Adform’s advertising policies indicate the content requirements for advertisements from Adform’s demand clients and partners when buying advertising inventory with Adform services. Failure to comply with the policies may result in applying one or more enforcement measures.
To download a PDF file with complete information, visit Adform’s Ad Quality Policies page. The Ad Quality Policies PDF file includes the following guidelines for clients:
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Prohibited Content and Practices: Lists prohibited content (such as offensive or threatening content) or illegal activities (such as hacking or including spyware or malware).
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Restricted Content and Practices: Lists restricted categories of content (such as alcohol-related, gambling, or political content).
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Ad Quality Testing: Adform continuously scans all advertising materials for malware or other malicious content.
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Creative Guidelines: All creative content must meet the requirements in Creative Guidelines.
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Third-Party Seller Policies: Other publishers and exchanges may have policies that apply to buyers of their inventory and certain data providers may have additional policies that apply to buyers of their data. Adform buyers purchasing such inventory or data are responsible for understanding and adhering to any additional policies.
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Enforcement: Provides information about penalties for not adhering to Adform’s policies.
Adform requests that buy-side and sell-side clients adhere to the following guidelines for real-time bidding (RTB) ads.
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Animation length: Less than or equal to 30 sec.
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Accepted file types for display ads: .jpeg (.jpg), .png, .gif, .dhtml, or MRAID-related files
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File size limit: Depending on an ad's dimensions, an initial file size of 150 KB or less is preferred.
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Rich media standards: Follow industry-accepted standards for user interactions with video and audio.
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Animated GIF ads: Have a frame rate less than or equal to 5 fps.
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Borders: Make sure that ads differ visually in some way from a web page's background. For example, if an ad has a white background and the web pages do also, add a visible border to the ad. If the ad has a colored background, a border may not be needed depending on the web page.
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Common ad sizes: 120x600, 160x600, 300x250, 468x60, or 728x90 pixels
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General standards: Adhere to all ad standards as issued by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB).
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Do not use autoplay (video or audio) or auto-expandable ads.
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Do not use ads that shake or have high-frequency flicker rates (between 5–30 transitions per second).
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Creative elements cannot be from or make a call to an unapproved ad server.
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Do not use ads that open additional windows (such as pop-up windows).
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After clicking an ad, users should not see messages (or surveys) beyond the original advertising message — or any ad that opens them. Ads must open in a new tab or a new window with relevant content.
There’s a struggle for balance between creativity and the urge to maximize engagement or conversions. This can make it hard to determine what’s a good user experience and what is not. Because of ad blocker usage and a proliferation of bad actors who misuse ads to serve questionable content, a need for standardized best practices has arisen.
Adform is working towards a transparent, fraud-free, and high-quality advertising market. This can be through programmatic buying, by battling fraud, and by fighting against abusive consumer experiences.
The Coalition for Better Ads has developed standards for desktop and mobile ads. The initial standards rely on universal principles:
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Don’t block the publisher’s content. (Let users determine how to engage with an ad.)
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Don’t distract the user. (Don’t play video with sound or have flashing animations.)
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Give the user control. (Don’t block the user from closing an ad or reading an article.)