TAG RELEASES INAUGURAL “IMPACT AND COMPLIANCE REPORT”

First-of-Its-Kind Analysis Quantifies Effectiveness of TAG Programs and Impact in Strengthening Digital Ad Supply Chain

Washington, DC – January 30, 2025 –TAG (Trustworthy Accountability Group), the global certification program to strengthen safety and transparency in digital advertising, today released its inaugural Impact and Compliance Report. The first-of-its-kind analysis quantified the effectiveness of TAG programs and their impact in strengthening the digital advertising supply chain for advertisers, agencies, publishers, and adtech providers.

“For nearly a decade, TAG has worked with companies across the industry to create a safer and more transparent digital advertising supply chain,” said Mike Zaneis, CEO of TAG. “This report shows the measurable impact of our efforts across our four mission areas, demonstrating in concrete metrics how TAG’s programs, tools, and community have safeguarded both companies and consumers from bad actors while improving the quality and transparency of the broader ecosystem.”

Highlights from the report include:

TAG’s Global Reach

• TAG Members span 43 countries worldwide. 
• 226 companies held at least one TAG seal at the end of 2024. 
  
  

Certified Against Fraud Program

• The first financial impact analysis of the digital advertising industry’s anti-fraud programs -- conducted in partnership with the 4A’s, ANA, and IAB -- found those efforts resulted in $10.8 billion in ad fraud savings for U.S. advertisers in 2023. 
• CAF continued to successfully maintain sub-1% invalid traffic (IVT) rates across TAG Certified Channels (TCC) globally, with U.S. rates holding them under that benchmark for the past four years and Europe for six. 
• TAG’s Data Center IP (DCIP) List tool identified more than 104 million unique high-risk IP addresses in 2024. 
  
  

Brand Safety Certified Program

• TAG expanded its ongoing efforts to defund intellectual property criminals with the launch of a comprehensive pre-bid “Pirate Domain Exclusion List (PDEL), a threat intelligence tool that helps advertisers avoid exposure to pirate sites.. 
• The launch of the Keyword Exclusion List Toolset (KELT) created a baseline of best practices for brands and agencies to maintain an effective keyword list. By simplifying and standardizing the approach, brands and agencies can expand the range of brand-suitable content, increase user engagement, and reduce unnecessary blocking that reduced ad revenue in the past. 
  
  

Certified Against Malware Program 

• TAG continued to raise the industry’s already-high standards against malvertising by expanding the core criteria necessary for vendors to be recognized with the TAG Certified Against Malware Seal for effective anti-malvertising services. 
• TAG released its Malvertising Taxonomy v2 in April 2024 with considerable updates to both the guiding principles and the examples of malvertising events included and described. The Taxonomy also included new subcategories and additional malvertising techniques, including steganography, browser extensions and hijackers, click-jacking, SEO poisoning, exploit kits and more. 
  
  

Certified for Transparency

• TAG TrustNet now provides campaign data insights for more than 40 brands, thanks in part to increased access to log-level data. 
• ANA’s most recent benchmark report highlighted a 22% increase in ad spend productivity since its 2023 programmatic transparency study was released. Within the context of a $104 billion open web programmatic marketplace, the increase represents an additional $8.2 billion in ad spend productivity. 
  
  

Threat-Sharing

• In 2024, TAG’s AdSec Threat Exchange increased in threat-sharing activity to combat malvertising attacks by 40% over the prior year. 
• TAG’s threat-sharing community has now grown to include practitioners from 11 countries spanning 7 time zones and providing 21.5 hours of human coverage in a typical day.
   

In addition, the report provided an update on TAG’s compliance framework and process. TAGs Due Process for Non-Compliance and Appeal guidelines are a critical feature of TAG certification programs. The Due Process governs investigations of instances of non-compliance by a TAG certified member, as well as the consequences for findings of non-compliance. 

During 2024, together with TAG’s Leadership Council and industry partners, TAG streamlined and enhanced the Due Process guidelines to strengthen TAG’s non-compliance investigation and response enforcement, while continuing to provide members with opportunities for remediation and appeal. Companies found to be not in compliance with TAG certification requirements may lose their ability to be certified for between six months and five years. 

"For the first time, we have a comprehensive, data-driven analysis of how TAG’s programs protect advertisers, publishers, and consumers from fraud, malvertising, and brand safety risks,” said Rachel Nyswander Thomas, COO of TAG. “The insights in this report demonstrate the power of TAG’s certification, compliance and intelligence tools, and threat-sharing forums, while also providing a roadmap for future enhancements. As we move forward, we will continue working with our partners around the globe to set even higher standards and drive greater accountability across the industry."

Read the full report

About TAG

TAG is the global certification program to strengthen safety and transparency in digital advertising. For nearly a decade, TAG's seal programs have demonstrated their effectiveness in minimizing fraudulent traffic, sharing threat intelligence, protecting brand safety, and enabling transparency. TAG's international member companies include the world's largest and most influential brands, agencies, publishers, and ad tech providers. TAG is the first and only Information Sharing and Analysis Organization (ISAO) for the digital advertising industry. For more information on TAG, please visit tagtoday.net.