• The advertising content must be clearly identifiable as an advertisement.

• Ad units that have a white or partially white background must be bound by a visible one pixel non-white box built into the graphic. Creative must still meet size specifications with border.

• Third-party creative/ad tags must have a z-index set below 999999. CSS Overflow settings cannot be set to visible.

• All advertisers must have a privacy policy on their click thru URL landing site.

• Ad units must have a linking URL that resolves to an active page.

• All third-party, and/or site-served creative must open a new window or browser tab.

• Flash cookies are not permitted.

• Alt text cannot exceed 30 characters max.

• User initiated audio is allowed. Auto-play audio not permitted.

• Any expanding creative must have the user-initiated expand occur on click only. Creative with roll-over to expand will not be accepted.

• Placeholder or non-final ad content will not be considered as "proxies" for final creative.

• File weight calculation:  All files for the ad (.html, .js, .css, images, etc.) must be included as part of the maximum file weight calculation for all file load limits. Shared libraries are also included as part of the file weight calculation unless otherwise exempted. File weights are calculated after files have been compressed into gzip format.

• Initial file load: Includes all assets and files necessary for completing first visual display of the Ad.

• Host-initiated subload: where allowed, additional files may load one second after the browser domContentLoadedEventEnd event. The ad should be able to "listen" for the browser domContentLoadedEventEnd event before subsequent files beyond the initial max file size may be loaded.

• User-initiated file size: Ads that allow additional file size for host-initiated subload also allow for unlimited file load after user-initiated interaction. User initiation is the willful act of a user to engage with an ad. Users may interact by clicking or tapping the ad, and/or rolling over an ad (or a portion of an ad).

• If a tag doesn't conform to our performance or reliability standards, we reserve the right to pause or stop the campaign.

• Max of 1 code change per week, unless otherwise specified.

• Video should have progressive encoding.

• Video Server should be prepared for chunk based delivery

• Video format should be supported by ALL browsers

• Video players on third party creatives, must include "Play", "Pause", and "Mute" functions at minimum.

• Audio on third party creatives must be user-initiated only on click

• Required for ads with video: Video may omit controls until user initiates interaction. Upon user interaction, video controls must include Play, Pause, Mute or volume control to zero (0) output for videos that expand out of initial ad upon interaction. For auto play videos that play in banner only Mute or volume control to zero(0) is required.

• HTML5 video controls: To improve performance and reduce file size, use control attributes in the HTML5 video tag for controls instead of providing custom assets for displaying controls

• Adaptive bitrate streaming: HTML5 does not support streaming video, but it can simulate a streaming experience using adaptive bitrate streaming technologies such as HLS and MPEG-DASH. Formatting files for adaptive bitrate streaming enables a smoother viewer experience. Adaptive bitrate streaming uses short fragments (2-3 seconds) of the video at different quality levels and stores them in a playlist file such as M3U8. During playback, the player detects bandwidth at the start of each fragment and plays the fragment at the quality level best suited to the bandwidth and player environment. Common protocols for adaptive bitrate streaming include HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) in the US and MPEG-DASH in the EU.

• Video codec: Use MPEG-4 (MP4) file formats for H.264-encoded video for a more seamless delivery across devices. The H.264 codec should use a Baseline profile to allow for more diverse execution in systems that range from a cellular connection on a mobile screen to a high-speed cable connection on an HTTP-connect TV screen. For audio, AAC is more widely supported (PCM audio is unsupported in Flash players).

• Video format: At a minimum, the MP4/H.264 file format should be provided, but alternate files using formats such as WebM and VP8 may also be submitted.

• VAST 4.1* and below 

• VPAID not accepted

• HTML5 creative may be first-party served or third-party served from an approved third-party vendor.

• HTML5 creative served first-party by FBCO must adhere to the following:- Must use a single click-through URL. 

• HTML5 creative served via an approved third-party must delivered via javascript or iframe tag. Raw files will not be accepted.

• The file weight above applies to all HTML5 files and assets including images, HTML/JS/CSS files, custom fonts, or other assets.

• HTML5 creative requires a minimum lead time of five business days for testing and approval.

• Refer here for more info: https://iabtechlab.com/standards/html-5/

TAG & IAB Gold 2.0 Certified