The Interactive Advertising Bureau releases best practices

The Interactive Advertising Bureau and its Lead Generation Committee have released "Lead Generation Data Transfer Best Practices," the latest component ofáthe IAB'sálong-term initiative to educate advertisers and publishers on security and operational best practices.

The goal of this document is to help standardize the transfer and receipt of data between advertisers and lead generation service providers, and focuses on security and common format set-up.

"The IAB is always looking to curate best practices for all aspects of interactive advertising," said Sheryl Draizen, senior vice president of the IAB. "Be it that lead generation is growing in popularity we wanted to address this issue. The way data transfer happens has its challenges and one way to address this is through security, the other is through operational efficiency."

It states that "All lead generation data should be transferred and received in an encrypted format," and that "All lead generation data should be transferred in a common format via common, secure Internet technologies." The document was developed to educate advertisers who purchase lead generation services, as well as companies providing these services.

According to the "IAB/PwC 2006 Full-Year Internet Advertising Revenue Report," lead generation revenue accounted for $1.3 billion of the total 2006 advertising revenues of $16.9 billion, up from $753 million for 2005.

The Lead Generation Data Transfer Best Practices document can be found at: http://www.iab.net/lead_gen.aspx.