The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB), introduced Ads.txt in order to safeguard Publisher’s revenue. It prevents any illegitimate sellers who arbitrage inventory & spoof inventory, to not being able to sell or represent that inventory on the Marketplace.
Each line has four fields (the initial three fields are mandatory for filling):
• Domain name. If there is more than one domain, you should indicate a canonical domain name of the advertising platform or system.
• Publishers’ account ID. Exchanges and trade platforms (e.g. OpenRTB) set it in the special field when they allocate requests.
• Account type. The DIRECT value is applying to those publishers who have signed a direct contract with an advertising network. The RESELLER value means that the company that operates the source is acting on behalf of a publisher, and this company is officially selling ad places through the domains that are indicated in the first field.
• Identifier issued by a certified organization (optional field). If the source possesses an identifier ID issued by TAG (Trustworthy Accountability Group), then this TAGID should be indicated in this field.
The Idea behind it is simple, Publisher makes public a .txt file which includes names of all its partners who are authorized to sell its inventory. This file is called “ads.txt” in case of a Website & “app-ads.txt” in case of an Application.
It also allows buyers to validate & check the inventory purchase as well. Many of the publisher’s still struggle with the usage of this & adoption of ads.txt/app-ads.txt has been steadily growing since the past two years. But even small mistakes can cause Publishers to lose revenue.
Below are some common guidelines which you should follow to avoid mistakes:
1. Placement of Ads.txt: Ads.txt goes on your top-level domain as follows: https://www.example.com/ads.txt
If you are placing app-ads.txt for your app, make sure that you upload it on your correct Developer URL. If you’re unsure how to spot the right one, well we’re just an email away.
2. Mis-spelling: Since placing ads.txt is a manual process, making sure that all the partners who you are working with are correctly spelled. A spelling mistake here could cause you to stop getting demand from that partner. We also have to make sure there are no missing “comma” between the Seller name & their ID. To avoid mistakes, always, copy the ads.txt as it’s provided by your Monetization partner and paste it “as it is” on the file i.e. ads.txt or your app-ads.txt.
3. Periodic Check: Ads.txt & App-Ads.txt need to be checked once a month, to ensure only “active” sellers are listed with whom you plan to sell your inventory or are selling your inventory. Having 300 sellers listed on an Ads.txt / app-ads.txt is a red flag & can still cause some companies to be able to mis-use or mis-represent your inventory on the Ad-Marketplace.
House of Publishers consult for Publishers, which also includes checking ads.txt/app-ads.txt for any possible errors & helping them protect their earnings. For more insights, feel free to get in touch with us!!
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