• by Gavin O'Malley , Staff Writer @mp_gavin, December 13, 2018

This past April, the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s Tech Laboratory put out guidelines designed to nix the need for multiple SDKs from third-party viewability and verification firms.

By requiring one SDK integration rather than integrations with multiple providers, the ultimate goal was to make in-app advertising a simpler process.

Less that a year later, the IAB Tech Lab’s Open Measurement Software Development Kit (OM SDK) now has a combined global reach of roughly 2 billion devices, on iOS, Android and other platforms.  

That’s thanks to top tech companies getting on-board, including Google, Flipboard, Pandora, ad technology firm InMobi, Tapjoy and videogame publisher Gameloft.

Already, about 75% of Tapjoy’s inventory is OM-enabled, according to Paul Longhenry, senior vice president, strategy, corporate and business development at the mobile ad platform.

Since OM SDK’s release, the Media Rating Council (MRC) has also thrown its support behind the certification program.

The program “has sufficiently stringent rigor for on-boarding OM SDK data from an integrator,” stated George Ivie, executive director-CEO, MRC. “We encourage companies to integrate and use OM SDK.”

To maintain momentum, the IAB’s Tech Lab continues to make adjustments to the program. For example, it just updated the compliance guide for certification of OM SDK integration.

Per the changes, “brands can confidently and more easily buy mobile app inventory,” stated Dennis Buchheim, senior vice president-GM, IAB’s Tech Lab.

From 2018 to 2019, 60% more apps are expected to monetize through in-app ads, App Annie recently projected.  

More broadly, mobile advertising will reach $155 billion next year -- which would represent 62% of global digital ad spending -- the measurement firm expects.