ACIF (Ad Creative ID Framework)

ACIF (Ad Creative ID Framework) - Three Models, One Goal: Content Monetization

By the tvads team on 29 Aug 2025

When we talk about digital advertising today and mention connected TV in the same sentence, it can only be in the context of growth—growth in investment that continues to be confirmed year after year. With the vast number of streaming platforms, devices, and brands, the need has emerged to uniquely and deterministically identify an ad across these different environments. To address this challenge, in December 2024 the IAB Tech Lab introduced the Ad Creative ID Framework (ACIF), a technical architecture designed to establish a unique and persistent identifier for each ad, from its delivery to its final measurement.

The creation of this standard responds to one of the historical needs within CTV—or even in digital advertising, we could say: identifying a creative and thus avoiding duplicates of the same ad across independent platforms. In this way, a unique identifier would be created for each creative, in a centralized manner, which could then be transported throughout the OpenRTB supply chain as one more parameter, allowing it to be analyzed and validated.

How ACIF works

The first step in creating the unique identifier would be:

Registering the ad creative in an authorized registry, such as Ad-id.org in the U.S. or Clearcast in the U.K., where a unique identifier is generated.
Subsequently, the identifier is “assigned” to the UniversalAdId tag in VAST. In fact, in VAST 4.0 the field is extended to include the URL of the issuing registry of that Universal ID.
On the IAB Tech Lab tools portal, it is possible to check who is already compliant and using the standard, as well as who is acting as a registrar.
The ACIF standard also includes an API to validate this unique identifier through programmatic queries, retrieving metadata such as advertiser, brand, duration, and more.

Real VAST example

The Video Ad Serving Template (VAST) is the standard/protocol used in advertising to deliver video creatives; it serves as the connection point between ad servers, video players, and streaming platforms. VAST already included parameters to identify creatives, but not in a unique way, and market fragmentation often led to these parameters being overlooked.

With the arrival of ACIF, the previously mentioned parameter (UniversalAdId) is inserted into each VAST. This could be an example:


                                <Creative id="324523">
                                <UniversalAdId idRegistry="AD-ID" idValue="oiksadf988234">
                                  oiksadf988234
                                </UniversalAdId>
                                <Linear>
                                  <Duration>00:00:30</Duration>
                                  <MediaFiles>
                                    <MediaFile type="video/mp4" width="1920" height="1080" delivery="progressive">
                                      https://cdn.example.com/ads/creative/oiksadf988234.mp4
                                    </MediaFile>
                                  </MediaFiles>
                                </Linear>
                              </Creative>

The idRegistry="AD-ID" indicates that the VAST comes from the official AD-ID registry. And the idValue="oiksadf988234" is the unique identifier of that creative, which will remain consistent across the entire ecosystem.

CTV Benefits

In a programmatic environment, the same ad can be served through multiple SSPs and reach various DSPs. The UniversalAdID prevents that same ad from being treated as different creatives across platforms. This way, duplicates can be recognized, and reporting of impressions, reach, and frequency can be unified.

Efficient frequency management: by having the creative uniquely identified, it becomes possible to avoid repeating it across different environments, thereby improving the viewer experience.

Bidding optimization: in the programmatic ecosystem, real-time bidding (RTB) becomes more efficient with this unique identifier. It prevents DSPs from unknowingly buying the same ad from another publisher, avoiding overexposure, and allows SSPs to ensure they do not offer duplicate inventory.

Exclude competing brands from the same ad block.

CTV advertising faces the challenge of measuring impact across multiple apps, devices, and operating systems. With the UniversalAdId, measurement and verification tools can correctly map the same campaign across different devices.

Simplified creative process: with a single source for producing creatives, the time required between advertisers and agencies is reduced, improving resource optimization—at least in theory.

ROI is expected to improve, as lower operational costs allow advertisers to optimize their investments more effectively.

Conclusion

It is important to highlight advertiser and brand safety in the programmatic advertising environment, and ACIF adds another point in their favor. With this ID validated by an official registry, it becomes possible to verify with certainty which creative was served, thereby helping to prevent ad fraud.

It is worth mentioning that the main verification tools in the advertising world, such as IAS and DoubleVerify, can capture this UniversalAdId to audit campaigns accurately.

At this point, and considering the enormous potential of the initiative proposed by the IAB Tech Lab, the market still faces familiar challenges, such as technical compatibility. Today, not all players in the advertising process comply with the VAST 4.x standard, for instance. The persistent fragmentation among tools using their own IDs continues to be an obstacle. Finally, the time required for industry-wide adoption of new standards means agreements among major companies are necessary, which complicates the final implementation of the standard.

tvads team

At tvads we has a professional team able to advise you on this field and and guide you in any area of your streaming advertising business, advising you or even operating it on your behalf if necessary

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