Ads.txt November ’17 Updates for Publishers

Contributor, November 27, 2017

Ads.txt November ’17 Updates for Publishers

Ads.txt – November 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 reach us here.

UK News Reports Increase in Revenue After Ads.txt 

During a recent speech at The Drum’s Programmatic Punch on November 9, 2017, Ian Hocking, head of programmatic at News UK, stated that the company saw a “slight incremental rise in revenue” after it adopted Ads.txt.

“Can I afford to have 100 different people selling my inventory? Our file was pretty short, we want brands and agencies to come to us and have a conversation about the best ways of using our assets. By opening yourself up to resellers you open yourself up to problems,” Hocking added.

Read the rest of the post here.

Are Companies Trying to Push Themselves onto Publishers’ Ads.txt Files?

There have been reports of prominent publishers being approached by agencies and marketing companies requesting (could be described as threatening?) to stop buying inventory unless they are added to a publisher’s Ads.txt file.   Turns out that these companies may or may not have been legitimate buyers (see Thrive interview below for an example of a possible misunderstanding) or have had a direct relationship with the publishers per se.

In essence what this means is that publishers need to be extra careful when building out their Ads.txt file both from the perspective of including all of their most relevant suppliers, in addition to being cautious of third-parties who may approach them with requests to be added to an Ads.txt file. Publishers will also need to put in place a management strategy to ensure that their Ads.txt is kept up to date.  Since there is a fair amount of confusion about Ads.txt, we thought it would be a good idea to present, without bias, an overview of how companies have been approached about revising their Ads.txt file and what professionals in the industry is saying about it.

AdExchanger Overview – Read here

Reddit Discussion on the Subject – Read here

Ads.txt Adoption is on the Rise

Ben Kneen, the author of the website AdOpsInsider, has been extensively covering the industry’s adoption of Ads.txt.  In addition to covering the nuances of Ads.txt prior to its launch on Nov. 1, 2017, Kneen has been following the adoption rate of Ads.txt in Alexa’s top ten thousand websites.

Ben is a good follow on Twitter, you can check him out here.

How Ads.txt Will Clean Up the System

Beet.tv published a video interview with Art Muldoon, CEO of AmNet Group US, who discussed the importance and relevance of Ads.txt for publishers seeking to minimize ad fraud taking place with their inventory.

“Today, in this world of ad fraud, too many publishers inventories have been spoofed. So Ads.txt is a great initiative, publisher-led but demand-supported, to help clean up that path,” said Muldoon. “We need more accountability, more transparency so that our intended investment reaches the recipient in that way.”

Watch the interview here.

IAB Ads.txt Standardization Guide

If you’re still unsure what Ads.txt is or how to implement it onto your website, the IAB produced a useful technical guide for publishers which explains the basis for Ads.txt and an in-depth guide for webmasters looking to install Ads.txt.

The Financial Times – Why Ads.txt is Beneficial

Digiday recently published an article about how The Financial Times (FT) discovered that it was the victim of programmatic domain spoofing on a significant scale.   The FT found its inventory was being presented as available on 10 separate ad exchanges and video ads on 15 exchanges, even though the FT doesn’t sell video advertisements programmatically.  With roughly 300 accounts selling fraudulent inventory on behalf of the FT, the domain estimates that the fraudulent inventory to be worth $1.3 million USD on the yet to be named exchanges. The discovery of the massive fraud coincides with the launch of Ads.txt. It’s an interesting article – read the rest of the blog post here

Live Examples of Ads.txt Files on Top Websites

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 reach us here.