Formats & creative · also called Coalition for Better Ads
Better Ads Standards
The Better Ads Standards are research-based guidelines from the Coalition for Better Ads that identify ad experiences consumers find most annoying, such as pop-ups and autoplaying video with sound.
The Coalition for Better Ads, an industry group formed in 2016 whose members include trade bodies, advertisers, publishers and platforms, surveyed tens of thousands of consumers about ad experiences and published its Better Ads Standards in 2017. They list formats that fall below the threshold of acceptability.
For desktop web, the standards flag pop-up ads, auto-playing video ads with sound, prestitial ads with countdowns and large sticky ads. For mobile web, they flag pop-ups, prestitials, ad density above 30% of the page, flashing animated ads, auto-playing video with sound, poststitials with countdowns, full-screen scrollover ads and large sticky ads. Later work extended guidance to short-form video.
The standards gained teeth because Google Chrome began filtering ads in February 2018 on sites that repeatedly fail them, first in North America and Europe and then globally. The goal was to reduce the annoyance that drives ad blocking. Complying is now baseline hygiene for publishers.
Think of it like this
The Better Ads Standards are like a noise ordinance for a neighbourhood: you can still play music, but not at full volume at 3 a.m.
An example
A mobile news site shows a full-screen prestitial with a 10-second countdown on every visit; after Chrome flags the site, the publisher removes the format to avoid ad filtering.
Related terms
Ad blocking
Ad blocking is software, typically a browser extension, built-in browser feature, app or network filter, that stops ads and often tracking scripts from loading on web pages and apps.
Acceptable Ads
Acceptable Ads is a standard and program, started by eyeo (maker of Adblock Plus), under which ad blockers let through ads that meet criteria for being non-intrusive, unless users opt out.
Sticky ad
A sticky ad is an ad unit that stays fixed on the screen, usually at the top, bottom or side, while the user scrolls through the page content.
Interstitial ad
An interstitial ad is a full-screen ad that covers an app or web page's interface, usually at a natural transition point such as between game levels, until the user closes it.
Rich media
Rich media ads are interactive or animated ads, such as expanding banners, video-in-banner, games or carousels, that invite user engagement beyond a static image or simple click.
Sources: Coalition for Better Ads: Standards