Connected TV (CTV) is rapidly becoming a measurable, performance‑driving channel, and this Q&A with experts from our CTV Working Group explores how advances in cross‑device attribution, privacy‑safe audience frameworks, programmatic access, and attention‑based measurement are enabling advertisers to link big‑screen exposure to real outcomes. While fragmentation, shared‑device viewing, and inconsistent identifiers still complicate attribution, CTV is proving highly effective when used within coordinated omnichannel strategies that pair high‑attention storytelling with downstream retargeting and search lift. Looking ahead, the group expects CTV’s conversion role to strengthen as interoperability improves, attribution windows mature, and data connections deepen, positioning CTV as a hybrid brand‑plus‑performance channel within the modern media mix.
A big thank you to the following contributors for sharing their thoughts:
Ekaterina Vagner, Marketing Director - EMEA, Verve
Samir Chabab, VP Global Marketing, Ogury
Michael Möller, CTO, Visoon Video Impact, Digital Video Working Group Chair, BVDW
Andreas Hamdorf, Lead Strategic Partner Management, esome advertising technologies for BVDW
Todd Randak, SVP, Corporate Development & Strategy, DoubleVerify
Samir - "CTV is no longer just an awareness channel. It’s becoming a measurable, outcome-driven environment that can support real performance objectives. Advances in cross-device measurement have improved the industry’s ability to understand how audiences move across screens. Rather than depending solely on device-level identifiers, advertisers are increasingly working with privacy-safe audience frameworks that provide a more consistent view of exposure and outcomes. At the same time, planning approaches are shifting from individual tracking to broader audience cohorts. With the development of attention metrics, incrementality testing, and brand lift studies, CTV can now be assessed not just on reach, but on its measurable contribution to business results."
Ekaterina - "The biggest unlock has been measurement catching up with behaviour. Mobile Measurement Partners can now connect a CTV exposure to downstream app installs and actions using household-level signals and cross-device graphs. That makes CTV measurable in a way that looks far more like mobile attribution than traditional TV reporting. Programmatic access also changed the game. Buyers can transact impression by impression, optimise toward outcomes, and feed campaign data back into predictive models. Add better integrations across DSPs, OEMs, and measurement platforms, and CTV is no longer a blind spot. It is an addressable environment with traceable influence."
Todd - "CTV’s evolution from brand channel to performance driver is being powered by stronger measurement foundations and better ways to connect ad exposure to real-world outcomes. Advertisers can increasingly link a streaming ad viewed on a TV screen to actions taken later, such as website visits, app downloads, or purchases. Improvements in cross-device matching, combined with integration into broader measurement frameworks, are helping marketers understand CTV’s role alongside other channels. Just as importantly, impression-level verification ensures ads are delivered in quality environments, giving advertisers confidence that reported conversions are based on trusted media exposure. Together, these advancements allow CTV to prove impact with the rigour marketers expect from digital channels."
Andreas - "CTV can be purchased via DSPs and measured via ad servers or special measurement providers. This enables the connection of advertising contacts with website visits, app downloads, lead and conversion tracking, as we know them from digital advertising contacts. Some providers also offer the option of using data clean rooms to compare conversions on websites with advertising contacts on streaming services using hashed email addresses."
Michael - "With a clean measurement and tracking setup, CTV evolves from a pure awareness channel into a true performance driver. This requires cross-device attribution, search lift and conversion lift measurement, the use of QR codes or vanity URLs, and first-party data for precise audience targeting. Without this infrastructure, CTV remains positioned in the upper funnel. With it, however, CTV becomes measurable, optimisable, and performance-relevant."
Andreas - "Depending on how users view content on CTV, e.g., via FAST, BVOD, or AVOD, identifiers that enable clear attribution of the conversion to the advertising contact are not always available. A CTV big screen device, for example, is often located in a household where different people live. The person in front of the TV screen is not always the same person who operates the digital device used to make the purchase. As a result, many CTV conversion measurements are currently still based on IP addresses and ID matching using household graphs. In Germany, we also face the challenge that private IP addresses are constantly changing, which makes it even more difficult to assign identifiers that belong to different devices in the same household with a time delay."
Todd - "Despite advancements in measurement, attribution remains the primary friction point. Streaming ads are often viewed on shared household devices, while conversions typically occur on personal devices like smartphones or laptops. Limited cross-device visibility, restricted data sharing in closed platforms, and inconsistent standards make it difficult to see the full customer journey. Opaque buying paths can further reduce confidence in reported results. Attribution for CTV, just like all other channels, continues to be an imperfect science. But without transparency into where ads ran and how they were delivered, advertisers cannot confidently test, learn, and validate CTV’s true impact."
Samir - "The biggest challenge is fragmentation. Audiences move across platforms and devices, but measurement often remains siloed. Signals between CTV and other environments are not always consistent, and there is still no universal standard for attribution or performance metrics. As a result, it can be difficult to connect reach and attention on the TV screen with measurable conversion outcomes. Many advertisers struggle to build a clear, end-to-end view of performance across screens. Addressing this requires more unified audience approaches and privacy-safe measurement frameworks that can operate consistently across environments. Without that coherence, CTV risks being measured in isolation rather than as part of the broader consumer journey."
Ekaterina - "CTV does not behave like click-based media, and treating it that way leads to frustration. The user journey is longer, often spanning several days, which means short attribution windows miss real impact. Signal density is also lighter. Bid requests carry limited identifiers, so optimisation leans on modelling rather than deterministic tracking. Many brands still overvalue contextual signals meant for brand safety rather than performance outcomes. Then there is fragmentation. Not every platform integrates cleanly with measurement stacks, creating partial visibility unless the tech ecosystem is carefully aligned from the start."
Michael - "Realistically, CTV is rarely a last-click hero. Its strength lies in acting as a demand generator that improves the efficiency of downstream performance channels. Many performance teams observe increasing ROAS in search, decreasing CPAs due to stronger pre-qualification, and measurable brand lift. CTV therefore does not operate in isolation but functions as a multiplier within a holistic media mix."
Samir - "CTV tends to be most effective when it plays a defined role within a broader omnichannel strategy. The big screen is powerful for driving awareness and consideration through high-impact storytelling, while other digital environments often support retargeting and conversion. It works particularly well when messaging and audience strategy are aligned across screens. When exposure on CTV is reinforced through complementary digital touchpoints, brands can guide consumers along a more coherent path from discovery to action. Rather than acting as a standalone conversion channel, CTV proves most effective when it contributes to a coordinated, full-funnel approach that connects brand impact with measurable outcomes."
Andreas - "CTV is suitable for conversion campaigns when promoting a product or offer that users can easily remember, or that is highly relevant to the viewer. Some users pause the stream and may respond briefly to a QR code or other call to action. But the majority of users need to remember the commercial, which must be relevant to them. They then visit the provider's website at a later time, or ideally while streaming on their smartphone or tablet.
The less the ad competes for users' attention, the greater the chance of ad recall and impact. That's why we recommend CTV providers to our customers who currently have a relatively low number of commercials in an ad block and whose ad blocks are no longer than 120 seconds."
Michael - "CTV generates particularly highlevels of attention due to the large screen and lean-back viewing environment. This level of attention often translates into downstream user action, such as branded search volume increases, direct traffic rises, app installs grow, and conversions occur later on mobile or desktop devices. Many performance teams observe increasing ROAS in search, decreasing CPAs due to stronger pre-qualification, and measurable brand lift."
Todd - "CTV is proving most effective as a conversion platform when it’s activated as a true full-funnel channel. A well-targeted, contextually relevant streaming ad can build brand equity while simultaneously driving consideration and action, particularly as interactive and shoppable formats gain traction. Retail, direct-to-consumer, and app-based brands are seeing strong performance when CTV is integrated into broader cross-screen strategies and measured against outcome-based KPIs. However, success depends on consistent cross-funnel measurement. When advertisers can verify media quality and connect exposure to real results, they no longer have to choose between brand impact and performance–they can achieve both."
Todd - "For years, CTV earned its place as a premium brand-building environment. What will define its next phase is the industry’s ability to scale existing technology and apply content-level data to consistently connect on-screen exposure to measurable business outcomes with transparency. As marketers shift from reach and frequency toward metrics like sales and customer acquisition, channels that can demonstrate incremental impact will win performance budgets. That requires clearer cross-channel measurement, stronger data connections between devices, and greater transparency into how and where ads are delivered. CTV has the audience quality and engagement to drive results, providing that impact with rigour and transparency will shape its role moving forward."
Ekaterina - "Execution discipline will matter more than innovation hype. The winners will be those who align supply paths, measurement frameworks, and creative specifically for performance goals instead of repurposing brand playbooks. Expect better standardisation of integrations, longer and more realistic attribution models, and closer collaboration between buyers, DSPs, and supply partners to curate inventory around outcomes. As more mobile first advertisers test and scale, CTV will settle into a hybrid identity. Not replacing brand advertising, but operating alongside it as a measurable, programmatic channel that drives both attention and acquisition."
Samir - "Over the next 12–24 months, CTV’s role will be defined by merging brand and performance measurement within privacy-first frameworks. Persona-based planning, consistent cross-screen activation, and attention-driven metrics will allow advertisers to evaluate the quality of engagement. Programmatic accessibility and improved interoperability between CTV, mobile, and desktop will further reduce fragmentation. With budgets shifting from linear TV to digital environments, CTV will increasingly operate as both an upper- and mid-funnel driver, capable of generating measurable consideration and conversion signals while sustaining long-term brand impact."
Andreas - "If we manage to define a uniform basis of identifiers that we can use to link advertising contacts on the CTV big screen with subsequent purchases on the website or in the app, measurability and thus demand for conversion campaigns will increase. The use of data clean rooms may also be an option, provided that CTV providers and advertisers are willing to match their conversion data on such a platform. However, this will only be relevant for CTV providers who have user data from subscriptions themselves."
Michael - "Compared to traditional linear TV, CTV offers significant advantages: granular household and audience targeting, frequency control, real-time optimisation, and clearer conversion measurability. Strategically, CTV sits between traditional TV, which primarily delivers reach, and performance channels such as paid social and paid search, which are optimised for efficiency and direct response. CTV therefore does not operate in isolation but functions as a multiplier within a holistic media mix."
Explore more of our CTV work on our Knowledge Hub and reach out to Marie-Clare Puffett at puffett [at] iabeurope.eu to learn how you can participate, contribute, and share your expertise in the Working Group.
Brussels, Belgium, 4th March 2026 - IAB Europe, the European-level industry association for the digital marketing and advertising ecosystem, today announced its fourth annual State of Readiness - Sustainability in Digital Advertising Report, providing a comprehensive overview of how the European digital advertising ecosystem is progressing across environmental and social sustainability.
Now in its fourth year, the survey reflects a sector expanding its sustainability lens. For the first time, the 2026 edition assesses both environmental sustainability (including carbon emissions) and social sustainability (including privacy, media plurality, accessibility, diversity, and responsible media).
This addition reflects a growing recognition across the industry that sustainability today is not only about environmental progress. It is equally about people, accountability, responsible practices, and wider societal outcomes. As regulatory scrutiny increases and expectations from advertisers, publishers, employees, and consumers continue to rise, digital advertising sustainability must be understood through both environmental and social lenses.
The survey was conducted between November 2025 and January 2026, gathering 135 responses from companies and associations active across all European markets.
Key Findings from the Report:
Commenting on the report's findings, Steffen Hubert, Director of External Affairs & Sustainability, Seven.One Entertainment Group and Chair of IAB Europe’s Sustainability Standards Committee, said, “This year’s State of Readiness confirms what the Beyond Reach report began to map: when you apply an industry-wide double materiality lens, social topics come out on top. Privacy, accessibility, responsible media and media plurality are business-critical conditions for trust and long-term value creation. Now we must turn that clarity into comparable definitions, credible evidence and practical action across the ecosystem."
Also commenting on the report, IAB Europe’s Data & Innovation Strategist, Dimitris Beis, said “State of Readiness 2026 provides quantitative grounding for the evolving scope of the Sustainability Standards Committee. It moves digital ad sustainability beyond being seen as a carbon footprint side-car, while recognising that environmental impact remains critical, and demonstrates that sustainability as defined here reflects the real structural issues facing our ecosystem.”
Strengthening Social Sustainability Through Industry Collaboration
In response to this year’s findings, IAB Europe’s Sustainability Standards Committee has enhanced its focus on advancing guidance, education, and best practices across social sustainability themes.
Building on established environmental initiatives, the Committee is intensifying its work on responsible media, accessibility, diversity, media plurality, and privacy. This ensures that sustainability efforts within digital advertising address both environmental impact and wider societal responsibility in a structured and measurable way.
The full 2026 Report is available on IAB Europe’s website here. Additional practical resources and information on how to participate in ongoing standards development can be found via the Sustainability Hub.
We’re delighted to welcome Booking.com as a new member of IAB Europe, marking an exciting step forward as we continue to broaden our engagement across key commerce-driven sectors. As one of the world’s leading digital travel platforms, Booking.com brings invaluable perspective and expertise from the travel ecosystem - a sector playing an increasingly important role in the expansion of Commerce Media in Europe.
As Commerce Media matures beyond retail, sectors such as travel and financial services are rapidly innovating in how media is planned, activated, and measured. Bringing these sectors into the conversation is essential to ensuring that industry standards remain relevant, practical, and future-proof.
Through the work of our Retail & Commerce Media Committee, we aim to convene leading commerce media networks across travel and financial services to align on shared measurement priorities, build on our existing commerce media measurement standards, and identify sector-specific needs, gaps, and opportunities.
To kick off this collaboration, we spoke with Bram van Asperen, Senior Commercial Manager - Advertising at Booking.com to get his perspective on Commerce Media, measurement, and the role of standards in driving growth.
“In my role, I spend a lot of time in the engine room of a global marketplace. On a daily basis, we’re navigating different regional regulations, diverse partner expectations and the technical complexity that comes with operating an ad business across many markets.
What I’m most looking forward to in joining IAB Europe is the opportunity to step out of that day-to-day execution and into a broader industry conversation. Being part of this community allows us to share what we’ve learned at scale, while also learning from others who are solving similar challenges in different sectors.
One of the biggest opportunities I see right now is creating a shared language around Commerce Media - clearer definitions, aligned expectations and more consistent ways of explaining value and measurement. When we get that right, it reduces friction for advertisers, agencies and platforms alike.
Ultimately, being part of IAB Europe is about helping Commerce Media grow in a way that is more standardised, transparent and sustainable - not just for the largest players, but for the ecosystem as a whole.”
“Commerce Media has already been key at Booking.com, and it allows us to introduce unique dynamics to the conversation because the path to purchase is rarely linear. These are high-consideration, emotionally driven decisions often planned weeks or months in advance. Consequently, Commerce Media in travel isn’t just a transactional engine; it’s about curating a more helpful travel journey from the initial spark of inspiration through to the final booking.
This creates a unique opportunity for both endemic and non-endemic partners to engage with a high-intent audience in a context that is incredibly accurate. A 'confirmed booker' signals a clear window of intent. This milestone marks the transition from inspiration to preparation, creating a unique opportunity for brands to offer relevant products like apparel, travel tech or insurance exactly when the traveller is most likely to need them.
As we facilitate the entire travel lifecycle, we can offer partners privacy-safe, anonymised audience insights that aren't available elsewhere at this scale. As the industry evolves, our priority remains the careful stewardship of the customer experience. By balancing deep audience signals with a 'privacy-by-design' approach, we ensure that travellers get a more tailored experience and we deliver value to a wider array of partners without ever compromising the trust or digital safety of our customers.”
“One of our core priorities is building measurement frameworks that are both credible and realistic. At Booking.com, this carries particular responsibility as we operate in a highly regulated environment where privacy, data protection and consumer trust are non-negotiable.
On the one hand, our partners expect robust measurement and optimisation capabilities that clearly demonstrate the value and impact of their investment, and on the other hand, we have a duty to ensure that data is handled responsibly and in full compliance with evolving regulatory standards. We do not see these objectives as competing, but as foundational to how Commerce Media should be built and scaled.
This challenge is not unique to travel. We see strong alignment with other sectors such as retail and finance, where the focus is equally on proving incrementality and long-term impact through privacy-safe, first-party data. Through our participation in IAB Europe, we aim to contribute to cross-industry standards that acknowledge these regulatory realities, while still enabling the level of transparency and insight advertisers need to make informed decisions.”
“The release of the Commerce Media Measurement Standards V2 is an important step forward, and I’m particularly encouraged to see that dedicated travel standards are on the roadmap for 2026. From my perspective, leading the commercial team at Booking.com, there are a few areas where travel requires a more nuanced treatment to fully align with the broader Commerce Media framework.
First, extended lookback windows are critical. While V2 establishes a 30-day default for endemic brands, travel is inherently a high-consideration purchase with longer planning cycles. Validating more flexible attribution windows would allow measurement to better reflect the full journey - from initial inspiration through to booking - which in travel can span several weeks or even months.
Second, the definition of “confirmed sales” requires additional clarity for travel. The distinction between Gross and Net Sales in the current standards is a vital foundation, but travel introduces a significant delay between the booking (the transaction) and the actual stay (the consumption). This creates inherent complexity and slowness in measuring final results. We need to validate standards for how cancellations are reflected when they occur months after the media exposure, while also establishing frameworks for the specific estimations we use to bridge that measurement gap.
Finally, there is an opportunity to further elevate upper- and mid-funnel measurement. Given the amount of research travellers undertake, conversion-led metrics such as ROAS only capture part of the value. Greater validation and standardisation of brand and consideration metrics - such as ad recall or brand recognition - would help properly value media that influences decision-making earlier in the journey.
Recognising these travel-specific nuances will make it easier for travel media networks to adopt the standards in a way that is transparent, comparable and commercially viable for partners across the ecosystem.”
“Scale in Commerce Media is only sustainable if it is built on a foundation of shared trust. No single platform or sector has all the answers. Cross-industry collaboration allows us to reduce fragmentation, align on standards, and create a clearer and more navigable ecosystem for advertisers.
I see real value in radical transparency: openly sharing what works, pressure-testing assumptions around measurement and being honest about the challenges of operating responsibly at scale. That includes acknowledging that many Commerce Media platforms, travel included, were not originally built with advertising from the start.
That reality makes collaboration even more important. As an industry, we are collectively building new capabilities, new operating models and new teams. At the same time, we are competing for the best talent to help professionalise and scale these media networks in the right way. Learning from adjacent sectors that are further along in their maturity curve accelerates that process significantly.
IAB Europe plays a critical role in providing a neutral ground for these conversations. By bringing industries together, it helps us move beyond experimentation toward a more transparent, trusted, and commercially mature Commerce Media ecosystem across Europe.”
If you’re operating in the travel sector, or are more broadly interested in shaping the future of Retail & Commerce Media, we’d love to hear from you. Visit our Retail Media Hub to find out more, or get in touch with the team at communication [at] iabeurope.eu.
Sustainability is taking centre stage in digital advertising this March, and 2026 is the year to turn bold ideas into real-world impact. From environmental progress to social responsibility, this is your chance to see how the industry is shaping a smarter and more purposeful future.
On 4th March at 11:00 AM CET, join our Great Debate on Sustainability, where we will explore how digital advertising can make a tangible difference. We’ll unveil insights from our soon-to-be published State of Readiness report, deep dive into the Beyond Reach Report, and explore what actionable steps brands and agencies can take to embed sustainability across their strategies.
This year’s event brings together a powerful mix of industry pioneers, academic leaders, and corporate decision-makers, each offering a distinct perspective on how sustainability must move from ambition to action.
Hear from speakers including:
Steffen Hubert, Director of External Affairs & Sustainability, Seven.One Entertainment Group and Chair of the Sustainability Standards Committee
Emanuela Recalcati, Global Head of Emerging Innovation and Creative Services, WPP Media and Co-Chair of the Sustainability Standards Committee
Audrey Danthony, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer, Impact Plus
Clement Cordeiro, Head of Client Services - Carbon Success Manager, DK
Prof. Dr. Lisa-Charlotte Wolter, Professor at International University of Applied Sciences
Marco Pierani, Director, Corporate Affairs & Public Relations, Euroconsumers
More speakers can be seen on our event page here.
Expect thoughtful insights, actionable ideas, and honest discussions as we explore:
Curious about the debate? Read our Q&A blog with Chairs Steffen Hubert and Emanuela Recalcati to get a preview of the discussions and insights they’ll bring to the event.
Secure your free virtual space and be part of a smarter, more sustainable digital advertising future.
Retail Media continues to scale across markets. Budgets are growing, expectations are tightening, and one issue keeps returning to the surface: comparability.
This week marks an important milestone for the global Retail Media ecosystem. IAB Australia, in collaboration with IAB Europe, has launched the IAB Australia Retail Media Certification Program. The initiative is a local adaptation of the IAB Europe Retail Media Certification Programme and is grounded in the standards developed by IAB Europe’s Retail and Commerce Media Committee.
Coles 360 will be the first Australian retail media network to enter the independent audit process, signalling a commitment to transparent and accountable measurement as retail media matures within the market.
The Australian Program mirrors the core principles of the European certification model. Retailers and ad tech companies can undergo an independent audit of their retail media measurement practices against the mandatory requirements set out in IAB Europe’s Compliance Table.
As with the process carried out in Europe, once the audit is completed, IAB Australia reviews the auditor’s report and, where the criteria are met, issues a certification badge valid for two years.
This structure is deliberate. Certification is not a declaration of intent. It is independent verification against a clearly defined, industry-agreed baseline.
Retail Media has developed quickly. In many markets, it has moved from experimentation to structural budget allocation in a short period of time. Measurement alignment has not always progressed at the same pace.
Inconsistent definitions, variations in methodology, and differing reporting standards create friction for brands and agencies operating across multiple retail environments. Certification does not seek to limit innovation. It establishes a shared framework so that performance discussions are grounded in common expectations.
Retail media’s continued development depends on transparent measurement and a common language that advertisers can trust.
An Australian retailer entering this certification process reinforces that verified measurement is not regionally specific. It is becoming a global expectation.
The Programme is designed to promote a level playing field by aligning measurement practices to a common, independently verified standard. Independent verification increases confidence in reported metrics and methodologies, helping ensure retail media is assessed against expectations applied across other digital channels.
In practical terms, this brings clearer definitions, transparency around calculation methodologies, and consistency in how performance is reported. When retailers are measured against the same mandatory requirements, differences in results reflect strategy and execution rather than interpretation.
For brands and agencies, this reduces ambiguity in cross-retailer evaluation and supports more robust investment decisions. For retailers, it signals operational maturity and readiness to be assessed against agreed standards. For the broader ecosystem, it strengthens trust by anchoring growth in accountability.
As Retail Media becomes more deeply embedded within media plans, confidence in reported outcomes is no longer a preference. It is a requirement.
The IAB Europe Retail Media Certification Programme was created to bring consistency across retailers and ad tech companies operating in Europe. The adoption of a locally adapted model in Australia demonstrates the portability and relevance of those standards.
Retail media does not lack demand. What it requires is clarity.
Certification provides a transparent benchmark. It enables retailers to demonstrate compliance with industry-agreed standards and gives advertisers a more reliable foundation for comparison.
The Australian launch marks an important step in the international alignment of retail media measurement standards, reinforcing that transparency and comparability are becoming shared expectations across markets rather than isolated initiatives.
For more information on the IAB Europe Retail Media Certification Programme, visit the website here.
More about the IAB Australia Retail Media Certification Program here.
Social media continues to be one of the fastest-growing channels in European advertising. According to our latest AdEx report, social media advertising grew by 23.9% in 2024, ranking it among the top-performing channels across the region.
But growth alone doesn’t tell the whole story.
Behind these headline figures, advertisers and agencies are having to balance opportunity with increasing expectations around media quality, measurement confidence, and transparency. Budget decisions are no longer made on reach and engagement alone. They’re shaped by the ability to demonstrate performance, protect brand safety, and trust reporting standards.
Which raises important questions:
A Clearer Picture of Budget Priorities
To better understand how these forces are shaping real investment decisions, IAB Europe, in collaboration with DoubleVerify, has launched The State of Social Media Investment & Media Quality in Europe.
This new research study aims to capture:
The goal is simple: move beyond assumptions and capture real advertiser and agency experience.
Why Your Voice Matters
If you’re involved in planning, buying, or overseeing social media campaigns, we’d love to hear from you. Your input will help build a more grounded and representative view of how budgets are being allocated, and why.
The survey takes about 10 minutes to complete. As a thank you for your time, participants can also enter a prize draw to win a €250 voucher.
If you’re not directly involved in budget decisions, please consider sharing the survey with advertiser or agency contacts who are. Your share could help shape more meaningful insights for the whole industry.
Brussels, Belgium, 23rd February 2026 – IAB Europe welcomes the European Commission’s ambition to simplify the EU digital acquis through the Digital Omnibus proposal. Reducing regulatory fragmentation, addressing consent fatigue, and providing greater legal certainty are essential to strengthening Europe’s digital economy while maintaining high standards of data protection.
As the legislative process advances, IAB Europe’s position paper calls on co-legislators to ensure that simplification efforts are grounded in a genuinely risk-based approach. The position paper encourages the co-regulators to:
Legal certainty around what constitutes personal data is fundamental to the effective functioning of the GDPR. IAB Europe supports efforts to align the interpretation of identifiability with a recent Court of Justice of the European Union ruling (EDPS v SRB), ensuring that assessments of whether data is personal are realistic, contextual, and based on practical means available to a given organisation. Clear boundaries around identifiability will incentivise responsible investment in privacy-enhancing technologies and pseudonymisation techniques. This approach supports innovation while maintaining strong protections for individuals.
IAB Europe strongly supports the objective of reducing consent fatigue for European consumers. However, true simplification requires addressing the structural causes of banner proliferation. The current framework often requires consent for low-impact, operational uses of data that pose minimal privacy risk. A more proportionate, risk-based approach would allow essential digital functions to operate under appropriate safeguards, reserving consent for higher-impact processing.
At the same time, the European Commission’s proposal for a centralised or browser-level consent mechanism is technically unworkable and poses a severe economic risk to ad-funded services. Decoupling consent from the direct relationship between users and service providers would prevent providers such as publishers from explaining the specific value exchange that funds free content and services. This is particularly damaging to independent and smaller publishers, as well as competing digital service providers, who rely on direct engagement with their audiences to sustain their business models. Weakening these foundations risks reducing revenues and ultimately limiting consumers’ ability to access free content and services.
For more information, you can access the full position paper under this link.
Social media investment across Europe is adapting in response to shifting budgets, updated platform standards, greater scrutiny on media quality, and the increasing presence of AI‑generated content.
To better understand what this looks like in practice, we’ve launched The State of Social Media Investment & Media Quality in Europe, a new research survey developed in collaboration with DoubleVerify.
The study is designed to capture how advertisers and media agencies are planning, measuring, and protecting their social media campaigns today, and to identify where the most significant challenges still lie.
The value of this research depends on the voices behind it. Your perspective will help us build a clearer, more grounded picture of how social media advertising is working across Europe today.
Specifically, the findings will explore:
This research is focused on real advertiser and agency experience, not assumptions,which is why participation from across the ecosystem is so important.
We’re looking for responses from advertisers and media agencies, particularly those involved in planning, buying, or overseeing social media campaigns.
The survey takes no more than 10 minutes to complete and the deadline is Friday, 20th March.
As a thank you, participants can also enter a prize draw to win a €250 voucher. Take part in the survey or share it with relevant contacts below.
Institutionally, we have moved past the initial phase of AI novelty. The conversation is no longer about whether to adopt AI, but how to weave it into the fabric of the modern enterprise without unravelling the threads of governance and trust. As tools based on AI models become as ubiquitous as email, organisations face a critical pivot point. They can either treat AI policy as a defensive shield, i.e. a list of prohibitions designed to mitigate liability, or they can view it as "behavioural architecture" that guides the workforce toward smarter, safer innovation. The former creates blind spots; the latter builds capability.
The following perspective, authored by Wayne Tassie (Chair, IAB Europe Advertising & Media Committee) and informed by subject-matter expert Dimitris Beis (Data & Innovation Strategist, IAB Europe), argues that effective AI governance is not about restricting access, but about defining what "good" looks like in an era of automated judgement.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this blog are the author’s own and are provided in their capacity as Chair. They do not represent the views of the author’s employer or any affiliated organisation.
Many contemporary organisations are rushing to incorporate AI applications to streamline operations, aiming to work cleaner, smarter, and faster. Yet, few have articulated a unified view of what a successful AI end-state actually looks like. Instead, we see a fragmented landscape across job functions and teams, with sentiment ranging from unbridled enthusiasm to deep scepticism.
From an organisational perspective, this fragmentation matters. Not because AI is "existential" or "transformative" - adjectives that often inflate the conversation - but because AI quietly alters how work gets done. When these tools begin to shape judgement, delegation, and accountability, treating them merely as productivity enhancements becomes a governance failure.
Organisational AI policy is no longer about whether employees should use AI tools. They already are, whether through mandate or individual preference. The real question is whether organisations intend to remain responsible for the outcomes as the boundaries between human judgement and AI-supported decision-making blur.
Guidance from the field: The IAB Europe Impact of AI on Digital Advertising Report(September 2025)confirms that usage is already pervasive, with 85% of respondents indicating their company uses AI-based tools for marketing purposes.
Crucially, the data reveals a heavy reliance on external vendors: respondents reported a split of roughly 60% third-party solutions vs. 40% proprietary tools. This dominance of third-party tools underscores why internal bans are often ineffective. If your policy doesn't account for the terms, data usage, and security of these third-party vendors, you are missing the majority of your actual risk surface.
A common misstep in early AI policies is framing these tools as neutral assistants. This leads to lightweight rules focused on access control, data security, and baseline compliance. While necessary, these controls are insufficient. They address surface-level risks while leaving deeper vulnerabilities untouched: the potential for misuse, over-reliance, and subtle exploitation.
AI tools do not simply accelerate tasks; they influence how individuals frame problems and navigate ambiguity. They often reward operational efficiency with "plausible fluency," creating an artificial sense of earned knowledge. Over time, this shapes organisational judgement itself. If we accept AI-assisted outputs without interrogating the reasoning behind them, accountability concentrates rather than dissolves. Delegating work to AI transfers decision logic to an algorithm, yet leaves humans answerable for the consequences. Viewed through the lens of governance, this is where serious AI policy begins.
Responding to uncertainty by banning third-party applications is often framed as prudence. In practice, it signals a trade-off between control and reality. The adoption curve of AI mirrors the social media cycle of the early 2000s; just as bans failed to stop social media usage, they are unlikely to prevent AI adoption in a world where it is culturally embedded.
Banning specific tools simply drives usage underground. Employees will continue to use preferred applications, but without shared standards, transparency, or the ability to collectively learn from errors. Critically, banning tools replaces judgement with prohibition, shifting the organisation away from responsible governance toward symbolic control. While this may feel safer, it ultimately erodes oversight.
AI is most often justified on efficiency grounds: faster retrieval, analysis, and execution. Far less attention is paid to the risk of "plausible fabrication", the propagation of inaccurate outputs that sound correct. In the race for efficiency, volume can easily displace quality.
AI makes it possible to sound informed and confident at scale, often without sufficient checks. When plausibility replaces validation, organisations incur significant reputational and strategic risk. Policies must therefore address overuse as much as misuse, encouraging open debate that challenges AI outputs.
Guidance from the field: According to IAB Europe’s AI Prompting Guide, checking organisational policies should be the first step before any AI-powered application is selected or deployed.
This isn't just bureaucratic box-ticking; it is about aligning with established partnerships and data-sharing rules early to avoid rework and issues such as the exposure of business-sensitive information.
Effective policy ensures that teams know which models are approved for specific types of work, preventing a situation where proprietary data is inadvertently exposed to a public model training set.
Many AI policies lean heavily on data protection and ethical principles. These are essential, but increasingly insufficient in a landscape where innovation outpaces policy cycles. Compliance frameworks are effective at preventing known harms but are less capable of managing emerging behaviours.
If the primary focus is merely mitigating data ingestion risks, the organisation misses the opportunity to reshape employee development. The ethical risk is not just limiting AI misuse; it is preventing the normalisation of AI dependency, which can lead to the gradual erosion of critical thinking and professional judgement.
Guidance from the field:
There is a disconnect between adoption and governance. While 85% of companies use these tools, the IAB Europe Impact of AI Report shows that only 43% have developed internal marketing-specific AI guidelines, and 18% operate with no formal AI governance at all. Furthermore, clarity from the top is often missing: only about one-third of respondents claim to receive buy-side guidelines on AI from their clients.
Effective AI policy should not read like a legal disclaimer; it should function as behavioural architecture. Good policy provides guidance rather than rigidity, allowing flexibility for individual preference while vigorously protecting proprietary data and decisioning integrity.
The irony is that strong AI policy requires human empathy. It must move beyond technical rules to focus on decision-making dynamics and capability building. When designed well, AI policy supports growth while mitigating risk through thoughtful governance rather than blunt enforcement. Organisations that fail to embed this narrative risk a negative trajectory. Not because they are careless, but because they neglect to build practices that strengthen, rather than hollow out, their workforce's capability.
Ultimately, AI policy is a signal to employees about what kind of thinking is valued. It should prepare the workforce for a future where AI expands individual bandwidth for learning rather than narrowing it.
AI is not a panacea for productivity issues. Without managerial guardrails, the efficiency it introduces can organically raise output expectations to unsustainable levels, risking burnout. Managerially, this requires sense-checking how AI is used and developing skills that guide healthy engagement with these tools. When supported by clear, regularly updated guardrails, AI policy reframes upskilling from enforcement to intent. It tells the workforce that judgement is taken seriously.
Guidance from the field:
Policy cannot succeed without training. The IAB Europe survey identifies "lack of internal expertise or training" as the single main barrier to AI adoption (cited by 45% of respondents), ranking even higher than integration difficulties or regulatory uncertainty. This suggests that policy must be paired with education. Simply telling employees what to do is insufficient if they lack the expertise to do it effectively. A policy that demands "human oversight" is meaningless if the human lacks the training to audit the machine.
The transition from "using AI" to "governing AI" is not a technical challenge; it is a leadership outcome. Organisations that succeed will be those that treat policy not as a set of brakes, but as a steering mechanism and managerial diagnostic signal. By moving beyond bans and anchoring leadership decision-making in behavioural intent, organisations will prevent AI from legitimising the erosion of human responsibility. The goal is not to automate the work we do today, but to define the standards of the work we will do tomorrow.
For more information on IAB Europe's AI work and how you can get involved, please contact our Data & Innovation Strategist, Dimitris Beis at beis [at] iabeurope.eu.
Connected TV (CTV) continues to accelerate across Europe, but its growth is still constrained by fragmented measurement, inconsistent standards, and limited transparency across the supply chain. Building on this, IAB Europe recently convened a dedicated CTV Measurement Workshop, bringing together leading sell‑side players to begin aligning on a shared framework for the region. That session underscored both the urgency and the opportunity: the industry is ready to collaborate, but foundational alignment is essential.
To explore these challenges further, and highlight the work already underway , members of our CTV Working Group shared their perspectives on today’s biggest gaps, the role of standards, and how certification can help build the trust and consistency needed for sustainable CTV growth across Europe.
A big thank you to the following contributors for sharing their thoughts:
Elisa Schwuchow, Co-Founder, SceneContext, representing BVDW
Sotiris Oikonomou, Managing Director, MarkApp
Joe Jackson, Ad Tech Executive, IAB UK
Emmanuel Josserand, Sr Dir. Brand, Agency and Industry Relations, Comcast Advertising
Elisa: “One of the most critical gaps is the lack of granular, transparent data at the content level, specifically, show-level reporting. Without visibility into the actual content where ads appear, advertisers are flying blind when it comes to brand suitability, campaign effectiveness, and true contextual alignment. This is especially problematic in a fragmented European market, where different broadcasters, platforms, and device ecosystems create measurement silos. Contextual relevance - what someone is watching in the moment - matters deeply, especially on CTV, where attention is high and creative costs are significant. Bridging that content-level transparency gap is crucial for unlocking CTV’s full value.”
Sotiris: “The main issue is fragmentation, not data scarcity. Measurement standards vary across broadcasters, FAST platforms, OEMs, and CTV apps, making reach, frequency, and outcome comparison inconsistent. SSAI limits exposure validation, and cross-device attribution remains weak. As a result, measurement is often indicative rather than robust enough to support large-scale budget shifts.”
Joe: “We recently unveiled a new update to the TV+ profile of the IAB UK Gold Standard with the express purpose of promoting the implementation of foundational standards such as IAB Tech Lab’s OM SDK to help bridge measurement gaps. From recent consultations with our members about the update, it appears that gaps not only exist in the adoption of measurement standards, but crucially also in the awareness of these standards. The outcry of frustration around measurement gaps is clear; our job in 2026 will be to work with other trade bodies to promote some of the great illustrative and practical work by organisations like IAB Europe and IAB Tech Lab.”
Emmanuel: “For industry bodies, the focus continues to be on improving alignment across the video ecosystem and preventing the adoption of disparate tools and methodologies. The work is happening at different layers, from finding and setting common standards for CTV inventory to helping the industry evolve beyond simple metrics towards more meaningful, outcome-based measurement. Another key area of attention for industry initiatives is the coordination of privacy-safe measurement frameworks, as CTV continues to be hampered by data siloes and ineffective cross-platform measurement. All these efforts are aiming at enhancing consistency and independence in CTV measurement while reducing friction.”
Sotiris: “Industry bodies are focusing on standardisation over tooling. Work around OpenRTB for CTV, SSAI transparency, TCF consent signalling, and common definitions for viewability, and IVT is creating a shared technical baseline. This alignment allows commercial measurement solutions to operate more effectively across European markets.”
Joe: “Coming from a web display advertising background, it is often easy to overlook just how effective basic standards such as ads.txt or sellers.json are at helping buyers understand how their ads are reaching consumers. Correspondingly, it is of some concern that these initiatives are not nearly as ubiquitous in connected TV. It is my opinion that as digital TV continues to grow, advertisers will become ever more discerning with their campaigns, and when this happens, it will be crucial that we have established standards and methods of certification to endorse good practice and help maintain confidence in the ecosystem.”
Emmanuel: “Achieving independent certification of solutions and methodologies reinforces the industry's commitment to building the necessary unified and shared framework to support a fair and transparent digital advertising ecosystem. It is important that these initiatives are designed to bring the same level of accountability to the expanding CTV landscape that exists in TV. They represent an essential step for levelling the playing field while ensuring advertisers have access to the most streamlined path to quality and relevant supply.”
Sotiris: “Standards and certifications provide the trust layer in CTV. With server side delivery and complex supply paths, buyers need assurance around compliance, inventory quality, and comparability. Frameworks like TCF, OpenRTB 2.6, sellers.json, and schain enable transparency and accountability, which is essential for scaling institutional CTV budgets in Europe.”
To find out more about the work of our CTV Working Group and how you can get involved, please contact our Industry Development & Insights Director, Marie-Clare Puffett at puffett [at] iabeurope.eu.
Welcome to your CTV Spotlight! We’re sharing the latest news and insights from IAB Europe and our CTV Working Group as Connected TV (CTV) continues to gain momentum.
From new guidance on transparency and measurement to fresh perspectives from industry leaders, this spotlight brings together the key developments shaping the future of CTV advertising in Europe.
CTV investment across Europe is accelerating, but challenges around transparency and consistent measurement remain. As buyers demand clearer outcomes and sellers look to prove value at scale, alignment has never been more critical.
This overview outlines the key challenges from both the buy-side and sell-side, and the practical steps we are taking to support a more transparent, measurable CTV ecosystem.
Last week, we held our second CTV Workshop in London, bringing together leading sell-side stakeholders to kick off deeper alignment on measurement and transparency across Europe. The session focused on the need for shared definitions, consistent core metrics, and a practical measurement framework tailored to CTV’s unique characteristics. With a strong appetite for collaboration, the workshop marked an important starting point towards building greater trust, consistency, and confidence in CTV advertising. Find out more in our write up below.
Building on the discussions from our second CTV Workshop in London, the focus now turns to how the industry can translate alignment into action.
In our latest Q&A, members of our CTV Working Group share their perspectives on the biggest gaps facing the market today, and how common standards and certification can help deliver the transparency, trust, and consistency needed to support sustainable CTV growth across Europe.
CTV emerged as one of the fastest-growing channels in our latest Attitudes to Digital Advertising report, reinforcing its growing role in the media mix.
We’ll be unpacking these key stats and more, and diving into what they mean for the market in our upcoming webinar. Find out more here and register below to secure your space.
To find out more about our CTV work and how you can get involved, please contact our Industry Development & Insights Director, Marie-Clare Puffett at puffett [at] iabeurope.eu.
Our Industry Development & Insights Director, Marie-Clare Puffett, shares her thoughts on the growth areas identified in our recent Attitudes to Digital Advertising Report and how progress can be made through industry collaboration and the ability to address persistent measurement fragmentation.
IAB Europe’s Attitudes to Digital Advertising Report provides one of the clearest signals yet that the digital advertising ecosystem is entering a new phase of maturity. Investment is rising, programmatic adoption is deepening, and emerging channels are gaining strategic prominence. Yet the findings also reveal a set of foundational inconsistencies that risk slowing the industry at precisely the moment when alignment is needed most.
As the market develops, four forces stand out as the most significant drivers of future growth: Connected TV (CTV), Retail & Commerce Media, the convergence of these two environments, and the accelerating impact of AI. Each represents a major opportunity, but each also depends on the industry’s ability to address persistent measurement fragmentation.
The report confirms what many in the industry already recognise: CTV is poised to become one of the most influential channels in the European media landscape. Nearly seven in ten respondents identify it as a key growth area, with agencies and ad tech particularly confident in its potential.
However, the data also highlights a critical barrier. CTV remains hampered by inconsistent measurement practices, limited transparency, and a lack of shared technical standards across broadcasters, OEMs, platforms, and intermediaries. High levels of “don’t know” responses in programmatic adoption and measurement metrics underscore the depth of this fragmentation.
If CTV is to fulfil its role as a premium, high‑attention environment capable of driving both brand and performance outcomes, the industry must prioritise alignment on measurement frameworks, interoperability, and independent verification. One of the key challenges unpacked at our recent CTV Workshop. Without this, CTV risks becoming a high‑value channel that cannot scale with confidence.
Retail and Commerce Media continues to gain momentum, and the report reinforces why it is becoming central to modern media planning. As organisations seek more accountable, data‑driven investment strategies, commerce environments offer a compelling proposition:
These capabilities are increasingly essential as advertisers face pressure to demonstrate ROI and navigate a more privacy‑constrained ecosystem. The report shows that stakeholders across the value chain recognise this shift, with strong expectations for continued growth.
Commerce Media is no longer an add‑on. It is becoming a strategic pillar, influencing audience planning, creative development, and measurement frameworks across the full funnel.
While CTV and Commerce Media are powerful individually, their combined potential is far greater. The convergence of premium video environments with commerce‑driven data and closed‑loop measurement represents one of the most significant opportunities for the industry in the coming years.
CTV offers:
Commerce Media offers:
Together, they create the conditions for full‑funnel, measurable advertising. A long‑standing ambition for the industry.
However, this opportunity is contingent on resolving the measurement inconsistencies highlighted in the report. Without a unified approach to CTV transparency and comparability, the full value of commerce‑driven video cannot be realised.
AI emerges in the report as a major driver of innovation, particularly among advertisers. Yet its impact extends far beyond optimisation or automation. AI is reshaping the fundamental architecture of digital advertising:
AI is becoming the connective tissue that enables more dynamic, data‑driven, and adaptive advertising systems. In channels such as CTV and Commerce Media, where data richness and complexity are high, AI will be instrumental in unlocking scale, precision, and efficiency.
But AI’s effectiveness depends on the quality and consistency of the underlying data. Fragmented measurement frameworks limit not only human decision‑making but also the potential of AI‑driven optimisation.
The report paints a picture of an industry with strong momentum and clear opportunities ahead. Yet it also highlights a fundamental truth: growth in CTV, Commerce Media, and AI‑driven advertising will only be realised if the industry addresses its core measurement inconsistencies.
The next phase of digital advertising will be defined by the convergence of channels, data, and technology. To unlock this future, the ecosystem must commit to shared standards, transparent measurement, and cross‑industry collaboration.
If we get the foundations right, the combination of CTV, Commerce Media, and AI has the potential to reshape the European digital advertising landscape for the better.
To dive into the results further, why not join our Key Findings from the Attitudes to Digital Advertising Report webinar on 25th February at 12:00 CET. Click here to register your space today.
