Glossaryad servingad technology

Ad Tag

ad tagHTML tagJavaScript tagiframe tagSafeFrameVASTVPAIDdisplay advertisingmobile advertisingvideo advertisingweb analytics

Ad Tag

A piece of code inserted into an ad slot in order to display an ad. When a web page or mobile app loads, the ad tag requests the necessary information and carries out the processes required to render the creative.

Several formats exist depending on the context: HTML or IMG, JavaScript, iframe, and SafeFrame tags are used for display and mobile advertising, while VAST (video ad-serving template) and VPAID (video player ad interface definition) are the standard ad tag formats for video inventory.

The term "tag" is not exclusive to advertising — it also applies to other tracking and data-collection implementations, such as web analytics tags.