The Coalition for Better Ads has developed a Better Ads Standard for mobile apps to expand its efforts to improve the online ad experience for consumers. The ad experiences identified in the Standard are based on the Coalition’s extensive research related to mobile apps, which involved more than 45,000 consumers in seven countries.

Four types of ad experiences were found to be least preferred by consumers and beneath the Better Ads Standard for mobile in-app environments. These were Interruptive Interstitials; Interruptive Video Interstitials; Non-Skippable Interruptive Video Interstitials; and Video Interstitials When Opening an App.

The Coalition’s research found strong alignment of consumer preferences across countries and regions for the most- and least-preferred mobile app ad experiences, supporting the adoption of a single Better Ads Standard globally. The Coalition’s Better Ads Standards identify the ad experiences that fall beneath a threshold of consumer acceptability and are most likely to drive consumers to install ad blockers. More than 150,000 consumers have participated to date in the Coalition’s research to develop its set of Better Ads Standards.

“The Better Ads Standard for mobile apps provides clear guidance for developers and publishers who wish to reflect consumer preferences in their in-app advertising experiences,” said Neal Thurman, Director of the Coalition for Better Ads. “This new Standard complements the Coalition’s Better Ads Standards for desktop and mobile web and short-form video that have been widely adopted by industry participants globally to improve the consumer experience with online advertising.”

Members of the Coalition for Better Ads have incorporated the Better Ads Standards into industry certification programs and recommendations for best practices for online advertising. The organisation has

The Coalition said it and its members 34 members and 84 affiliate member, including brands, ad tech companies, agencies, and trade associations. It said it will continue to engage with trade associations and companies worldwide to educate the industry about the Better Ads Standards and encourage their widespread adoption. The Coalition plans additional consumer research of different ad experiences and environments, including launching new research on in-feed environments next year.

The Coalition’s Better Ads Experience Program certifies publishers and ad experience vendors that voluntarily comply with the Better Ads Standards. The Program’s online register of certified companies helps advertising partners identify entities that apply the Standards. The Coalition welcomes participation from additional publishers, ad experience vendors, and app developers who meet the Program’s requirements. The Program includes an independent dispute resolution mechanism developed by the Advertising Self-Regulatory Council in consultation with the International Council for Advertising Self-Regulation. The Program, through its implementation entities, will assess compliance with the Better Ads Standard for mobile app environments no earlier than 2 March, 2022.