• by Laurie Sullivan , August 12, 2025

Defining products makes it easier for advertisers and publishers to understand how content is organized and how ads are classified.

IAB Tech Lab, the global organization responsible for digital advertising technical standards, on Tuesday released mapping and implementation guidance that connects Content Taxonomy 2.1, a system used to categorize webpage and app content, with Ad Product Taxonomy 2.0, which describes advertised products.

Connecting these two taxonomies addresses a longstanding challenge in digital advertising, and the move aims to provide a more precise framework for describing and regulating advertising inventory, as well as minimize misclassification and improve consistency, benefiting publishers, brands, and technology vendors.

Anthony Katsur, CEO of IAB Tech Lab, said many companies are still using content-based labels to describe ads, which leads to confusion and mismatches across systems and limits interoperability. The first version of the content-based labels was implemented in 2011.

Categories were designed to represent the actual advertising creative or product, but relying on them can lead to enforcement failures because it allows ads to serve up when they should be restricted.

The new mappings provide a clearer and more accurate way to label what is being advertised.

The release is open for a 30-day public comment period, which will close on September 10, 2025.

The mappings -- a set of rules -- also include notes that explain how specific connections were made.

A reverse mapping from Ad Product 2.0 back to Content 2.1 is also included, recognizing that different platforms are transitioning at varying speeds.

Sabine Schmidt, senior manager of data at Axel Springer, believes that having forward and reverse mappings can help to support the entire industry.

The IAB is accepting feedback until September 10, 2025.