Open Web Implementation Guide

This document outlines the technical steps and processes necessary to implement Integral Ad Science (IAS) blocking. Please use this guide in addition to consulting with an IAS Professional Services representative.

IAS Content Rating Platform

IAS's Content Rating Platform is a standardized industry metric that enables advertisers, agencies, ad networks, exchanges and publishers to utilize a consistent, objective measurement of content tonality and brand appropriateness. Using this standardized IAS Content Rating, brands can advertise with confidence, networks can improve the performance of their inventory and publishers can more effectively market their properties.

Using a proprietary machine learning infrastructure and a series of algorithmic models informed by multiple data points, IAS rates the risk profile of the content on an individual web page on a 0 – 1000 brand safety rating scale to determine its IAS Content Rating. IAS segments this rating spectrum into four levels of brand risk:

Pages are given an IAS Content Rating for each of the following content categories:

• Adult Content

• Alcohol

• Hate Speech

• Illegal Drugs

• Illegal Downloads

• Offensive Language

• Violence

Clients using the IAS Content Rating System and Blocking must select their Content Rating thresholds in the Campaign Implementation Worksheet (or the Campaign Management Platform) and submit it to IAS prior to the implementation of IAS blocking.

Geo-Targeting

IAS provides the following geographic related data feed:

Clients using geo-targeting must select their geographic targets in the Campaign Implementation Worksheet (or Campaign Management Platform) and submit it to IAS prior to the blocking implementation.

IAS Blocking

IAS blocking is a proprietary, enterprise-level platform that enforces a brand's insertion order instructions in accordance with the IAS Content Ratings selected by advertisers. This ensures that display advertising only appears on web pages containing content rated as appropriate for their advertising.

Blocking Workflow and Process

This section provides a high-level overview of the IAS – Client Workflow and the Backend Blocking and Monitoring Processes.

IAS - Client Workflow

1. Agency generates tags.

2. Agency sends tags and the Campaign Implementation Worksheet to the IAS Professional Services representative.

3. IAS must confirm in the Campaign Implementation worksheet whether the Agency or Publisher is covering the IAS fees. If the Publisher is covering the fees, IAS must create and send a Statement of Work (SOW) to the Publisher to sign and return to IAS confirming that the Publisher is covering the IAS campaign fees.

4. IAS generates tags for blocking or monitoring.

5. IAS returns tags to media agencies who will distribute to Publishers.

Backend Blocking Process

1. A Publisher makes a call to a 3rd party ad server to call the original creative.

2. The IAS tag wrapping directs the ad call to IAS.

3. IAS certifies the page to ensure it meets the advertiser’s requirements for brand adjacency, content, fraud, geo-targeting, keywords, and URL lists (exclusion, inclusion, and trusted lists) based on the predefined campaign threshold settings.

4. If the page on which the ad is to serve meets the brand adjacency, content, fraud, geo-targeting, keywords, or URL list (exclusion, inclusion, and trusted lists) settings, the ad serves to the page as it normally would.

5. Or, if the page on which the ad is to serve does not meet the brand adjacency, content, fraud, geo-targeting, keywords, or URL list (exclusion, inclusion, and trusted lists) settings, IAS prevents the ad from serving to the page. In this instance, a blank space appears or if the Publisher/Media Partner is configured at the tag level with the appropriate passback, IAS can pass the ad back to the Publisher's ad server to remonetize by serving a house ad or Public Service Announcement (PSA).

Note: IAS does not host creative or ads.

Backend Open Web Monitoring Process

1. A Publisher makes a call to a 3rd party creative server to call the original creative.

2. The Open Web Monitoring Pixel (1x1) is piggybacked onto the original creative call.

3. IAS certifies the page to ensure it meets the advertiser’s requirements for brand adjacency, content, fraud, geo-targeting, keywords, and URL lists (exclusion, inclusion, and trusted lists) based on the predefined campaign threshold settings.

4. The ad serves to the page. IAS logs and reports if the page on which the ad is to serve meets (passes) or does not meet (fails or blocks) the brand adjacency, content, fraud, geo-targeting, keywords, and URL lists (exclusion, inclusion, and trusted lists) settings.

Note: For clients using the Open Web Monitoring

Open Web Tags and Pixels

This section describes the Open Web tags, parameters, and pixels: Open Web Blocking Tag, IAS URL Parameter, Passback Tag, and Open Web Monitoring Pixel:

Open Web Blocking Tag

The Open Web Blocking Tag monitors and blocks ads, as well as provides detailed reporting. IAS wraps the client provided 3rd party ad tags with campaign and partner identifiers, which map to the client-defined threshold settings within IAS. IAS serves lightweight JavaScript, which identifies the page referrer. This proprietary technology helps ensure optimal visibility across all media partners for the campaign. IAS defines visibility as real-time disclosure of page URLs by media partner, allowing IAS to analyze and rate the page against campaign thresholds.

Supported Tags and Environments

IAS currently supports the following tags:

• Standard tags

• iframe tags

• JavaScript tags

• In-App OM SDK (Display)

• In-App MRAID (Display)

IAS does not currently support Internal Redirects. If you are trafficking a campaign using other types of tags, please contact an IAS Professional Services representative for more information.

OMID SDK

To prepare your tags to support OMID:

1. Submit your tags to IAS to build them. Ask your IAS representative for the Tag Manager Help Request guide, or

2. You can use the IAS Tag Manager to build the tags on your own. You can find instructions on using the tag manager here: https://support.integralads.com/s/article/Upload-and-Build

Specification

Specification

Location

Specification

Specification

Note: IAS's call does not append or influence the HREF, only the SRC of the JavaScript/Ad Call. Additionally, IAS does not alter the click portion of the ad tag.

Integral URL Parameter

The Integral_url parameter allows clients/partners with macro capabilities to pass the URL of the ad page referrer to IAS rather than our Open Web Tag detecting it. In this tag type, the client includes the Integral_url parameter and populates the name value pair prior to delivery.

Specification

Specification

Location

Note: The URL must be URL Encoded prior to delivery.

Example

Example

Location

Location

Passback Tag

If an ad call is made from a page and placement or geo is not within the brand's safety thresholds defined in the IAS Signal, IAS blocks the ad call and can return the ad call to the source of origination. This allows that source to resell/remonetize the ad. IAS refers to this as a passback. IAS can support parameters for each creative in the campaign or apply a global passback rule to the entire campaign. If custom parameters are not used, the IAS Signal can be configured with a passback URL assigned to the Partner Id defined in the IAS tag.

Note: Passback works the same for in-app as it does for web.

Example

Dynamic Passback URL:

Location

The dynamic passback utilizing a client macro, executed in their ad placement, which writes out the appropriate passback URL is:

Media Partner Global Passbacks

If you are a Media Partner and you wish to add a passback globally, contact IAS Professional Services to do so.

Open Web Monitoring Pixel

The Open Web Monitoring Pixel monitors campaigns and provides reporting without blocking ads. Clients who do not want blocking enabled or publishers that do not allow for blocking can use this pixel. The Open Web Monitoring Pixel is the best option for clients that require campaign specific monitoring where macros are not required. It is important to note that Open Web Monitoring Pixels piggy back on campaign creatives and do not influence the ad unit delivery. Data collected from a Open Web Monitoring Pixel is displayed in the IAS Open Web Reporting as if it were the actual ad unit. This allows IAS to collect data on passed/failed ads, geo data, and blocked sites without disrupting the client's campaign. This information is useful to the client to readjust inventory accordingly. The Open Web Monitoring Pixel is a 1x1 gif (image file), which can be called from either a JavaScript tag or image source tag. The client can choose the preferred tag format. IAS recommends JavaScript tags as IAS serves additional JavaScript prior to the call, which collects and passes the page referrer resulting in optimal visibility.

Specification

Specification

Location

Note: IAS can select either document.write (default) or document.append on the backend using only 1 tag.

Open Web Blocking Tag and Monitoring Pixel Comparison

The following two examples show how blocking and monitoring tags differ (highlighted by underlined text). IAS wraps blocking tags and appends monitoring pixels.

Open Web Blocking Tag

Open Web Blocking Tag

Open Web Monitoring Pixel

Open Web Monitoring Pixel

Native Ad Implementation Overview

IAS has introduced a new way to properly locate native ads. In order to trigger the native ad logic, you need to do the following:

1. Use a unique CSS ID selector with the placement.

2. Append the ias_adpath parameter to our tag.

Additional information:

• This works for Campaign Monitoring (CM) and Open Web pixels.

• This functionality works as expected in direct and friendly iframe scenarios

• This is not supported in cross-domain iframe scenarios.

Step 1 - Use a unique CSS ID selector with the Placement.

You need to make sure the placement has a unique CSS ID selector. This ID selector can be either already on the placement’s div or dynamically set at runtime. In both cases, it needs to be on the page before our tag is placed.

Step 2 - Append the ias_adpath parameter to our tag.

Once IAS knows the ID, IAS provides it to the tag:

This tag now attempts to find an HTML element with ‘our ad’ CSS ID. <div id = ‘our-ad’></div>

Notice the %23 in above tag. This is the URL encoded # symbol that you need to include.

Note: Adding the parameter in the following way does not work:

ias_adpath=our-ad

%23 needs to be inserted here

Using the Native Ad Solution with HTML5 Ads

The IAS tag normally assumes that it is in the same container as the ad creative. With native ad support, you can specify another ID in a separate container to track the ad. Using the Native Ad mechanism, IAS can simply point to a specific div inside the HTML5 structure.