Coalition for Better Ads releases initial Better Ads standards in North America and Europe

BRUSSELS, 22 March, 2017 - The Coalition for Better Ads today released initial Better Ads Standards for desktop and mobile web that reflect consumer advertising preferences in North American and European markets. The initial Better Ads Standards are based on comprehensive research in which consumers comparatively ranked different ad experiences presented to them while they read online articles. More than 25,000 consumers rated 104 ad experiences for desktop web and mobile web.

The Coalition's research identifies the ad experiences in both North America and Europe that ranked lowest across a range of user experience factors, and that are most highly correlated with an increased propensity for consumers to adopt ad blockers. These results define initial Better Ads Standards that identify the ad experiences that fall beneath a threshold of consumer acceptability. Six desktop web ad experiences and twelve mobile web ad experiences fell beneath this threshold. The Coalition encourages the marketplace to use these results to improve the consumer experience.

"The Coalition will build on this important work by expanding its efforts to other regions and ad formats," said Stephan Loerke, CEO of World Federation of Advertisers (WFA). "The global reach of the Coalition's membership and the continuing addition of new members support our goal to improve the advertising experience for Internet users worldwide."

You can read WFA's full statement on the initial Better Ads standards here.

Members and supporters of the Coalition, in alphabetical order, include the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A's), AppNexus, Association of National Advertisers (ANA), BVDW Germany (rep. IAB Germany), Data & Marketing Association (DMA), Digital Content Next, Facebook, Google, GroupM, IAB, IAB Europe, IAB France, IAB Tech Lab, IAB UK, Network Advertising Initiative (NAI), News Corp, News Media Alliance, Omnicom Media Group, Oriel, Procter & Gamble, Sovrn, Teads, The Washington Post, Thomson Reuters, Unilever, and World Federation of Advertisers (WFA). An additional 80 trade associations from around the world, including WFA's network of national advertisers associations, are affiliates of the Coalition for Better Ads. Companies and trade associations that wish to join the Coalition can learn more at www.betterads.org.

To read the full press release, click here.