The IAB Technology Laboratory today released for public comment OpenData 1.0, a technical specification offering a first-of-its-kind data nomenclature that establishes a central standard for reporting campaign performance metrics. Developed by the IAB Tech Lab OpenData Task Force, this new spec provides publishers, agencies, and data management vendors with a common language and mapping tool intended to improve workflow in day-to-day campaign analytics processes.
The spec addresses the need to reduce frictions and inefficiencies in campaign performance reporting—such as an overly complex report merging process and delayed reporting to advertiser clients due to non-standard inputs—through implementing standardized field headers. With OpenData, field headers will now have a unified set of terms—including “Flight,” “Purchase Order,” “Strategy,” “Target,” “Rotation,” and “Anonymized ID.” They will also feature dimensions—such as ad tag, creative, and placement—and metrics—like impressions and clicks.
In addition, OpenData will provide publishers with the opportunity to create uniform campaign performance reports when communicating with buyers, and provides data management vendors and ad tech partners with a common nomenclature for generating standardized reports, or managing extract, transform, and load (ETL) data processes.
“Recent IAB research shows that more than half of all U.S. dollars spent on data in 2017 were spent with data management companies—highlighting the need to create systematic and efficient workflows,” said Dennis Buchheim, Senior Vice President and General Manager, IAB Tech Lab. “OpenData will meet this ecosystem need and support the growth of the marketplace by creating standards to reduce friction in the flow of one of digital’s most valuable currencies—data. And, this is just the beginning, with audience segment data next on the docket under the OpenData umbrella.”
“Today’s marketers are challenged with organizing copious amounts of data due to inconsistencies in header fields when data is transferred between various parties,” said David L. Smith, CEO, Mediasmith, and Co-Chair of the IAB Tech Lab OpenData Task Force. “OpenData’s introduction of a standard data header nomenclature offers a more seamless approach to merging and transferring data, and will ultimately alleviate these issues. The IAB Tech Lab is to be saluted for taking on this long needed issue and coming up with a good solution.”
OpenData 1.0 is available for public comment through March 13, 2018.
