The IAB has released a set of guidelines designed to combat the rise of ad blocking. The guidelines go under the acronym of L.E.A.N. and were launched at the IAB Engage event in London a few minutes ago by IAB UK CEO Guy Phillipson, and his US counterpart, Randall Rothenburg.

The ‘L’ stands for Light – ads should be of limited file size with strict data call guidelines in order to avoid excessive page load times. The ‘E’ is for Encrypted – ads should be https and SSL compliant in order to assure user security.

The ‘A is for Ad choices support – all ads should support the Digital Advertising Alliances consumer privacy programs. Finally, the ‘N’ stands for Non-invasive/disruptive. The idea here is that ads should supplement the user experience, rather than disrupt it. The wording of the IAB description of this – “This includes covering content and sound enabled by default” – is a little confusing, but the inference is that sound should not be enabled by default on video advertising content.

The IAB has also published an Ad Blocking FAQ, which is available for download here.