Table of Contents
Upcoming app-ads.txt release
When app-ads.txt is released, it will introduce several important changes to ads.txt:
- Ads.txt statuses will be consolidated and all existing line items will automatically update to the new values.
- Filtering and targeting for ads.txt and app-ads.txt will be combined into a single process. QPS filtering expressions for ads.txt and line item targeting rules that do not specify an environment type will now also apply to app-ads.txt statuses. To avoid automatically filtering and targeting based on app-ads.txt, make sure to explicitly specify an environment type.
- API endpoints will remain the same, but there will be new targeting values. Backend calls will be adjusted to the new values and a timeline will be provided for when builds need to be updated to the new values.
Overview
The IAB's Ads.txt initiative aims to combat fraudulent activities in digital advertising, specifically targeting domain spoofing by publishers and other parties in the supply chain. Domain spoofing occurs when a fraudulent party falsely declares their domain as that of another site in Real-Time Bidding (RTB) requests. This initiative is designed to reduce the ability of bad actors to profit from such deceptive practices. Ads.txt has been developed to work across multiple digital environments, including desktop, mobile web, and mobile apps, providing a comprehensive solution to enhance transparency and security in the digital advertising ecosystem
How ads.txt Works:
- Each publisher puts a .txt file titled Ads.txt on their website, demonstrating ownership of the domain (e.g. http://www.nytimes.com/ads.txt)
- Within the Ads.txt file, the publisher declares their authorized publisher IDs when selling their domain on each SSP (their IDs will vary for each SSP).
- Each SSP they declare they sell to are disclosed as a domain themselves (e.g. appnexus, or Google for AdX).
- This means that buyers are able to cross-reference the declared publisher ID in the Ads.txt file (e.g. for 'nytimes.com' buying off 'rubiconproject.com', nytimes will appear as Publisher ID: 12330) with the Publisher ID being passed into the RTB request. If the domain is declared as 'nytimes.com', selling to 'rubiconproject.com', and the PublisherID is not 12330 - this is an unauthorized request.
Beeswax offers the ability to isolate Ads.txt domains both within QPS filtering, as well as Line Item Targeting - and will validate these bid requests against the Ads.txt values on the publisher’s page. If you would like to utilize Ads.txt functionality in your QPS filtering, please contact Beeswax Support with your request. Beeswax additionally offers a full breakdown of Ads.txt statuses within its logs which can be seen below.
Customers can ‘include’ or ‘exclude’ any of the following Ads.txt statuses below in both Line Item Targeting (under the ‘Inventory’ targeting section) and QPS Filtering.
Ads.txt Status Codes and Definitions:
| 0 - No Domain | Indicates there was no domain value on the RTB request. Without a domain we cannot determine if it is authorized or not. This status includes site requests that do not have a domain value and all mobile app traffic. |
| 1 - No Ads.txt file | Indicates that there was no ads.txt file available for us to crawl on that domain. Without an ads.txt text file we cannot determine whether the request is authorized or unauthorized. |
| 2 - Ads.txt file not scanned | Indicates that there may be an ads.txt file on that domain but we had an issue scanning it. This could be because it’s malformed or for some other reason. It could also mean that the domain was seen so rarely that we did not yet scan it. |
| 3 - No advertising allowed | Indicates that the publisher explicitly put an empty ads.txt file on their domain. Per the IAB standard this means that no advertising is allowed via RTB. For example, all youtube.com requests will get this code. |
| 4 - Not authorized - Missing publisher ID | Indicates a missing publisher_id value on the RTB request. Without a publisher_id value we cannot verify if it is authorized or not. |
| 5 - Not authorized | Indicates that the publisher_id in the request does not match the publisher ID in their ads.txt file. |
| 6 - Authorized - Reseller | Indicates that the Publisher has authorized another entity to control the account indicated in the SSP/Publisher ID combination to resell their ad space. |
| 7 - Authorized - Direct | Indicates that the Publisher directly controls the account indicated for the SSP/Publisher ID combination. |