The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) this week released its new Digital Advertising Invoice API Specifications for public comment.
The standard is meant to streamline the sending and receipt of invoices in an era where digital advertising is proliferating across platforms, including connected TV (CTV) apps and devices.
“Despite the digital nature of our industry, the way we handle invoices is still largely manual and outdated,” Angelina Eng, the Vice President of Measurement, Attribution and Data Center at IAB, said in a statement. “This effort reflects our commitment to modernizing digital advertising infrastructure, which will enable scalable, tech-forward solutions that work across platforms and stakeholders.”
The initiative, developed in partnership with Mediaocean and adapted from the Prisma platform’s API architecture, is intended to introduce a unified, system-agnostic set of API specifications that will streamline the exchange of invoice data and documentation between ad buyers and sellers in the digital supply chain, IAB said.
Currently, invoicing in digital advertising has a number of problems, which range from inconsistent formats and missing documentation to delayed payments and invoice rejections.
The new standard being developed by IAB and its partners is aimed at “solving a persistent operational pain point in digital advertising, the lack of standardization in invoicing processes,” by offering a consistent set of machine-readable metadata and specifications that can be used for transmitting invoice data, which will “reduce the need for manual processing,” accelerate payment processing and improve accuracy, IAB affirmed.
“This initiative reflects the kind of partnership IAB fosters – bringing stakeholders together to solve practical, systemic issues,” Alexander Tsai, the Senior Vice President of Prisma Product Management at Mediaocean, said earlier this week. “By aligning around a standardized API framework for invoice automation, we’re helping ensure that digital advertising keeps pace with the broader media landscape.”
Over time, IAB hopes to help streamline flexible, interoperable solutions for easy integration into existing seller-side finance systems, a common language and structure to improve invoice processing and data reconciliation and a foundation for faster, more accurate, and transparent payments.
Stakeholders who would like to review and comment on the IAB’s proposed Digital Advertising Invoice API Specifications can do so by clicking or tapping here. The public comment period is open through August 11.
