NEW YORK—The Media Rating Council (MRC) has issued a final document outlining requirements, guidance, and best practices for Digital Advertising Auction Transparency.
As part of its ongoing effort to develop standards for media measurement, the document represents MRC’s effort to set standards for transparency, disclosure and reporting of various aspects and results for digital advertising auctions, including but not limited to display, text, video and audio formats within digital, search, social, retail media, streaming CTV and addressable TV channels.
Despite the growth and diversity of ad auctions in media, there were previously no standards for "Ad Auctioneer conduct regarding disclosure and reporting of auction rules or transparency into auction processes and outcomes,” said Ron Pinelli, senior vice president of digital research and standards for MRC. “It is the objective of these Standards to promote transparency around auction rules and scoring along with reporting and standardization where possible and appropriate, to ensure that auction rules and outcomes are understood for all parties.”
The Standards originated from a project initiated by Omnicom Media and led by the MRC, with sponsorship from the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A’s), the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) and the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) as well as Omnicom.
The MRC reported that they were developed with the participation of a large group of media content providers, advertising agencies, advertisers, vendors/consultants, ad auctioneers, measurement organizations and other interested organizations. The final document was subject to a 30-day public comment period in September 2025.
“Digital advertising runs on auctions, but buyers still can’t typically see the rules of the game,” said Ben Hovaness, Global Chief Media Officer for Omnicom Media agency OMD. “The MRC standards create a baseline for disclosure and reporting—how an auction scores, sets prices, uses reserves, and changes over time—so advertisers can validate outcomes, improve their bid strategies, and reduce waste that never reaches working media."
This effort is not aimed at any one platform, ad auctioneer, or auction type; nor is the intention to to replace or alter existing industry protocols such as OpenRTB to communicate auction information, but to supplement them with guidance regarding methods disclosures and outcome reporting, the MRC stressed.
The MRC also said that it does not intend to stipulate or standardize the design of any auction type, as auctioneer companies can and should design auction systems to best suit the particular characteristics of a given media form.
Summarizing the desired outcome, Pinelli said, “The goal is to define the requisites for transparency and to provide guidance to auctioneers in explaining to advertisers how their auctions determine pricing and allocation and providing accountability through reporting.”
The Standards include requirements and guidelines related to disclosures and reporting in the following areas:
- Type(s) of auction system(s) used.
- How winners of auctions are determined.
- After the winners of an auction have been determined, how prices that winners must pay are set.
- Use of reserve prices and methods to update them over time.
- Use of advance information about bids and budgets to adjust the functioning of the auction process and how this is updated over time.
- How often rules of the auction system are updated and disclosed to users?
- What information is disclosed or reported about the auction system and the outcome of auction.
The document is available here.
Questions on this document can be submitted via email to MRC at: rpinelli@mediaratingcouncil.org.
