Ads.txt: just about profit. How does it help to increase the fill rate?

   Sites and brands both suffer domain substitution, poor-quality inventory and fraud traffic without Ads.txt. The installation of this file takes  between 5 minutes and an hour. It helped  such major publishers as Forbes, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Vox Media, Business Insider, and others secure transparency for advertisers. Thus, with Ads.txt, ad traffic is stable and secure for both sides.

Firstly the Ads.txt technology was talked about in 2016 when the American market lost between $ 6.7 and  $ 16.4 billion due to the fraud on RTB exchanges and direct purchases of online advertising. In May 2017, IAB Tech Lab presented a file ads.txt or Authorized Digital Sellers. It contains  the names and IDs of sellers. The script is placed in the root folder of the domain.

The goal of three simple actions for advertisers is to save 72% of the advertising budget or rather send it to relevant traffic . Here is the  scheme that works:

1. Create an Ads.txt file.

2. Fill in three required and one additional field – the domain name, identifiers, account type. If there is a Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG) certificate, also fill inits TAGID.

3. Send it to the site administrator.

The Reselleraccount means that the official intermediary is acting on behalf of  the publisher. He sells advertising slots through the domains specified in the file. If there is a direct contract with the advertising system, the code Direct should be  indicated. In the first quarter of this year, the Guardian US jointly with MightyHive and Google conducted a series of tests and concluded that video advertising without Ads.txt hits the required sites at the best price only in 28% of cases.

When Ads.txt is installed and all allowed id are entered, when buying advertising automatically tracking of identifiers takes place. As soon as there is confirmation that the traffic goes from the desired platform to the desired site, advertisement is purchased. This reduces the possibility of domain substitution, eliminates fake impressions, helps to track the reputation of media buyers, and further automates the process of selling and purchasing advertising.

Thanks to Ads.txt advertisers get high-quality inventory and can always check the content of the file by adding the file name (domain.com/ads.txt) to the root domain through slash. 

Transparent partnership is also guaranteed for the publishers. Google being the company that constantly monitors security in all business areas has already started to disable sites without Ads.txt.

On the Mox.tv platform, we prefer direct buying and verify all traffic through Ads.txt. Therefore, if our unit is installed, and id is registered in the file, we get high fill rate at a reasonable price. 

In numbers, the Ads.txt presence adds 30-40% to the number of ad requests. In order for the file to boost the fill rate, we recommend checking the Ads.txt compilation accuracy through the adstxtvalidator.com and specify the redirected way. The correct one is from domain.com/ads.txt to www.domain.com/ads.txt.