How does… ads.txt work?
In a new feature for Mumbrella, some of the industry’s most knowledgable boffins break down industry jargon to help you through those confusing meetings and indecipherable conferences. This week, IAB Australia’s Jonas Jaanimagi explains how ads.txt works.
What is it?
Ads.txt is a solution developed by IAB Tech Labs in 2017 as a way to increase transparency in the programmatic advertising space.
The ‘ads’ part stands for Authorised Digital Sellers and “txt” means, well, text. It is a text file that is hosted on a site’s domain declaring that it’s an authorised seller. It was invented to prevent criminals from monetising misleading ad opportunities via domain spoofing.
Missed out some key points on how this isn’t working and has plenty of bad actors verified mate. Most initiatives from the Tech Lab aren’t thought through enough. Be good to hear what IAB AU is doing to improve this.
https://digiday.com/media/publishers-getting-fooled-ads-txt-fraud/
C’mon, if publishers aren’t taking the care to actually have a relationship with people they put in their ads.txt file, they deserve to have their money taken. If ads.txt is too hard, they really don’t have the sophistication to play programmatic.
One avenue that is still open sneaky brand hacks like registering “guard1an.com” instead of guardian.com or “times.co.uk” instead of “thetimes.co.uk”, and marketers thinking they’re buying the kosher brand. Well vetted blacklists and whitelists required.
The ads.txt solution is very simple to implement, however publishers must always ensure that they fully understand and verify exactly who they are allowing onto the list as an authorised seller and re-seller. It’s their domain and their inventory, so they need to take control of who they verify to sell and/or resell it.
For additional guidance for publishers, also see this article on ExchangeWire
http://www.exchangewire.com/bl.....-traction/
As for the current limitations of the solution – these have been openly called-out by the IAB Australia from the very beginning. Simply review the initial support articles up on the site (www.iabaustralia.com.au/ads-txt) back in early October.
“…we will work with the IAB Tech Labs in New York to provide timelines for when we can expect a workable update for non-web environments (i.e. mobile apps), when we can expect the inclusion of a wider range of ad formats and guidelines on the forthcoming updates to the OpenRTB protocol (OpenRTB 3.0).”
For desktop inventory, the solution is now out there and buyers should insist upon it being utilised.
Moving forwards, we are now eagerly awaiting the opportunity to test the in-app solution with our members in the next month or so – and after testing intend to release the update and guidelines to the Australian market within the next couple of months.