Interactive Advertising Bureau: What is IAB?
The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) serves as a collaborative platform involving various players in the digital marketing and advertising sphere, such as publishers, advertisers, ad tech vendors, and agencies. Its overarching goal is to establish industry norms, offer guidelines, and champion ethical practices to enhance the effectiveness of digital advertising. In February 2017, IAB Europe initiated a cooperative endeavor by orchestrating specialized working teams comprising over 70 member enterprises and sector-specific trade associations. With the backing of IAB Europe staff, their aim was to establish, sustain, and enhance an industry benchmark known as the TCF. This endeavor was undertaken to effectively address the requirements of users, the industry, and regulatory entities.
Transparency and Consent Framework: Understanding the IAB TCF
The IAB Transparency and Consent Framework (TCF) is a set of technical specifications and policies designed to assist publishers and advertisers in complying with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the ePrivacy Directive. TCF 2.2, the latest version of the framework, was released on May 16, 2023. The TCF allows publishers and vendors to collect and exchange consent information, enabling vendors to understand the choices visitors make regarding data usage. Major advertising companies support TCF as a standard, participating as vendors in the TCF Global Vendor List (GVL).
IAB TCF v2.2 Compliance with one click
At BigID, we have implemented new features into our tools to comply with this new version of TCF with just one click on our platform. You will see that one of our out of the box banners is an IAb banner. This banner is the one to use ion those regions where you want to implement TCF v2.2. To do so just go a banner, then to Banner Editor and in Behaviour choose the IAB banner to be used on the regions you want. That's how your domain can meet Google's requirements for EEA and UK with a single click.
You will notice that the text is larger and not customizable, that the icon after giving consent can not be hidden and that the permissions UI has a lot more detail in it. Everything matching with IAB's and Google's policies.
Under "Custom Permissions" your visitors will see the list of third-party vendors and purposes for which data is being shared. If you are wondering why the number of vendors is too high and whether it can be lowered or not, please check below:
Vendors in Google Consent for EEA and UK and in IAB TCF
The term "vendors" refers to providers of advertising technology, also known as Ad Tech Providers. These stakeholders offer a variety of services and solutions that facilitate the buying, selling, and delivery of online advertising.
Selecting vendors in the context of the Consent Banner refers to the ability to choose the technology providers that will participate in the delivery and measurement of your ads. Configuring your banner's vendors means specifying which technology providers can process data related to advertising on your website.
Vendors explanation
Needless to say, IAB TCF goes beyond Google, which is why you see so many vendors in the list. So, if you are reading this because you are using an ad server other than Google, please log in to that platform, check which vendors are used, and mark them in BigID. On the other hand, if you’re indeed here because of Google's requirements, here's what you should know.
Google has its own list of Ad Tech Providers (ATP) that work with them in the ad serving process. Fortunately, you can edit this list on some of their platforms. Here are the guides for your Ad Manager, AdSense, or AdMob accounts. If you narrow down this selection within those products, you can do the same in BigID to reduce the number of vendors you are asking the consent to share data with.
Keep in mind that by reducing the number of ATP at Google's, you’re also reducing your possibilities to show better and more accurate ads for your audience and earn more revenue.
Last but not least, notice that multiple ATP are also registered as IAB third-party vendors (like Google itself). Therefore, you won’t find them listed as Google's Ad Tech Providers, but you will see them within IAB's third parties list.
Select vendors in BigID’s consent banner
To choose the permitted vendors in your Cookie Banner, follow these steps:
Navigate to: Cookie Banner > Advanced settings
Locate the IAB activation switch. On the right side of this switch, you'll find the "Select Vendors" button.
You will see this pop-up, where you can search for your vendors by name or on the lists. Keep in mind that our banner displays all the vendors from the official IAB and Google lists by default, but if you select fewer vendors, only the ones you have chosen will be displayed.
Remember that multiple ATPs are also registered as IAB third-party vendors (like Google itself). Therefore, you won’t find them listed as Google's Ad Tech Providers, but you’ll see them within IAB's third-party list.