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VOOZH | about |
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VOOZH | about |
In 2025, the Media Rating Council, Omnicom Media Group, and a coalition of industry bodies (ANA, WFA, 4A’s, and IAB Tech Lab) came together to shine the light of transparency on digital advertising auctions.
The premise was simple. There had long been questions about how auctions work. What can buyers do to win more frequently? Are there indicators as to why buyers weren’t winning in certain scenarios? These questions, and many more, prompted the industry to act.
In response to this industry need, the MRC’s Auction Standards Working Group convened, discussed, and issued the Digital Advertising Auction Transparency Standards to help bring this same integrity to digital media auctions.
The Standard states: “It is the objective of these [Digital Advertising Auction Transparency] Standards to promote transparency around auction rules and scoring along with reporting and standardization where possible and appropriate, to ensure that auction rules and outcomes are understood for all parties.”
While these standards promote disclosure and standardization in all auction environments (including closed-loop and OpenRTB), IAB Tech Lab was asked to provide supplemental material regarding the OpenRTB use case.
In response to this request, we created the Programmatic Auction Definitions document, in collaboration with the Programmatic Supply Chain subgroup. The goal of the document was to provide all ecosystem participants with a common vocabulary and understanding of the way a digital auction works. After a period of public comment in January and February of 2026, and in partnership with the MRC’s efforts, we are pleased to release the final version of the Programmatic Auction Definitions for the industry.
Jill Wittkopp
VP, Product
IAB Tech Lab
