IAB Publishes Playbook For Opt-In Value Exchange Ads

The Interactive Advertising Bureau wants to help brands and agencies boost their understanding and use of opt-in value-exchange advertising, publishing a playbook defining the format and highlighting best practices.

Opt-in value-exchange advertising, sometimes called rewarded advertising, offers “something of value in exchange for their time and attention,” per the IAB.

While opt-in advertising has been popular among gaming apps for a long time, it has since found its way into music apps, text content and even over-the-top video.

In OTT, apps and platforms may allow consumers to watch an expanded ad, perhaps with some interactive elements, in exchange for watching the entirety of a TV show or movie commercial-free.

In music, Pandora has experimented with formats that allow users to select the song they want to listen to in exchange for listening to a pre-roll ad.

“These ads put consumers in control as they are always opt-in, meaning that the consumer has the choice to engage with a publisher reward – or not,” writes Susan Borst, IAB vice president-head of the Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence, in a blog post. “And, importantly, the value exchange for the consumer is directly related to accessing the media experience the user intended to access at the destination.”

advertisement

advertisement

The hope is that the format will be more palatable to consumers already facing an ad overload.

Because the user chooses to engage with opt-in ads, they are perceived as less annoying, with the user spending more time with the ad. For publishers, the format keeps users engaged longer, provides new revenue streams, and can support advertising models even as many publishers turn toward subscriptions to diversify their revenue streams.

The IAB says it will conduct a formal study next year to more fully examine the acceptance and effectiveness of the opt-in ad format.

3 comments about "IAB Publishes Playbook For Opt-In Value Exchange Ads".
Check to receive email when comments are posted.
  1. Craig Mcdaniel from Sweepstakes Today LLC, December 6, 2018 at 3:28 p.m.

    I am going to be blunt in my opinions about this. When you think you have a idea how pigs can fly, let me know. First off, we have over 1.5 billion click through entries in 15 years. Early 2012, Google make major changes on how they pay publishers. Many of our clicks lead to sales and were paid by CPA. Google changed this to nearly all CPM. Then Google reduced the publishers percentage what we were being paid. All told, we are down 85 percent from our highs in in revenue jjust from Google and this isn't all. Hundreds of small publishers have gone out of business or about to. For me, I was rated number one in Google Search for the keyword "Sweepstakes" out of 100 million post. Now times are different. Maybe you need to "fully examine" from the publishers point of view first before another Mickey Mouse idea about how to hurt publishers.

  2. Adam Greenhood from AdWallet, December 6, 2018 at 8:43 p.m.

    Hi. AdWallet are one of the pioneeers in this growing space. It's working (very well) but you have to strcuture the value exchange correctly for both the advertiser and the user for it to be successful. Paying people for their (proven) attention (and comprehension) of an ad is the future. Peroid. Alex, AdWallet would love to be a part of this study for the IAB. Is there someone specific I could reach out to there? Would you be able to provide me Susan Borst's best contact? My email is adam@adwallet.com. Thanks. Cheers.

  3. Diez Mansour-Dehghan from SiriusTraffic.com replied, December 11, 2018 at 2:14 p.m.

    What are you using as an alternative?

Next story loading loading..