This week, six major ad exchanges released an open letter titled “Principles for a Better Programmatic Marketplace,” to publishers and advertisers announcing that they have asked the Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG) to help them codify principles for the programmatic marketplace by the end of 2018 with regard to better “transparency, efficiency and fair-market practices.” The letter was signed by the CEOs of OpenX, PubMatic, Rubicon Project, Sovrn, SpotX and Telaria.

You can read some of the news coverage here and here.

Mike Zaneis, President of TAG said, “These principles raise the bar for how exchanges operate and will ultimately make programmatic a better space for advertisers and publishers….and assure brands, agencies, and publishers that their partners are committed to a fair, efficient, and transparent programmatic supply chain.”

Near to Ad Lightning’s heart —quality assurance was one of the three main principles the group has flagged (in addition to auction rules and fee transparency). The group’s goal to improve ad quality and regain advertiser trust requires that:

• 100% of ads in an ad exchange will be scanned for malware and other quality concerns
• 100% of ad requests will be scanned for invalid traffic
• 100% of domains and apps will be scanned for brand safety, ad count, refresh rates and audience quality.

Ad Lightning applauds this initiative and is delighted that influential players in the industry are banding together to raise the standards for ad quality. This is a concept that Ad Lightning has built its entire business around.

Ad Lightning’s patent-pending technology helps publishers and exchanges take control of their programmatic advertising via proactive bad ad protection, live site scanning, and ad network insights. When it comes to helping exchanges meet this first requirement, we offer a variety of options that meet this stringent bar for 100% coverage:

1. With AdL's tag scanning solution, exchanges & SSPs can submit all creative tags via our API for initial scans as well as ongoing scans to look for suspicious behavior.
2. Our ad blocking solution for SSPs takes this requirement to the logical next step and can proactively block bad ads in real-time, providing increased protection and automated bad-ID feedback loops.

Ad Lightning is always here to address your ad quality concerns! Give us a call today.