What Is an Ad? How Does IAB Tech Lab’s AdCOM Standard Define the Ad Object?

IAB Tech Lab’s AdCOM standard defines the Ad object as the root structure of an ad media instance. The Ad object must contain a unique id field, and the id for the same ad must remain consistent across every transaction. An Ad object is built using one of three media subtypes: display, video, or audio. AdCOM recommends prioritizing structured objects over raw markup to improve quality and safety. The two core conditions that define advertising are payment and third-party mediation, which also create an obligation for audiences to be able to recognize ads.