Ad Load Performance Best Practices

Back in May, I talked about the impact of ad performance on Web page load time, and the formation of an Ad Load Performance Working Group within the IAB to try to do something about it.

The first output from this working group was announced today at the IAB Ad Operations Summit in New York.

The Ad Load Performance Best Practices document provides guidance for all the players in the ad creation and delivery ecosystem, including agencies, vendors, and publishers, on techniques to reduce the load time of ads.

A companion document from the Rich Media & Ajax Working Group on Best Practices for Rich Media Ads in Asynchronous Ad Environments was also released today. While the title suggests a niche focus, the techniques described offer general performance improvements by allowing ads to load asynchronously with page content.

The Ad Load Performance Best Practices document is a foundation for future initiatives from the working group. Ideas for future work include objective methods (and tools) for quantifying ad load performance, and identifying the impact of slow ads on user experience and ad effectiveness. Stay tuned.

2 thoughts on “Ad Load Performance Best Practices

  1. Hi Eric,

    Do you know if the IAB has done any work in this area since the release of the Best Practices? For instance: research on the impact of slow ads on ad effectiveness.

    thanks,
    Aaron Peters

  2. Hi Aaron,

    Several of the core participants in the best practices working group are now involved in an Ad Performance Scoring Working Group, trying to develop a method of measuring and scoring the load performance of ads, from both qualitative and quantitative perspectives.

    As far as research into the impact of slow ads on ad effectiveness – within the IAB that type of work would generally be performed by the Research Council. This idea has been discussed as a project for the Research Council, but I not aware of active work in this area.

    Having an ad scoring method would be a good foundation to build from for that type of research. 😉

    -Eric

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