The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) released its Authorized Digital Sellers

solution in 2017 in response to a lack of transparency in online advertising.

How Makes DigitalAdvertising Transparent

ads.txt

ads.txt is a tool aimed at fighting digital ad fraud and ensuring brand safety for advertisers.

“”

This is achieved by having publishers declare their supplier partnerships, known as

Authorized Digital Sellers:

Advertisers then reference this list when

looking to buy ad inventory.

Content syndicationpartnerships

Networks andsales houses

Domain owners

shortadvertisingexchange,

54321, RESELLER,

2zbikxahn2jhqcu1v

tallexchange, 1042694,

DIRECT,

fl9nboxurip1pv98c

grandessp, 5958296,

RESELLER, RESELLER,

ADS.TXT

Black hatmarketers

Certain illegitimatead networks

Marketing

Commoncybercriminals

Organisedcriminals

Criminal

Who Are The Not-So-SmoothDigital Ad Criminals?

Why Do MarketersNeed It?

In the next decade, the amount of money lost to

fraudulent advertising is estimated to cumulatively

reach anywhere from:

$50B

$140B

Ad fraud at constant30% share of digital market

Ad fraud at constant10% share of digital market

THE.NUTS.AND.BOLTS

The technology

behind ads.txt is

simple — it’s just

a small text file.

The file sits on a publisher’s server and is accessed

by an advertiser who wants to purchase inventory:

www.publisherdomain.com/ads.txtwww.publisherdomain.com

It specifies each reseller who can sell a publisher’s

ads on its behalf:

www.publisherdomain.com/ads.txtwww.publisherdomain.com

# Ads.txt file for publisherdomain.com:

shortadvertisingexchange, 54321, RESELLER, 2zbikxahn2jhqcu1v tallexchange, 1042694, DIRECT, fl9nboxurip1pv98cgrandessp, 5958296, RESELLER, 4i6rz4jl1983top8pventissp, 3144980, RESELLER, w9spknabvvl9mkyfd trentaadexchange, 8176631, DIRECT, 83it5q7t9ub7zk296

Publisher.com, 1234, ‘Direct’ or ‘Reseller’, Trustworthy Accountability Group (aka TAG) cert ID

Exchange domain Account type Tag ID (optional)

Account ID

Here’s how to decipher a typical ads.txt entry:

Put together a list of your accounts and gather

the info required for your ads.txt file.

Step 1

Use a simple text editor or any word processor to

create the ads.txt file as per IAB’s specs

https://iabtechlab.com/ads-txt/

Step 2

Host the ads.txt file on your root domain.

Step 3

3 Easy Steps To Fraud-FreeInventory

Leading PublishersAlready On Board

ads.txt has already been implemented

internationally by some of the biggest

brands in publishing:

The top ad tech partners are

(as at Nov 2017):

The average publisher has 8.7

accounts with 4.8 partners“

”

Allows you to see whether

your chosen publisher has

implemented ads.txt.

The ads.txtValidator tool

www.adstxtvalidator.com

Helps you easily create

a correctly formatted file.

The ads.txtGenerator

adstxt.vertamedia.com

Handy Resources

Visit IAB’s official resource

to learn more:

iabtechlab.com/ads-txt/

benchplatform.com

Take Control Of Your Performance Marketing Campaigns

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Sources: https://iabtechlab.com/ads-txt/https://iabtechlab.com/blog/helping-industry-prevent-sale-of-counterfeit-inventory-with-ads-txt/https://www.wfanet.org/app/uploads/2017/04/WFA_Compendium_Of_Ad_Fraud_Knowledge.pdfhttps://medium.com/@adenforshaw/the-iabs-new-ads-txt-initiative-what-does-it-mean-for-video-publishers-b2b61c1fcb56http://www.adopsinsider.com/ad-exchanges/ads-txt-adoption/https://www.adstxtvalidator.com/https://adsthttps://adstxt.vertamedia.com