Ads.txt and App-Ads.txt Implementation Guide
What is ads.txt
Ads.txt (Authorized Digital Sellers) is a solution that increases transparency in the programmatic advertising ecosystem by excluding unauthorized traffic sales. The majority of adverts and demand platforms check this file to avoid unauthorized sellers. Use ads.txt to suit such partners.
When the buyers find this file on your site, they can make sure that the supplier from which he found your placement can sell traffic of your site.
As publishers can sell their inventory using a variety of channels, ads.txt supports the following relationship types for suppliers:
- Domain owners operating their own accounts for selling on exchanges
- The programmatic selling networks who represent the domain owners
- Content partnerships containing several authorized sellers that own one inventory
Support for Ads.txt and App-Ads.txt
Ads.txt
Click 'Get ads.txt' to download file for each placement you want to include in 'general' ads.txt.
If you haven't created ads.txt already, put the downloaded file to the root directory of your site.
If you already have an ads.txt file on your site, just copy file content and add it to the existing ads.txt file on a new line.
| Field name | Description |
| Domain Name of the Advertising System | The domain name of the advertising system (SSP, Exchange service, header wrapper, etc.) to which the publisher connects. |
| Seller Account ID | Account ID of the seller (publisher) in the advertising system. |
| Account type | DIRECT - if the publisher directly controls the account specified in field 2. RESELLER - if the publisher is authorized to resell account's traffic. |
| Certification Authority ID | ID which identifying the advertising system in the certification center. SmartyAds ID is fd2bde0ff2e62c5d. |
Example of the ads.txt entry for SmartyAds:
smartyads.com, 1234567, DIRECT, fd2bde0ff2e62c5d
smartyads.com, 1234567, RESELLER, fd2bde0ff2e62c5d
App-ads.txt
App-ads.txt is the new step to continue increasing transparency in advertising buying, now for mobile applications.
It is quite similar to the ads.txt and is simple to implement. The publisher has to put the file named app-ads.txt into the root directory of its main site, for example, companysite.com/app-ads.txt
Unlike the ads.txt which must be in every domain (site) of the publisher, the app-ads.txt must be just on one domain – the main domain of the publisher (issuer) of applications.
On SmartyAds SSP, open Inventory section and click 'Get ads.txt' link:
If you haven't created app-ads.txt already, put the downloaded file to the root directory of your site.
If you already have an app-ads.txt file on your site, just copy file content and add it to the existing app-ads.txt file on a new line.
The content must meet the following requirements:
| Field name | Description |
|---|---|
| Domain Name of the Advertising System | The domain name of the advertising system to which the publisher connects. |
| Seller Account ID | Account ID of the publisher in the advertising system. |
| The Type of Account | DIRECT if the publisher directly controls the account specified in field 2. RESELLER if the publisher is authorized to resell account's traffic. |
| Certification Authority ID | Identifying the advertising system in the certification center. SmartyAds ID is fd2bde0ff2e62c5d. |
For Example:
smartyads.com, 12357, DIRECT, fd2bde0ff2e62c5d