Ads.txt December ’17 Updates for Publishers

Ads.txt – December News Roundup:

Today’s post is an overview of interesting and useful content we have recently read about Ads.txt.  Being that Ads.txt is a relatively new development in the programmatic industry, we thought you would appreciate a curated roundup of relevant content about Ads.txt in order to get a good overview of what Ads.txt is and how both publishers and advertisers have been adjusting to it over the final months of 2017.

At Oraki, we have already have an abundance of experience working with premium publishers seeking to maximize their ROI with Ads.txt. If you would like assistance with Ads.txt, we can help you with everything along the way in addition to providing you with the finest consultation. If you would like assistance with Ads.txt you can  join Oraki’s monetization program for premium publishers.

Ads.txt – AppNexus Launches an Ads.txt Validator

AppNexus, one of the world’s leading demand platforms, launched a tool designed to assist publishers to ensure that their Ads.txt file has been configured correctly.

On the page, users can either will enter their URL or domain or upload their Ads.txt file directly.

Once finished, the AppNexus Ads.txt validator will check for:

• Data, comments and variable declaration line
• A recognizable exchange URL
• Valid relationship types
• Valid variable names

The validator doesn’t check for:

• Valid Publisher IDs – For AppNexus this should be a three or four-digit number
• The validity of certificate authority IDs
• Variable values

Google Reports Ad Revenue is Increasing for Publishers Using Ads.txt

With Ads.txt continuing to be adopted by the world’s largest publishers, Google bullishly expects that Ads.txt will boost revenue for publishers whom have added the file onto their websites.

First reported by The Wall Street Journal on November 30, Google revealed that the average price of ad space purchased via their ad-buying systems has increased throughout November, a change the company attributes to increased advertiser confidence of the inventory after widespread industry adoption of Ads.txt.  As of early December 2017, nearly 50% of the world’s top 2,000 websites have already added Ads.txt onto their websites.

Since Nov. 8, Google has been actively preventing advertisers from purchasing unauthorized ad impressions on its DSPs which have been identified by Ads.txt. As a result, Google believes that they have significantly reduced the amount of counterfeit inventory in its systems.  As more unauthorized inventory is cleaned from its systems and more publishers adopt Ads.txt, Google believes that advertisers should not only increase their confidence in the inventory but also their budgets for their next ad campaigns.

“We would expect prices to increase once we started to cut out unauthorized inventory,” said Pooja Kapoor, Google’s Head of Global Strategy and Programmatic to The Wall Street Journal.

According to Google, more than 50% of ad space available for purchase through DoubleClick Bid Manager now comes from publishers using Ads.txt to prevent unauthorized selling of impressions. Powered by the ability to filter out unauthorized inventory, Google believes that increased industry confidence in its DSP makes the inventory more premium and inherently more valuable.

“Advertisers and agencies may need to pay a little bit more. But if they don’t vote with their dollars then unauthorized selling will continue,” Ms. Kapoor noted.