How Ads.txt Works
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ads.txt file: A Tool for Online Digital Ad Inventory

Ads.txt File With Advertisements Source With The Help Of Adexchange
Ads.txt File With Advertisements Source With The Help Of AdExchange

ads.txt file means Authorized Digital Sellers with the help of AdExchange. ads text is an initiative of Interactive Marketing Bureau Tech Laboratory (IAB). It helps make sure that your digital advertising inventory is sold through sellers (eg, media.net). It means who you’ve recognized /authorized. Creating your personal ads text offers you more control & contains a list of sellers who are permitted to sell advertisements on your own site. It aids in preventing counterfeit inventory from getting presented to advertisers. It can be done by creating advertisements text file on all of your registered domains. On approved websites, advertisements may be visible to visitors.

We strongly suggest that your website have advertisements txt file. It can help advertisers determine counterfeit inventory and assist you to receive even more advertiser spend that may have otherwise eliminated toward that counterfeit inventory.

What is AdExchange?

AdExchange is a technology platform which can facilitates the buying as well as selling of media advertising inventory from different ad networks. Here, Prices are determined via real-time bidding (RTB). Approach of AdExchange is completely driven by technology as opposed to earlier historical approach of negotiations of price on media inventory. It is by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB).

Also, AdExchange is a virtual market place where both publishers as well as advertisers trade their digital ad inventory. AdExchange is all about preferred deals, real time deals & private auctions. Here, advertisers bid for the inventory in real time. This increases both competition and revenue generation.

Why ads text file was introduced?

The digital marketing industry is constantly attempting to ensure that bad visitors will be kept out of websites. Also, it greatly helps legitimate publishers ensure and grow their website’s revenues by using an it in the domain’s root directory

It is a text file that publishers may host on the web servers. Listing the others authorized to market their products. This is made to allow online purchasers to check on the validity of the retailers from whom they purchase, for the reasons of internet fraud avoidance.

What is IAB(Interactive Marketing Bureau Tech Laboratory)?

The IAB’s ads txt specification dictates the formatting of ads.txt file. It may contain 3 types of records; data records, comments, and variables. An ads txt file can include a variety of information, each placed on a separate line.

It specifies a mechanism for content publishers & is used by webmasters to list their authorized digital sellers. It is introduced to fight against fraud and misrepresented domains. ads.txt specification version 1.0.2  provides a way to publishers that if they do not authorize any sellers for their ad inventory.

What is the task of ads text file of  IAB?

The mission of the ads text initiative is to boost transparency in the programmatic ad marketing ecosystem.   It is a straightforward, flexible and secure technique that publishers and distributors can use to publicly declare the firms they authorize to market/sell their digital ad inventory.

By creating a public record of Authorized Digital Sellers, It will generate greater transparency in the inventory source chain. It also presents the publisher’s control over its inventory in the market. It also makes it harder for awful actors to benefit from selling counterfeit inventory across the ecosystem. As publishers adopt it, buyers can easier identify the Authorized Digital Sellers for a participating publisher. It allows the brands to have the self-confidence that they are buying genuine publisher inventory.

What is ads text file?

Ads.txt is a straightforward, flexible, and secure way for publishers and distributors to declare who’s authorized to market their inventory.  Thus, enhancing transparency for programmatic buyers for their ads management.

Ads.txt helps transparent programmatic digital media transactions. It also removes the monetary incentive from offering counterfeit and misrepresented media. Like robots.txt, It is posted to a domain by a publisher’s webmaster, which makes it valid and authentic.  ads.txt is simple to update, which makes it flexible. The data necessary to populate the document is easily available in the OpenRTB protocol. It makes ads.txt simple to gather and target it. And publishers sell their inventory through a number of sales channels.

Would you describe more about ads text file?

Ads.txt is a significant brand safety tool. It is introduced to battle inventory fraud and improve transparency in the wonderful world of digital marketing. This essentially labels who’s and isn’t authorized to market traffic from a site. It guarantees that your site inventory is guarded against fraud and comes only through “authorized marketing systems.”

How does ads txt file work?

How Ads.txt Works

Ads text file helps to create a publicly accessible record of authorized digital sellers for publisher inventory. It is helpful that programmatic buyers may index and reference if indeed they wish to buy inventory from authorized sellers. Further, participating publishers must post their set of authorized sellers to their domain home directory. Programmatic purchasers can then crawl the website for publisher’s ads.txt. They then create a listing of authorized sellers for every participating publisher. After that programmatic buyers can create a filtration system to match their ads.txt list against the info provided in the OpenRTB bid request.

A buyer getting a bid-ask for claiming to become example.com may verify if the exchange and SellerAccountID fit the authorized retailers listed in example.com/ads.txt.

How does ads.txt function?

Publishers place a textfile on their web hosting servers. It lists all the businesses that are authorized to market the publishers’ ad inventory. Likewise, programmatic systems also integrate with ads txt files. It is to verify which publisher’s inventory they are authorized to market. This allows potential buyers/purchasers to check on the validity of the inventory they buy.

How come ads.txt is important?

ads.txt is essential for almost all publishers. ads txt on the website says which businesses can sell inventory. It offers complete permission control. Therefore making it more challenging for fraud that may occur. An ads txt provides publishers with an increase of advertiser spend by eliminating the prospect of fraud inventory.

Why should I use ads.txt?

The ads.txt document can help you protect your site from fraud inventory.

Quite simply – using ads txt file certainly helps you to get you to even more advertiser spend that may have in any other case gone toward fraud inventory.

What should I do if my website already has ads.txt?

If your website currently has ads.txt @ domain’s root directory, you have nothing to do.

How do you create an ads.txt for your website?

Implementing ads.txt is low-cost and incredibly easy.

To create an ads txt, please follow the instructions below:

Create a text message (.txt) file and place it at Your domain’s home directory.

For instance, ads.txt file

What information goes into an ads.txt file document?

For every authorized seller, there must be an entry in a separate line of ads txt file. Each collection in a publisher’s ads.txt list requires 3 bits of data (and also a fourth field, which is an optional field):

#1FIELD: Domain name
# 2FIELD: Publisher’s accounts ID
# 3FIELD: Accounts type (DIRECT/RESELLER)
#4FIELD  (Optional): Сertification Authority ID, if obtainable.

What does ads.txt file contain?

Lets assume a website with name webone.com. It published an ads txt on their web server. It lists three exchanges as authorized to sell their ad inventory, including Example.com’s seller account IDs within each of those exchanges.

contains the below information.
#< SSP/Exchange Domain >, < SellerAccountID >, < PaymentsType >, < TAGID >
Infolinks.com, 3200000 , DIRECT
rubiconproject.com, 20300, RESELLER, 0bfd66d529a55800
google.com, pub-6373315980741255, RESELLER, f08c47fec0942abc

Please note that, The seller’s Publisher.ID will end up being specified in the “SellerAccountID” field in the ads.txt.

How do buyers use advertisements txt file to check on who is authorized to market?

Lets assume both exchange and the publisher each adopt advertisements txt.  Bidders may check their tags for the existence of an ads.txt document to verify that the exchange and publisher possess the best connection to one another.

What are the Best Practices of an Ads text file?

Depending on your website audience size you may have a different perfect practice to adhere too. Many publishers need to boost income and advertiser demand and prices on the site and therefore use many ad suppliers and add many advertisements txt files to improve competition and income. That is perfectly suitable and there is absolutely no downside to doing this. Other large publishers limit their ads.txt additions to control sales team competition and conflicts. Based on your objective will determine the very best practice.

Any kind of drawbacks for ads.txt file?

It depends upon who you ask this question. For SSPs that thrive on undisclosed reselling, this initiative can slice to their business if it alerts the purchase side with their shady practices.

if in case buyers identify inventory that isn’t called valid, the reject the request.

How about drawbacks for businesses that aren’t shady?

As we all know, Publishers and exchanges already stretching their programmer resources. They will need to allocate a web programmer to integrate these text files. It also requires them to monitor whenever publishers alter their lists of authorized retailers.

What are the steps of Ads.txt implementation process?

Here are the steps of the Ads.txt implementation process. They are
1.Gather all the necessary information of resellers, network partners, & parties from your accounts that make your inventory available to the buyers.
2. The Above information also includes the domain name of the advertising system, Publisher Account IDs, account relationship types (direct or reseller) and if available, the certification account ID for all the verified advertising systems.
3. Create the ads.txt file using any document creation software. It can be notepad or any other software, but it must be according to the specifications set out by the IAB.
4. Save and name the file ads.txt.
5. Upload the ads.txt file in the root of your domain.
Ex: https://auniqueweb.in/ads.txt

May I Place Ads.txt In A Subdomain?

No, Ads.txt should not be in a subdomain. As of Date, subdomains are not currently supported.

How did advertising industry combated the widespread problem of ad fraud?

In the programmatic advertising industry, transparency within the supply chain is a debatable topic for Many years. Many international organizations tried to protect publishers as well as advertisers from shady suppliers.

In 2016, IAB introduced a project named ads.txt. It was perhaps the biggest & the most impactful change in the programmatic advertising industry. It is an industry wide project which helped industry to combat the widespread problem of ad fraud.

Does the Ads.txt project had wide initial adoption rate in the initial days of project release?

No. It had low initial adoption rate in the initial days of project release. However, In spite of it’s low initial adoption rates, it is one of the widely accepted standard.

In recent history of programmatic advertising industry, Most Content Publishers and advertisers has been relying  on ads.txt project. By Doing this they ensured their impressions end up in front of real humans of search engines.

Did Ads.txt solved all of the advertising industry’s problems?

Certainly not. Though the project initiative didn’t solve all of the advertising industry’s problems, it did significantly improved the transparency within the supply chain. Thus helped curb the ad fraud.

Apart from that, The advertising industry has shown it’s willingness to improve and expand the initiative. It is clearly evident from the recently introduced app-ads.txt file

Why Should content publisher opt for it?

As a content publisher, Your goal is to monetize your website, It is advised to take the time to implement and maintain your ads.txt file properly. It do increase your website’s trustworthiness in the eyes of advertisers. Also, It helps you to prevent revenue losses to invalid traffic.

Does Ads.txt file need to be updated time to time?

Yes, You should not forget to keep your ads.txt up to date. Content Publishers take up new partners and change old ones all the time. Therefore, updating the file regularly is very essential for content publishers/Web Masters.

What are the various ways to fix ads.txt file of your website?

you may easily fix ads.txt file problem using the various methods mentioned here. You can either use a dedicated plugin or an Adsense management plugin to upload an ads.txt file in to WordPress.

Otherwise, You may also directly upload the ads.txt file in the root directory of your WordPress web site.

How to Upload ads.txt file without using WordPress plugin?

You may directly upload the ads.txt file to your WordPress website root directory. For This, you don’t need to install any WordPress plugin for that.

Here are the steps to place ads.txt file without using any WordPress plugin. They are

1. Please do login to your Hosting C-panel
2. Click on File Manager option.
3. Now, Please go to the public_html folder where all of your web site data is stored.
4. In public_html folder, do create a new file and paste the code of Ads.txt inside it.
5. Do name the file as ads.txt and save it.

How to fix ads.txt file issue using a WordPress plugin?

Here are the steps to fix ads.txt file issue using a WordPress plugin.
To fix the ads.txt file you need
1. Please login into your WordPress dashboard
2. Go to the plugin section.
3. Now, Do click on the “add new plugin”
4. Search for ads.txt in the search bar.
5. You will see plugins such as “Ads.txt Manager by 10up”
6. Click on install and activate the plugin.
7. Go to setting option in the WordPress dashboard
8. Now, A new option called ads.txt visible there to fix ads.txt file issue.
9. Now copy all content in the file and paste it here and save the code.
10. It will add ads.txt file to your WordPress website.

Can I generate ads.txt file core can be generated automatically in Google AdSense?

Yes, ads.txt file’ core may be generated automatically using Google AdSense Account.

How to Create an ads.txt file for your website using Google AdSense?

To create an ads.txt file you need to follow the below steps. They are
1. Please Login into your AdSense dashboard
2. Here, you may see an alert.
3. if So, Do click on the “fix now” button.
3. Else, Go to Sites Section of Google AdSense.
4. Click the Down arrow to open the following message “Create an ads.txt file for… ” .
5. Please Do Click Download to download your ads.txt file automatically.
6. Lets Assume, If you do not see the “Create an ads.txt file for…” message in Google AdSense. You may need to manually copy your AdSense publisher ID from your AdSense account. And, do add it to ads.txt file.
7. You may find your publisher ID in the following path of Google AdSense.
Account > Settings > Account information
8. Please do note that Content Publisher ID will always consist of 16 digits in this format “pub-0000000000000000”.
9. Now, In your AdSense account, do click Sites > Overview.
10. Open the following message “Add your publisher ID to these ads.txt files” .
11. Click on Copy button.
12. Now, Paste ​​the line with your own publisher ID in your ads.txt file.

Is the ads.txt file obligatory?

Well, to run your website, It is Not Required. However, To successfully profit from the monetization process ⎼ yes, It is very useful. Most advertising systems will recommended you to have the ads.txt file implemented.

For instance, if you are using only an AdSense account, there is no need to implement ads.txt file. Everything works just fine even though the ads.txt file doesn’t exist. However, Google itself recommends having one ads.txt for safety reasons. Furthermore, it is mandatory in the most of cases when you are applying programmatic solutions and benefiting from innovative technologies & AI Engines.

What an Ads.txt file is?

Ads.txt or Authorized Digital Sellers File is an IAB Tech Lab initiative Project. It helps to ensure that your digital ad inventory is only sold through sellers (such as AdSense) who you have identified as authorized.

It also helps buyers identify the counterfeit inventory. And, It helps you gain trust in the advertisers.

What is the significance of implementing the ads text file?

By implementing the ads text file, you are giving advertisers the information they need to identify the right seller.

Why google recommend to have an ads.txt file?

As you know, ads.txt file is intended to increase the safety of ad-related businesses. For the same reason, Google itself recommends to have an ads.txt file. It is to avoid precluding the possibility of selling publishers ad inventory by unauthorized entities.

Why digital advertising organizations recommends to have an ads.txt file?

Since we all know digital advertising is a very lucrative industry, there are incidents of misrepresentation. It is leading to profit and reputation loss. It is for both sides of the deals.

For advertisers, ads.txt indicates that they can buy your ad space via safe supply chains. It really means that if there is no file on your web site, advertisers may bid less willingly. Advertisers will not be interested in taking the risk of losing parts of their income.

Therefore, having the ads.txt uploaded will do you no harm. So when in doubt, better to apply it. You may be aware of the saying “better safe than sorry!”

How To Add Your Publisher ID To An ads.txt File?

If incase your publisher ID is missing from your ads.txt file, please follow the below steps to copy it from your AdSense account and add it to your ads.txt file.

The steps are
1. First, Sign in to your Google AdSense Account.
2. If there is an alert on your homepage of AdSense, please click Fix now. Otherwise, click on Sites.
3. Click the Down arrow to open the “Add your publisher ID to these ads.txt files” message.
4. Click on Copy.
5. Paste this line into each of your ads.txt files.
6. Your ads.txt file should now look like this, where pub-0000000000000000 is your own publisher ID:

google.in, pub-0000000000000000, DIRECT, f18c47fec1942fa1

How To Validate An Ads.txt File?

You may be aware that making a silly mistake in the syntax of ads.txt file will lead it to break. So, before uploading it to your web site you must ensure your Ads.txt file is syntactically correct. The easiest way to ensure that you don’t make any errors in it is only by checking your Ads.txt file with an ads.txt validator. You may find such a Ads.txt online validator tool for free.

Where Is Ads.txt Located?

Content Publishers may find the ads.txt file in the root directory of their web site. It must be in a top-level domain. The easiest way to verify your ads.txt is to enter the URL in your browser and check if it opens the URL without errors. The web URL will always look like below:
sitename.in/ads.txt

Where Is App-Ads.txt Located In The Website?

Similar to ads.txt, Content publishers must place their app-ads.txt file at the root of their developer website. However, you must make sure that the domain with your app-ads.txt is identical to the one listed in your app store. For example, Apple App Store, Google Play Store, etc.. The URL will always be similar to the following:
sitename.com/app-ads.txt

What Are The Different Types Of Supplier Relationships Of Ads Txt File?

Ads txt file supports three different types of supplier relationships. They are mentioned as below.

1. Domain owners who sell inventory on Ad exchanges.
2. Ad networks and ad agencies that sell inventory programmatically.
3. Content syndication partners.

How to Implement Ads.txt file?

There are several approaches to add an ads.txt file to your website or an app. It depends on the CMS or the service you are using for your web site. However, before you implement one such file, you will first have to make it one.

Why Does Ads.txt file Matter?

Though content publishers don’t need to have an ads.txt file in website Root Directory, there are many benefits to using an ads.txt file.

Makes the Supply Chain More Transparent

In recent years, the most significant step towards improving the transparency in the digital advertising space is to allow ad buyers to easily verify dealers & publishers to prevent unauthorized inventory.

Ensure a Brand-Safe Advertising Environment

Advertisers never want their ads to appear on shady or inappropriate web sites. This Ads.txt file helps them identify genuine buyers. It ensure their creatives end up on trustworthy web sites.

Improves the Mobile Advertising Landscape

The ads.txt file project initiative is very much expanding on the mobile app market too. It is giving advertisers more reliable and safer options for reaching mobile audiences.

Combat different types of ad fraud

The essential benefits of ads.txt file is that it helps combat various types of ad frauds. Ads.txt is the perfect solution for this issue. It do prevent Domain spoofing. Domain spoofing is one of the popular fraud schemes the industry had over the last 10-15 years.

As know to all, content publishers are the ones who can implement and edit this file. So, there is no other way for a third party to tamper it. It means fraudsters can’t trick advertisers in to selling counterfeit Ad inventory.

Can we automate the process of creation of ads.txt generator?

Yes, You can automate the process of creation of ads.txt generator. It can be done If you don’t want to create ads.txt file manually. Do use online web ads.txt generator like Cedato to automate the process of Ads.txt file.

What is template format of Each line of Ads.txt file?

Here is template format of each line of Ads text file

| Ad Exchange Name | Publisher / Account ID | Name of Relationship Type | Certification Authority (Optional) |

Please do remember to separate each of above elements with a comma (,). And, It keep each partner in a separate line.

Can I Add Ads.txt to Google AdSense?

Yes, You may add Ads.txt file to Google AdSense.

How to Add Ads.txt to WordPress via a plugin named Ads.txt Manager?

One of the easiest way to add an ads.txt file to a WordPress web site is to use a plugin such as Ads.txt Manager. Once you download and install the Ads.txt Manager plugin, Please do follow below steps to implement your ads.txt file.
1. Navigate to the plugin’s Settings section
2. Click on Ads.txt to open the window to input the necessary data.
3. Do Add your authorized sellers information in the text field. By following the template we showcased in this webpage on creating an ads.txt file.
4. Please Do not forget to separate each field of a line with a comma.
5. Save changes.

That’s All and you’re done!

Does Ads.txt Manager Plugin supports both Ads.txt as well as app-ads.txt?

Yes, The latest version of the plugin do allow publishers to implement both ads.txt & app-ads.txt. app-ads.txt can implemented from the App-ads.txt section in the plugin menu.

Is Ads.txt the same as App-Ads.txt?

App-ads.txt is a mobile extension of the IAB Tech Lab’s ads.txt project initiative. Both the files do verify ad inventory. And,It can prevent fraud but on two different platforms. So, Content Publishers can incorporate app-ads.txt on mobile applications. It do declare authorized sellers and protect their ads.

What are the Best Practices of Ads.txt file?

Starting from implementation to management of Ads Text File, here are some of the best practices of Ads.txt file to maximize effectiveness of it. They are

Configure Ads.txt file wisely Sticking to the IAB

The format of Ads Text file should always adhere to IAB. It is the best way to ensure that everything is working as it should be. Always Accomplish this step by using the format mentioned above and the precise number of spaces & commas.

Presentation Wise Always Keep It Simple Short

Please make sure that your ads.txt file must be readable and easy to understand to the humans too. Content Publishers should not keep huge files. It may run the risk of files not being fully scanned by DSPs. Or, the DSP may ignore the file entirely. Thus, It may disallow programmatic channels for that domain. Additionally, short files of Ads Text file will be better to help with fraud prevention as the 404bot scam is strongly correlated to the large ads.txt files.

Regularly Audit The ads.txt File

Please make sure that you audit ads.txt file periodically. You will need to make sure desired partners are up-to-date, and all inactive partners are removed. Similarly, Do check your formatting and always ensure your Ads Text file is readable. Again, by periodic validating of your ads.txt file, DSPs will be capable of scanning, and helps you not incur any revenue losses.

Do Give Attention To Direct Deals

As mentioned, keeping Ads Text File short and tight file, with direct deals is a great way to do this. Always Consider to offer contact information for direct deals to avoid having a host of resellers on file.

Consider its complement

It is a great advantage when content publishers pair their ads.txt files with Sellers.json file. The IAB do recommends using Sellers.json. It is an extra layer of protection. Thus, buyers can cross-reference content publisher’s relationship with their ad exchange or SSP. It works by having ad exchanges. And, SSPs list the content publishers that work with them, their information (name as well as domain), and the relationship is either direct or indirect.

What are the Advantages of Using Ads.txt file?

Content Publishers using ads.txt files do benefit of protection against certain types of ad fraud and shady practices. It do build advertiser’s confidence in buying your units. Even if it’s not a requirement for blogger websites, they must consider adding it to their web sites since installation is very easy. Here are the benefits and advantages to consider it.

Very Easy To Use

As you already know that creating your ads.txt file is very easy. Uploading it to your website can be done in a minute or so. In addition to easy implementation of Ads.txt, maintenance too is very simple. Content Publishers may update their respective files at any given point of time. It is applicable to both adding or removing of sellers with in the ads.txt file.

Protection Against Inventory Arbitrage

Inventory arbitrage is the practice of a middleman Mechanism (such as agency, partner, etc.). They take care of buying inventory, repackaging and selling of it at a profit. These agencies are very essentially putting money into their pockets instead of yours! In fact, it’s not illegal. But, since it hurts both advertisers as well as publishers, it’s very essential to prevent this from happening in real world. Otherwise, your reputation is at stake. And, it could also damage by the misrepresentation in the open market.

Protection Against Domain Spoofing

In domain spoofing, a scammer/fraudster will try to mimic the URLs of real websites. It may be be yours. And, It do attempt to mislead the advertisers into purchasing ad space on a masked website. Whenever advertisers buy these units rather than legitimate inventory, you lose out on your revenue. Your web site could lose credibility too. In very extreme cases, It may also deter networks from working with you .

Safety and Security

As known to most people, ads.txt file uploading and editing is only allowed to web site owners. Because of It, It is highly safe and secure from external sabotage. Further, without your web site credentials, no scammer can manipulate this list. As a result of it, you are always in control of your partnerships and it is protected against unauthorized reselling.

What are the Disadvantages of Using Ads.txt file?

Here are the Disadvantages of Using Ads.txt file. They are

Limited protection Against Ad Frauds

Please note that it is not a All-In-One solution in the fight against ad fraud. In fact, the IAB has published an article on the use case scenarios and purpose of Ad.txt files. That report also clearly states that, “Ad fraud comes in a variety of forms, and ads.txt file is not intended to solve for all the forms.” So, Content publishers still need to take appropriate preventative measures. These preventive measures may also include working with a quality ad platform and do avoiding all the shady networks identified.

Maintenance

Keeping ads.txt file clean and updated to date is really important. As you may be aware that, the IAB lab has launched a crawler. It do allows buyers to verify information quickly. Unfortunately, crawling errors may do occur because of incorrect file. It may leave advertisers skeptical about working with you. Content Publishers may also use the Google Webmaster services to make sure that there are no crawling errors in the website.

Exposed the 404bot scheme

Further, As like any determined scammer scheme, those scammers found a way to steal the data from the advertising industry. It is named as the 404bot. It’s purpose is to capitalize on unaudited ads.txt files. The IAB exposed the 404bot scheme. In addition to recognizing its fingerprint in real world, the IAB has determined its link to large files. Most Luckily, keeping a clean and tight ads.txt file should prevent you from incurring revenue loss due to online frauds.

What is the specification format of each line of ads.txt?

The ads.txt file must have one line for every seller you wish to authorize in your domain. Below is the specification format of ads text file.

<Field #1>, <Field #2>, <Field #3>, <Field #4>

Here The first three fields are mandatory.

Field 1 Represents Domain Name

Domain of the seller/reseller authorized to sell content publisher’s inventory. It is a mandatory field.

Field 2 Represents Content Publisher Account ID

This is the unique identification number which is associated with a content publisher’s account (seller or reseller). It is also a mandatory field.

Field 3 Represents Account Type

It too is a mandatory field. Here Account Type is of 2 types. One is DIRECT & the other one is RESELLER.
Content Publishers who have signed a direct contract with an advertising network will be mentioned as DIRECT.
Content Publishers who have a company that acts on their behalf would be treated as A RESELLER.

Field 4 Represents TAG ID

It is An Optional Field. It is a unique identification code issued by Trustworthy Accountability Group(TAG). If the advertising system is certified, Then Content Publishers can enter the TAG ID here.

Here is an Example line of Ads Text File

google.com, pub-0000000000000000, RESELLER, f00c00fec0000fa0

How to view ads.txt file of a domain?

Since ads.txt file is publicly viewable to everyone, they can be viewed by typing in the root domain followed by /ads.txt. For instance, your-site-name.com/ads.txt.

Conclusion

In nutshell, With help of Ad Exchange & The Interactive Marketing Bureau Tech Laboratory introduced a file called advertisements txt file. It is a tool that will help ad buyers avoid illegitimate sellers who arbitrage inventory and spoof domains illegally. Usually, Publishers put a file on their server. It says precisely which companies they offer their inventory through.

It lists partners by name & also contains the publisher’s account ID. This is actually the same ID buyers (marketers) observe in bid demand. If in case you’re using more than one ad network, be sure you put that network to your ad inventory txt file. Get in touch with your ad network for his or her advertisements txt information.

Therefore, It is extremely recommended to utilize the advertisements txt file initiative as a responsible publisher. It is made to combat inventory fraud and improve transparency in the digital marketing industry.

Mahadev

Vry Good Info...

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