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The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has published five guidelines to encourage growth and efficiency in online advertising.

E-Business Interactive Standards, currently in beta, is an XML-based offering designed to "automate the transfer of business order information between advertising agencies and media companies." Companies will test it through 2009.

The Digital Video Ad Serving Template (VAST), another XML-based offering, is meant to standardize interactions between digital video players and servers. VAST lets publishers use ad networks to sell unsold ad inventory. It also allows third-party tags, which will "reduce friction" between ad buyers and increase the overall yield of digital video, according to the IAB.

Next, the Interactive Advertising Workflow Best Practices document outlines "process recommendations" to both publishers and agencies. These recommendations, which cover a workflow from the RFP stage to billing and collections, are intended to make ad campaign operations more efficient.

Ad Load Performance Best Practices provide tips for reducing the load-time in online ads, as well as other means to improve their performance.

Finally, Best Practices for Rich Media Ads in Asynchronous Ad Environments (AJAX) lists standards and best practices for rich media ads.

Without IAB initiatives like the ones above, IAB VP Jeremy Fain claimed the online ad industry may not find a way out of its current "plateau of success," reports ClickZ. "These are transformational," he preached.

"These initiatives will allow us to transform the industry to a scalable media platform."

The initiatives were introduced at the IAB's annual Ad Operations Summit in New York. The "entire digital ecosystem" was encouraged to work together to implement them.