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The Madison Avenue Field GuideA field guide to marketing & advertising, by Brandon Mina

GlossaryAdtech & ProgrammaticIAB Content Taxonomy

Adtech & Programmatic

IAB Content Taxonomy

A standardized IAB Tech Lab classification of content categories used to label pages and apps for contextual targeting and brand safety.

By Brandon MinaCEO, BrandPilot AIUpdated November 2026

Short answer

The IAB Content Taxonomy is a standardized classification of content categories maintained by IAB Tech Lab and used to label pages, apps, and video. Common category labels let publishers describe their inventory consistently in bid requests, enabling buyers to apply contextual targeting and brand safety rules across many sellers.