What about Ads.txt?

The Ads.txt project was launched by the IAB in September 2017 as part of a broader effort to eliminate the ability to profit from counterfeit inventory in the open digital advertising ecosystem. Ads.txt provides a mechanism to enable content owners to declare who is authorized to sell their inventory. Full documentation from the IAB is available here

But, what does this mean for you?

Publishers can create their own ads.txt files to identify who is authorized to sell their inventory. The files are publicly available and crawlable by buyers, third-party vendors, and exchanges. Use of ads.txt is not mandatory but is highly recommended. The ads.txt file can help you protect your brand from counterfeit inventory that is intentionally mislabeled as originating from a specific domain, app, or video. Declaring authorized sellers can help you receive more advertiser spend that might have otherwise gone toward counterfeit inventory.

How to complete the implementation

If you are using Google Ad Manager (DFP) as your ad server the process of creating your ads.txt file is relatively simply and instructions are available here.

If you are using another ad server and have any trouble finding information around implementation, please reach out to and we’ll assist as best we can

Sellers should include lines in their ads.txt file for all other exchanges, SSPs, or re-sellers authorized to sell their inventory. Each individual partner can provide instructions for determining the appropriate domain and identifier to use to correctly represent a seller’s relationship with their platform.

Should you have any questions please reach out to us via publisherops@adjoin.media