Supply chain
TAG Certified Channel
A TAG Certified Channel is an ad supply path in which the buyer, the seller and every intermediary that handles the transaction are certified under TAG's Certified Against Fraud program.
The TAG (Trustworthy Accountability Group) runs the TAG Certified Against Fraud program, which certifies companies that follow its anti-fraud guidelines, such as filtering invalid traffic, using the IAB/ABC Spiders & Bots List, and supporting ads.txt. A single certified company is useful, but fraud can enter at any hop. A TAG Certified Channel requires the whole path, from the media buyer through the DSP and SSP to the publisher, to be certified.
The idea is that fraud has fewer places to hide when every participant is held to the same standards. TAG has published fraud benchmark studies reporting that invalid traffic rates in TAG Certified Channels were much lower than in non-certified channels.
Caveats: the studies rely on measurement partners' definitions of invalid traffic, and certification means a company follows set processes, not that every impression is clean. Buyers still verify, but many use "TAG Certified Channel" as a baseline requirement in contracts and supply path optimization.
Think of it like this
A TAG Certified Channel is like a food supply chain in which every farm, truck and shop has passed hygiene inspection, not just the restaurant at the end.
An example
An advertiser's agency requires that 100% of programmatic spend flows through DSPs, SSPs and publishers that are all TAG Certified Against Fraud.
Related terms
TAG (Trustworthy Accountability Group)
TAG (Trustworthy Accountability Group) is an advertising industry initiative, founded in 2014 by the ANA, 4A's and IAB, that runs certification programs against ad fraud, malware, piracy and for brand safety.
TAG Certified Against Fraud
TAG Certified Against Fraud is a certification from the Trustworthy Accountability Group for companies that meet anti-fraud requirements such as MRC-standard IVT filtering and supply-chain transparency.
Supply path optimization (SPO)
Supply path optimization (SPO) is a buyer's practice of choosing the most direct, cheapest and most trustworthy routes to the same inventory, and cutting unnecessary resellers and duplicate paths.
Invalid traffic (IVT)
Invalid traffic (IVT) is any impression, click or visit not coming from a real person with a genuine chance to see the ad, whether caused by bots, fraud or error.
ads.txt
ads.txt (Authorized Digital Sellers) is a public text file on a website's domain listing which ad sellers and accounts are authorised to sell that website's ad inventory.
Sources: TAG: Certified Against Fraud