guidelines will further enhance and improve the rich mobile ad experience for consumers, while also improving ad effectiveness for advertisers and publishers.”
MRAID 3.0 introduces several new features, including:
- Guidance on pre-loading ads and ensuring ads are shown to the user only when they are ready for display
- Viewability measurement by the viewable percentage of an ad, as well as clearer tracking on the presence of an ad
- Full integration with VPAID to permit video measurement within mobile ads leveraging MRAID
- Ability to discover whether access to device location is enabled, while further providing information about the location
- Audibility measurement to inform the ad if device audio is enabled and at what volume level
- Detection of relevant attributes that indicate whether an ad is running in MRAID-compliant web view at initialization time, while eliminating ambiguous interpretations
“In today’s mobile-centric world, guidelines that allow for interoperability are imperative,” said Alanna Gombert, Senior Vice President, Technology and Ad Operations, IAB, and General Manager, IAB Tech Lab. “These revised guidelines will further enhance and improve the rich mobile ad experience for consumers, while also improving ad effectiveness for advertisers and publishers.”
“With more accurate mobile viewability metrics, MRAID 3.0 creates better opportunities for publishers to monetize their inventory and for brands to understand the effectiveness of their campaigns,” said Anna Bager, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Mobile and Video, IAB. “The IAB Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence is impressed with the IAB Tech Lab’s continued development of the MRAID standard, and look forward to future cooperation on its advancement.”
The public comment period will be run through January 30, 2017, after which the MRAID Working Group will evaluate the comments and incorporate feedback. Comments can be emailed to mraid@iab.com.
To review MRAID 3.0, please go to iab.com/mraid.
About IAB Technology Laboratory
The IAB Technology Laboratory is an independent, international, nonprofit research and development consortium charged with producing and helping companies implement global industry technical standards. Comprised of digital publishers and ad technology firms, as well as marketers, agencies, and other companies with interests in the interactive marketing arena, the IAB Tech Lab’s goal is to reduce friction associated with the digital advertising and marketing supply chain, while contributing to the safe and secure growth of the industry. The organization’s founding member companies include AppNexus, Google, GroupM, Hearst Magazines Digital Media, LinkedIn, PubMatic, Sonobi, Tremor Video, Yahoo, and Yahoo! JAPAN. Established in 2014, the IAB Tech Lab is headquartered in New York City with an office in San Francisco.
