Quality Criteria: In-App Gaming (Europe)

The following quality criteria serve as guidelines for the best possible monetisation of in-stream In-App gaming inventory in Europe. The contents of the following guidelines are based on market developments over the past 24 months. The performance values are assessed by smartclip’s proprietary systems as well as well-known ad verification providers.

Publisher Requirements

• Installation and regular maintenance of an app-ads.txt file
• Correct transfer of BundleIDs
• Correct transmission of the consent string signal according to TCF 2.0 (EU only)
• Correct transfer of App Store URLs
• Enabling viewability measurement is required via OM In-App SDK & OMID 
• No violation of applicable law. Compliance with legal safety regulations is obligatory. 
• Implementation of the ad tag is only allowed on apps verified by smartclip. Should the ad tag be integrated on unverified apps, smartclip reserves the right to deactivate them and retain any revenue that might have been generated on these apps. 
• Invalid Traffic (IVT) must be avoided. In the event that IVT surpasses the predefined threshold, smartclip reserves the right to deactivate the publisher or parts of its In-App inventory
• If the inventory is subject to an age limit, the publisher must clearly state this to the user before downloading and/or after loading the app. If the user’s age is below the app’s age limit, access to the app must be denied.   
• Correct transmission of SupplyChain nodes in accordance with the IAB SupplyChain Object specifications, if all or parts of the inventory are not owned and operated

Player Requirements

These are the minimum requirements for in-stream ads in terms of quality and transparency:

• In-stream video ads must be served into and executed by a video player.
• The video player must be placed in fullscreen mode and in a fixed position within the app.
• Skippable ads are not permitted.
• The video player must support the change from landscape to portrait mode and vice versa.
• Only rewarded video ads* including the interaction via click by the user are allowed. Every other player setting must be approved by smartclip individually.
• The video player must execute the in-stream ads before, during, and after the content, and always under the premise of a rewarded video ad integration.
• The user views the ad right before, during, and/or after the content in a linear way (no overlay video ads).
• The preferred, high-quality video start must be click-to-play or pre-click-to-play with sound on by default

*Premium ads that offer consumers something in exchange for providing their time and attention

(IAB: https://www.iab.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/IAB_Digital-Video-Glossary-2018.pdf) 

Placement Requirements 

• User-generated content needs to be reviewed by the publisher’s editorial team or approved by smartclip.
• Prevention of ad clutter in the player environment
• No overlay ads that cover the in-stream player to any degree
• Only one video ad is allowed to play at a time within the viewport (applies also in cases of both in-stream and out-stream players running on the same page).
• Display video ads are not allowed.

Examples for Rewarded Ad Placements 

Example 1

Jump and run game — extra life/try or special items for watching the ad.

Example 2

Sudoku game — receiving a hint for solving the puzzle by watching an ad.