Initial Better Ads Standards for Desktop Web and Mobile Web

The Coalition for Better Ads has 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 research during which consumers were asked to read articles on simulated high quality content pages, and then to rate comparatively the different ad experiences they received. 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. For the desktop web environment, the following types of ad experiences fell beneath the initial Better Ads Standard:

  • Pop-up ads 
  • Prestitial ads with countdown
  • Auto-play video ads with sound 
  • Large sticky ads

For the mobile web environment, the following types of ad experiences fell beneath the initial Better Ads Standard:

  • Pop-up ads
  • Prestitial ads
  • Ads with density greater than 30%
  • Flashing animated ads
  • Auto-play video ads with sound  Poststitial ads with countdown 
  • Full-screen scrollover
  • Large sticky ads

Additional information about these and all other ad experiences tested, as well as the supporting research methodology, please visit the Coalition’s research page.

The Coalition encourages the marketplace to use the initial Better Ads Standards to improve the consumer online ad experience:

Advertisers can use them to inform campaign development and execution

Publishers can use them to develop improved experiences for their audiences

  •  Ad technology platforms can use them in the development process for new ad experiences
  •  Providers of measurement technologies can use them to develop new ways to assess themarketplace prevalence of the ad experiences preferred by consumers
  • The Coalition and its participating trade associations will be conducting a broad range of educational activities to educate the marketplace about the initial Standards and the Coalition’s future research.

Read more about the standards here