Nielsen Digital Ad Ratings
Mobile App Tag
Requirements
V21 –12/01/19

Engineering & Technology

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Nielsen Mobile App Tag Requirements

Contents
Introduction .................................................................................................................................................... 2
Standard DAR Tag ......................................................................................................................................... 3
Additional DAR Tag Parameters for Mobile App Audience Measurement .................................................... 4
C7 — OS Grouping (Optional) ....................................................................................................................... 5
C8 — Device Grouping (Mandatory) ............................................................................................................. 5
C9 — Advertising ID (Mandatory) .................................................................................................................. 5
C10 — Platform (Mandatory) ......................................................................................................................... 6
C12 — App Version (Optional) ...................................................................................................................... 7
C13 — AppID (Mandatory) ............................................................................................................................ 7
C14 — OS Version (Optional) ....................................................................................................................... 7
UOO — Opt-Out (Mandatory) ........................................................................................................................ 7
Server-Side Tag Dispatch (Server to Server) ................................................................................................ 8
Appendix A: Example Implementation ........................................................................................................... 9
Appendix B: Implementation, Testing and Certification for Direct Publisher App Tagging or Uncertified Ad
Servers ......................................................................................................................................................... 11

List of Figures
Figure 1 – End-to-End Data Flow .................................................................................................................. 9
Figure 2 – Illustrative Ad Request / Ad Response ....................................................................................... 10

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Nielsen Mobile App Tag Requirements

Introduction
The standard Nielsen Digital Ad Rating (DAR) tag only supports cookie-based web-browser viewing onPCs, MACs, and tablets/smartphone (web-browser). However, when ads are served totablets/smartphones via native app-store applications, the cookie-based tag does not function correctly.
Additional tag attributes are needed in order for audience reach measurement to function. Example tags
are detailed later in this document.
The purpose of this document is to provide details of the tag URL parameters required that are added tothe standard cookie-based web-browser tag and guidance on the manual insertion of themandatory mobile parameters. See Standard DAR tag for the list of standard DAR parameters.
Another way Nielsen clients can accomplish this is by the use of Nielsen’s native
Android/iOS App SDK. Nielsen’s App SDK automatically adds these additional tag attributes to thestandard cookie-based web-browser tag before the tag is forwarded on to the Nielsen census collection
system. However, there is a significant portion of the publisher mobile app universe where it is either not
feasible, or desirable to integrate Nielsen’s native App SDK into 3rd party applications.
The most critical additional parameter required is the insertion of the Advertising ID (IFA / IDFA / AdID)
from the user’s device that has been exposed to the ad creative.
If you are reading this document as an Ad Server representative then it is assumed that you havepublished a specification that mobile app publishers follow to pass the appropriate Advertising ID in the
ad request payload. Typically, your ad server will then expand a macro or label with that value passed in
the ad request URL, insert into the DAR mobile app tag and redirect to Nielsen collections. See Appendix
A, figure 2 for an example tag workflow.
The standard way of triggering a DAR tag on mobile app is for the publisher app to trigger (either directlyor via ad server) the tag upon ad exposure to the user (i.e. a client-side initiated tag). If you wish to
implement server-side dispatch of mobile app DAR tags then see additional section in this document titledServer-Side Tag Dispatch. Please read the rest of this document before reading the section on serverto-server.
Once you have completed your integration, you will be required to submit to a short certification testing.
See Appendix B. Certification also grants inclusion to the approved publisher and certified ad server
vendor list.
Important Note: For 2018, the MRC has mandated a series of changes to audience measurement thatwill require additional tag events to be communicated to Nielsen so that we may compute duration
weighting etc. You are strongly urged to contact your Nielsen client service representative to seek abriefing from Nielsen on the best technical methods for tagging in order to be compliant with thesechanges.

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Nielsen Mobile App Tag Requirements

Standard DAR Tag
The DAR tag is available as a 1x1 pixel. The following pixel/tag parameters must be specified for all DAR
tags, 1x1, regardless of implementation type: browser, mobile browser, mobile app or connected device.

Tag Parameter(Mandatory)

Description

CI

Client ID: the ID that is associated with the DAR account that processed tag data is
associated with. Will always be hardcoded to a Nielsen generated value that comes fromthe Nielsen campaign management system

AM

Ad Server: an ad server participating on the campaign media-plan. This is an internal
Nielsen generated value when the ad server is indicated on the campaign during setupCA

Campaign Id: this is the ID associated with your DAR campaign. Unless you are creating
and managing the Nielsen campaign via the DAR Tag API, then this parameter value will
always be generated from the Nielsen campaign management system. Note: often maps toa media-plan I/O Id

CRCreative Id: DAR does not currently report at the creative level; can be hard coded adserver id or associated with a macro expansion

PC

Placement Id: can be generated by the ad server via macro expansion or generated by the
Nielsen campaign management system. Note: often maps to one of Ad Unit Id, Line Item Id
or Video Ad Id

CESite Id: the Id that identifies a publisher site that the placement needs to be mapped to.
Maps into the Nielsen MarketView database. Note: can be hardcoded to a pre-registered adserver site id in the Nielsen system or a macro expansion where more than one pre-existingsite ids have been made known to Nielsen

R

Cachebuster (web): timestamp / random number. Generated by ad server

AT

Fixed value: “view”

RT

Fixed value: “banner”

ST

Fixed value: “image”

Note

Do not URL encode the values.

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Nielsen Mobile App Tag Requirements

Additional DAR Tag Parameters for Mobile App Audience Measurement
In this section, the additional URL parameters required beyond the standard cookie-based web-browser
tag are described in detail.
For each of the tag examples detailed below, we can support both unsecure (http) and secure (https)
flavors. The standard cookie-based web-browser tag is included below for reference purposes.
Important note: the values against each value-pair in the following tags are for illustrative purposes only.
Values for CA, PC and CE will vary depending on the specific campaign being measured and capabilitiesof the ad server for macro/value expansion. For more detail on the core DAR parameters, please see theNielsen DAR Tag Implementation Guide.
Web-browser DAR Tag (cookie-based persons identification)
http://secure-gl.imrworldwide.com/cgibin/m?ci=nlsnci535&am=3&at=view&rt=banner&st=image&ca=nlsn13134&cr=crtve&pc=<placementid>_plc0001&ce=<siteid>&r=<timestamp>
Mobile App DAR Tag Extension (IFA based persons identification)
http://secure-gl.imrworldwide.com/cgibin/m?ci=nlsnci535&am=3&at=view&rt=banner&st=image&ca=nlsn13134&cr=crtve&pc=<placementid>_plc0001&ce=<siteid>&c7=osgrp,IOS&c8=devgrp,TAB&c9=devid,XXXX-XX-XXXXX-XXXX&c10=plt,MBL&c12=apv,<appVersion>&c13=asid,NIELSEN-PROVIDEDID&c14=osver,7.0.4&uoo=1&r=<timestamp>

Additional DAR Tag Parameters for Mobile

Description&c7

OS Grouping&c8

Device Grouping&c9

Advertising ID&c10

Platform&c12

App Version&c13

AppID (Nielsen-assigned AppID)&c14

OS Version&uoo

Opt-out indicator

Legend:Mandatory parameter for mDAR
Optional but clients are encouraged to make efforts to always fill-in

Note

Do not URL encode the values.

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Nielsen Mobile App Tag Requirements

C7 — OS Grouping (Optional)
Valid device OS Grouping data values are the following literal values:

Note

•

osgrp,IOS•

osgrp,DROID•

osgrp,ANDROID

If one of the above values cannot be specific, then the parameter should not be included in the call.

C8 — Device Grouping (Mandatory)
Valid literal values for phone, tablet, portable media player and unknown are as follows:•devgrp,PHN← Phone•devgrp,TAB← Tablet•devgrp,PMP← Portable Media Player (iPod)•

devgrp,UNWN ← Unknown/Unclassified•

devgrp,DSK← Desktop•

devgrp,STV← CTV/OTT Device

Mandatory for accurate measurement, and if unable to pass, Nielsen cannot guarantee the impression
will be classified correctly.

Note“UNWN” will result in Nielsen attempting an introspection of the User Agent in the HTTP request sent
against Device Atlas for classification.
“STV” is the default value for OTT when the specific device value isn’t passed.

C9 — Advertising ID (Mandatory)
This is the advertiser ID for the client’s mobile device. IDFA for iOS, Google Advertising ID for Android:•

devid,<IDFA>•

devid,<IFA>•

devid,<Google Advertising ID>

For Android devices, the Google Advertiser ID should be used as the default and the Android
ID as the second option.

Note
If c9 is <empty>, upon receiving the ping, the Nielsen collection server will attempt a 302
redirect to the data provider per the regular DAR pixel for Browsers.

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Nielsen Mobile App Tag Requirements

As of August 1, 2014, Google is enforcing use of the Advertising ID for advertising and user analytics
http://play.google.com/about/developer-content-policy.html.
“Beginning August 1, 2014, all updates and new apps uploaded to the play store must use the advertising
ID (when available on a device) in lieu of any other device identifiers for any advertising purposes.”
It is preferred that the IDFA or Google Advertising ID be sent as is from the mobile device (“cleartext”).
However, if mandated, we will support SHA256 hashed values with no-salt.
Passing a hashed value (and/or salting) using any other standard will result in a failed match by the data
provider upon receiving the ping. In turn, this results in impressions surfacing in the DAR unmeasurable
audience totals. Please contact Nielsen if you anticipate a large percentage of hashed values coming infrom your publisher clients.

Privacy, Ad Tracking, and Ad Targeting
In newer iterations of the iOS and Android device operating systems, a facility exists allowing users to“opt-out” of “Ad Tracking”. It is Nielsen’s interpretation that this setting is primarily designed to allow users
to specify opt-out of Ad Targeting rather than Ad Measurement. DAR does not provide Ad Targeting data.
However, it is also Nielsen’s position that the publisher or ad network should provide a mechanism to also
allow a user to opt-out of Ad Measurement. The Nielsen SDK will honor the Nielsen Ad Measurement
opt-out settings configurable @ http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/privacy-statement/digital-measurement.html
However, if the integration approach described in this document is being used instead of the Nielsen SDK
then YOU as the publisher or ad network must provide a capability to opt-out of Ad Measurement as theconfiguration on www.nielsen.com will not be detectable. You may elect to interpret the iOS and Android“Ad Tracking” setting for the purpose of limit Ad Measurement or provide a separate discreet mechanism
to allow a user to opt-out of Ad Measurement.
Please see &uoo later in this document for implementation details of the opt-out indicator.
For additional clarification on privacy policy, please contact your Nielsen representative.

C10 — Platform (Mandatory)
To determine this value, Nielsen suggests that the ad network leverage user agent information todetermine if the client device is either a mobile or desktop device.
Valid literal values for mobile and desktop data values are as follows:•

plt,MBL•

plt,DSK•

plt,OTT

Mandatory for accurate measurement, and if unable to pass, Nielsen cannot guarantee the impression
will be classified correctly.

Note

Omitting c10, or a value in c10, will result in Nielsen attempting an introspection of the User Agent in the
HTTP request sent against Device Atlas for classification.
“OTT” (Connective Devices) is a valid value that is populated by participating vendors (Amazon, Hulu
and Roku). Non-participating vendors will be unmeasurable volumetric metric only.

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Nielsen Mobile App Tag Requirements

C12 — App Version (Optional)
This is the version of the ad network system software or SDK that is implemented in this extension.
Although this field is not required, this feature can be useful for troubleshooting purposes following
deployment.
•

apv,<N.N>

C13 — AppID (Mandatory)
This Nielsen-provided ID is unique to the ad network and is required for certification. Your Nielsen
representative will provide the AppID.
•

asid,<NNNNNNNNN-NNNN-NNNN-NNNN-NNNNNNNNNNNN>

C14 — OS Version (Optional)
Operating system version•

osver,<OS Version>o

Example: for iOS > 7.0.4

UOO — Opt-Out (Mandatory)
Opt-out parameter•<Boolean state><Boolean state> is a Boolean representation of whether the user is opting out or not.
The absence of uoo in the tag is interpreted as an implicit opt-in (i.e. not opting out).
The following pairings of opt-out are supported:
Opt-outOpt-inuoo=trueuoo=false

uoo=1

uoo=0

Important Note: You must choose one set of paired values only and inform your Nielsen representative.

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Nielsen Mobile App Tag Requirements

Server-Side Tag Dispatch (Server to Server)
The standard way of triggering a DAR tag on mobile app is for the publisher app to trigger (either directlyor via ad server) the tag upon ad exposure to the user (i.e. a client-side initiated tag).
It is important to note that MRC/IAB measurement standards stipulate that the ad exposure event still be
initiated and recorded from the client-side, even if the Ad Measurement tag (in this case a DAR tag) is
physically initiated from the server-side. Evidence may be required (publisher log file or similar) from the
MRC/IAB that the user was exposed to the ad creative on their device.
The following additional changes to the standard mobile app DAR tag are required to support the dispatchof the DAR tag from a server-side publisher ad server:
1. X-Forwarded-For (XFF) IP: The original client IP address must be passed in the X-ForwardedFor (XFF) HTTP header field. When the impression is fired directly from the ad server, the XReal-IP will be the ad server IP.
2. Cachebuster: Already present in the DAR tag, this now becomes mandatory. A cachebuster or
random number ensures a new call is made to the ad server. By including a cachebuster (‘r’parameter), the tag will not be cached. The timestamp of when the ad was served can be used.
3. User Agent (UA): The HTTP UA from the client device should be used to populate the HTTP UA
in the server-server connection/ping.
4. TLS: the tag received by Nielsen must be TLS v1.2 compliant or greater.

Important Notes:
1. The current iteration of server-server tag collection only supports mobile app (IFA and AAID) andwill NOT support cookie-based audience measurement.
2. The client’s server-server setup that is going to trigger/send the DAR tag should suppress any
Nielsen cookie returned by the Nielsen collection server as a result of the first DAR tag received.
If the Nielsen cookie (returned upon receiving the first DAR tag into secure.imrworldwide.com) is
not suppressed then invalid traffic (IVT) filtration will quickly be triggered upon receiving the 2nd
and nth tag.

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Nielsen Mobile App Tag Requirements

Appendix A: Example Implementation
In the below examples, you will see the overall DAR flow (Figure 1) and a detailed illustrative Ad Request/ Response model (Figure 2).
Figure 1 – End-to-End Data Flow

Nielsen certified publishers and platforms would append the new parameters (below) with the appropriate
URL safe values passed to Nielsen’s current DAR tag. The current DAR tag should be acquired using theexisting processes for each campaign/placement.
&c7=osgrp,IOS&c8=devgrp,PHN&c9=devid,XXXX-XX-XXXXXXXXX&c10=plt,MBL&c12=apv,AppVersion&c13=asid,XXXX-XX-XXXX-XXXX

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Nielsen Mobile App Tag Requirements

Figure 2 – Illustrative Ad Request / Ad Response
The below is a typical example of how an ad server is supporting the build out of DAR tags for its
publisher clients.
Step 2 from Figure 1 (previous page) is a summary of steps 1 and 2 below.
Steps 3 and 4 in Figure 1 (previous page) is a summary of steps 3 through 9 below.

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Nielsen Mobile App Tag Requirements

Appendix B: Implementation, Testing and Certification for Direct Publisher App
Tagging or Uncertified Ad Servers
Once you have integrated the ping per the above specs, Nielsen requires you to pass through a one-timecertification before traffic can be accepted into the production environment.
The overall process is:
1. Valid DAR contract or NDA is in place.
2. Kick-off meeting with Nielsen onboarding team.
3. Confirm minimums testing requirements:•

Host Ad/Tag for in-app delivery•

Can pass opt-out back to Nielsen•

Can pass Device ID in Cleartext or SHA-256

4. Nielsen provides the mobile app DAR test tag that includes the Nielsen AppID and the ad server
specifications.
5. Identify the live campaigns for initial testing and run the test tag; suggest 5,000-10,000
impressions.
6. Nielsen validates the data received from the test and confirms the initial test is successful.
7. Ensure contracts are in place for external test campaign with Nielsen Client Service team.
8. Identify another live campaigns for production testing.
9. Nielsen validates the data received from the final test and confirms certification for any DAR
countries tested.

Goals
•

To test that all minimum requirements in step 3 are passed to Nielsen with no issues.

•

To test in full DAR end-to-end environment, receive matches from data provider for demographics
and correct identification of mobile impressions.

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