Digital Audio Ad Serving Template
Digital Audio Ad Serving Template
Created by the IAB Digital Audio Ad Serving Template Working Group, IAB released the Digital Audio Ad Serving Template (DAAST), the organization’s very first technical solution addressing the fragmented audio advertising market. DAAST provides a common set of specifications for audio ad delivery, execution, and reporting across a broad multitude of devices and platforms.
DAAST also paves the way for other streaming formats by addressing various environment needs like mobile and in-car radios where access to a web browser is limited or doesn’t exist which complicates ad and play tracking functionality.
Adoption of DAAST makes it lighter for ad servers to reach publisher platforms compliant with the DAAST specification. DAAST offers a compliance program for audio players, which requires support for linear ads and optionally one or more of the following ad formats: Companion ads, Ad pods, and Skippable ads. More details can be found in the Compliance section below.
To help the industry adopt the fresh DAAST specification, several resources have been created and are available on this page:
- VAST to DAAST Transition Schema: a resource for those updating their VAST implementation to DAAST. This comparison document shows where switches in VAST were made to develop DAAST. A quick comparison should help programmers make a slick transition.
- DAAST XML Schema Definition (XSD) Draft: provided for developers to validate their DAAST tags, this is a draft and candidate for the IAB’s Tech Lab to review. Please notify us with any inconsistencies or issues.
- DAAST Ad Categories: a list of ad categories to be referenced in the DAAST required <Categories> element. This list is based on of the Quality Assurance Guidelines Contextual Taxonomy and the OpenRTB Content Codes, but includes extra categories.
DAAST Compliance for IAB Members
Adoption of DAAST improve efficiencies for buyers and sellers of audio advertising. IAB promotes member adoption of DAAST through its compliance program. To be recognized as DAAST compliant, a member company must self-attest to meeting the minimum requirements stated in the technical specification. DAAST compliance is applicable for Audio Players, but audio ad servers must meet certain expectations for their ads to work in a DAAST compliant player. To submit your self-attested compliance, please see IAB’s Compliance Program.
General DAAST Audio Player and Ad Server Expectations
Audio Player: The audio player should be able to recognize a DAAST response, parse it, and execute the files provided depending on publisher specifications. The player is responsible for supporting XML conventions, respecting ad server instructions in a DAAST inline or wrapper response, and playing the audio ad as specified within the announced boundaries of audio player. Ads that fall brief of publisher requirements may be overlooked.
Audio Ad Server: In order for an audio ad to function in a DAAST-compliant audio player or audio streaming server the ad server must react to the player’s request for an ad with an XML response formatted according to the DAAST specification. Audio ad servers should also be able to receive process and react to any player requests for tracking and error details in the DAAST response that the ad server sent.
Minimum Requirements for DAAST Player Compliance
Audio Player Feature support
Disclosure: Companies must disclose their level of support for DAAST, albeit IAB doesn’t specify how this is done. Additionally, companies should specify whether disclosure is at time of sale or in real-time per bid. Areas of disclosure include:
- Tracking client-side or server-side
- Caching practices
- Supported Ad Types
