#United States #New York #IAB Tech Lab #SupplyChain #OpenRTB

IAB Tech Lab Enhances Digital Advertising with SupplyChain v1.1

The IAB Tech Lab, a pivotal organization in setting technical standards for the digital advertising industry, has announced a major progression in transparency with the launch of SupplyChain v1.1. This upgrade to the OpenRTB SupplyChain Object, colloquially referred to as 'schain,' offers a transformative approach to understanding the intricacies of programmatic advertising transactions.

In an era where trust and clarity are critical, this update aims to furnish advertisers with insights into how bid requests are generated, processed, and routed throughout the programmatic supply chain. According to Anthony Katsur, CEO of IAB Tech Lab, this marks one of the most significant enhancements in transparency within the digital advertising landscape in recent years. He emphasized that advertisers not only deserve to know who financially participates in their transactions but also who retains control of specific requests prior to reaching the buyer.

This substantial update expands the functionalities of schain beyond merely tracking payment flows. It incorporates technical custody specifics, granting buyers visibility into both the companies involved in the commercial transaction and the entities that take charge of bid requests through various intermediaries, such as Prebid and ad servers. As a result, it delivers a more thorough and precise depiction of the programmatic supply pathway, ultimately aiding buyers in refining their supply-path optimization, minimizing redundancies in bid requests, and clearly identifying all participants involved in a programmatic transaction.

Industry leaders from diverse sectors, including buyers and sellers of advertising as well as advertising infrastructure professionals, have expressed overwhelming support for this initiative. Neal Richter, VP of Amazon Ads and Chair of the IAB Tech Lab Board of Directors, commented, "OpenRTB exists to make programmatic advertising more interoperable, scalable, and trustworthy. This update is pivotal as it provides buyers with a clearer understanding of supply creation and transmission. Greater transparency paves the way for a healthier marketplace, instilling more confidence in advertisers to engage with the open internet."

Paul Bannister, Chief Strategy Officer at Raptive, echoed these sentiments, highlighting that for advertisers, the open internet should represent a domain characterized by transparency, accountability, and efficiency. By exposing both the commercial and technical pathways of bid requests, buyers are empowered to make informed decisions, recognizing high-quality supply while reducing waste resulting from opaque or redundant infrastructures.

Rob Hazan from The Trade Desk further added that longer supply chains, when they are transparent, can serve buyers better than shorter chains that obscure significant information. This shift allows the industry to progress towards a framework where the correlation between supply paths and advertiser performance is meticulously assessed.

Chris Kane, Founder of Jounce Media, remarked, "Advertisers shouldn't have to choose between scale and clarity. The most beneficial supply paths are those easy for buyers to understand. By enhancing schain to include technical custody, our industry is progressing toward a stage where efficiency can be measured more accurately, and duplicate structures can be easily pinpointed."

The OpenRTB Working Group weighed various implementation strategies and favored a model that directly integrates custody entities into the main schain, using the hp=0 designation for those not involved in the payment flow. This preserves the integrity of the existing schain model while offering buyers heightened awareness of technical engagement in the bid request lifecycle.

The group recognized that the enhancements may lead to longer schains in numerous cases as transparency heightens. To facilitate the transition and minimize disruption, the IAB Tech Lab plans to roll out guidelines suggesting that Supply-Side Platforms (SSPs) and Demand-Side Platforms (DSPs) collaborate on staged testing, validate parsing behavior, track bid health, and gradually increase SupplyChain v1.1 traffic.

Ultimately, SupplyChain v1.1 aims to help buyers understand three critical aspects of a bid request: its origin, the technical custody it underwent, and the parties involved in the financial transactions. Together, these insights can cultivate greater trust, diminish uncertainties, and steer investments toward the most efficient and highest-quality supply paths.

IAB Tech Lab is encouraging stakeholders in the industry to participate in the public comment period for SupplyChain v1.1 until August 21, 2026. For more information, please visit IAB Tech Lab's official website.

About IAB Tech Lab

Founded in 2014, the IAB Tech Lab is a non-profit consortium focused on fostering growth and trust within the digital media ecosystem. Its member community spans digital publishers, technology firms, agencies, brands, and more, working collaboratively on solutions that address key industry challenges, including brand safety, ad fraud, and consumer privacy.