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AOL Exchange Policy

This is the first time we've captured AOL's Exchange Policy, so there is no earlier version to compare it against — the whole document shows up as "new." Nothing here was taken away from anyone; this is a baseline. The policy is also aimed at businesses, not everyday people: it tells advertisers (buyers) and websites (publishers) how AOL's ad-buying marketplace works — fees, how ad auctions run, price floors, and how AOL screens out fake traffic and banned content. Ordinary consumers have no rights, accounts, or money at stake under this document. Future updates will be compared against this version.

20260811_rev01COLOUR MARKS THE SEVERITY OF A FLAGGED CLAUSE · + AND − MARK ADDED AND REMOVED
1AOL Media LLC ("AOL") is committed to providing a transparent, efficient, and quality marketplace for buyers on its exchange platforms. In order to meet this commitment, AOL applies the following standards.
+ ADDEDFirst capture of AOL's Exchange Policy (no prior version)

The entire document appears as added because this is our first snapshot of it. This is not a rewrite or a rollback of older terms — there is simply nothing before it to compare.

2
3## Marketplace Transparency
4
5AOL is committed to providing a transparent marketplace.
6
7### Fee Transparency
8
9AOL does not charge any hidden fees or buy-side fees to buyers.
+ ADDEDFees are charged to websites, not to ad buyers

AOL says it takes no hidden or buy-side fees from advertisers, and advertisers never pay more than they bid. The websites selling ad space pay the fee instead.

10
11Buyers do not pay above their bid price.
12
13AOL charges publishers a fee to make their inventory available through our marketplace.
14
15### Ad request transparency
16
17AOL provides information on the following attributes in each bid request:
18
19- Publisher ID
20- Required video fields
21- Placement and tag IDs
22- Transparent floors (when consented to by the publisher)
23- Transparent domains (when provided by the publisher)
24
25### Transparent change notification
26
27Any material changes or modifications to the marketplace design that may alter performance for buyers are communicated in advance of going live within a reasonable timeframe.
28
29### Purposeful ad request duplication
30
31We do not purposefully duplicate ad requests in our system, nor do we send ad requests for the same impression opportunity simultaneously with alternate floors EXCEPT for PMP/Deal ID opportunities that require different floors set for different priorities (outlined in Pre-Auction price floors section above).
32
33We may send multiple ad requests for the same impression sequentially if the first request did not fill.
34
35### Non-purposeful ad request duplication
36
37Header bidding supply often results in duplicate ad requests for the same ad impression opportunity across different Exchanges. AOL does not de-duplicate this supply, but complies with applicable industry standards (such as the inclusion and population of the transaction id \[BidRequest.source.tid\] or other mechanisms) to aid the decisioning for our buyers.
38
39### Location data modification
40
41AOL does not make any material modifications to location data measurement between those values reported by the host device OS and those sent to the DSP.
+ ADDEDLocation data is passed along unchanged

AOL says it does not meaningfully alter the location information a phone or computer reports before passing it to the ad-buying platform.

42
43## Marketplace Dynamics
44
45The following covers some key details into our marketplace dynamics across our exchange platforms, based on the questions we've received from buyers.
46
47### Buyer Preferencing
48
49For auctions in the open marketplace, AOL treats all bids equally and does not apply preferences to bids, but publishers themselves may apply preferences such as blocking specific DSPs or advertiser domains from bidding on their inventory.
50
51### Auction types and signals
52
53A bid request passes the applicable auction type and deal type in the applicable fields of the request based on IAB standards.
54
55### Bid caching
56
57AOL does not cache bids. Bids are only used for the auction for which they were submitted.
+ ADDEDRules on how ad auctions are run

AOL states it treats all bids equally in open auctions, does not reuse ("cache") bids for later auctions, and does not change price minimums after an auction to push up the winning price.

58
59### Arbitrage
60
61AOL does not itself arbitrage inventory from another exchange to make available to buyers. However, we cannot enforce this principle for third-party sellers who make their inventory available on our exchange.
62
63### Post-Auction price floors
64
65AOL does not modify price floors post-auction to influence the clearing price.
66
67### Pre-auction price floors
68
69We may apply price floors under the following circumstances:
70
71- PMP/Deal IDs may have alternative floors set for different priorities.
72- Price floors may be customized or adjusted pre-auction on behalf of, or at the instruction of, a publisher, based on a variety of factors, including, for example, the value of a particular user, location, website/app, marketplace, and prior bidding behavior.
+ ADDEDMinimum ad prices can be set using signals about the person seeing the ad

Websites can ask AOL to set different minimum prices before an auction based on things like where the viewer is, what site or app they're on, and how buyers have bid in the past. This is standard ad-industry practice and does not cost the viewer anything.

73
74## Inventory Quality
75
76AOL is committed to ensuring that its exchange platforms provide quality inventory for its buyers. To meet this commitment, AOL vets inventory from its exchange platforms, implements proprietary and third-party technologies that are designed to minimize fraudulent activity, and provides an anti-fraud program as further described below.
77
78### Supply verification
79
80AOL manually audits and approves new publishers (including direct publishers and networks), applications, and sites before allowing them to be integrated into our exchange platforms.
81
82### Supply filtering
83
84AOL uses a combination of proprietary and third-party anti-fraud solutions that are designed to detect Sophisticated Invalid Traffic (SIVT) and General Invalid Traffic (GIVT) across our platforms.
85
86Our solutions cover all ad formats across desktop and mobile web, as well as mobile in-app.
87
88We evaluate all inbound requests and apply pre-bid filtering on non-human traffic, bots and spiders, known fraudulent URLs, and known pirated apps.
89
90We also analyze post-serve impression and click data to identify fraudulent behavior and utilize this data to enhance our pre-bid filtering.
91
92### Masked domains
93
94AOL does not send bid requests for masked domains that are not associated with the end publisher site destination.
95
96### Seller blocking policy
97
98AOL has a policy for policing publishers on our exchange platforms. In our discretion, we may terminate our relationship with a publisher if they violate the terms of our agreement.
99
100### Anti-fraud program
101
102AOL partners with HUMAN, alongside any MRC-accredited vendor as a benchmark, to detect invalid traffic and keep advertising brand-safe. Buyers should work with their DSPs to determine eligibility and process for claiming any refund under the anti-fraud program.
+ ADDEDFake-traffic screening and an anti-fraud program

AOL says it checks new websites and apps by hand before letting them in, uses fraud-detection tools to filter out bots and known bad sites, and works with a vendor called HUMAN. Advertisers seeking a refund for fraudulent traffic go through their own ad platform.

103
104### Ads.txt
105
106AOL supports the use of ads.txt.
107
108We require our exchange platforms to be listed in ads.txt file where a file is present.
109
110Where no file is present, we mark the supply as uncategorized and DSPs are given the option to target or block the supply.
111
112Where supply is unauthorized, the AOL Video Exchange blocks supply for all buyers, while the AOL Exchange allows DSPs to make the determination.
113
114### Prohibited Content
115
116Publishers are prohibited from providing the following Content (or links to Content) in our marketplace. AOL requires a publisher to ensure that its inventory does not contain any material in the following categories:
+ ADDEDList of content websites may not carry in the marketplace

Websites selling ad space through AOL are barred from 16 content categories, including sexual, misleading, and illegal content, malware, spam, gambling, and unmoderated user posts. AOL can also cut off a website that breaks its agreement.

117
118- Sexual Content
119- Misleading Content
120- Offensive Content
121- Weapons and Violence
122- Banned Substances
123- Copyright Protection
124- Illicit Content
125- Viruses/Spyware/Malware
126- Adware
127- Bulk Marketing/Spam Marketing
128- Collection of Personally Identifiable Information
129- Embargoed or Sanctioned Products/Services
130- Family Planning
131- Financial Content
132- Gambling
133- Uncontrolled or Un-moderated User Generated Content