An overview of the purpose of ads.txt files along with setup instructions
The exact records that should be appearing within your ads.txt file as a publisher with Revcontent can be found and copied over from here in your account settings.
Please note that if you are utilizing our video player option in your widget, there will be additional ads.txt provided to you that are required to be added prior to implementation.
What is ads.txt?
Ads.txt is an initiative founded by the IAB Technology Laboratory to increase transparency in the programmatic landscape. The goal is to ensure publishers’ inventory is only sold through authorized partners to prevent counterfeiting in addition to providing advertisers more control over their purchased inventory.
- Authorized Digital Sellers (ads.txt for short) is an IAB initiative to improve transparency and reduce fraud in programmatic advertising.
- Ads.txt is a publicly available file that publishers create and add to their websites. The file is plain text and contains the names of the authorized networks that have permission to sell their inventory.
How does ads.txt benefit me?
- The ads.txt file can help protect your brand from counterfeit inventory that is intentionally mislabeled as originating from a specific domain, app, or video.
- Declaring authorized sellers will open up more demand as many buyers will not purchase inventory unless they have an ads.txt file outlining authorized sellers
How do I create a .txt file?
When it comes to creating an Ads.txt file, you’ll want to start by logging into your Revcontent account.
Once logged in. click on your username in the top right and then click on Ads.txt. This will bring up a box with all of the necessary information.
Copy all of the information provided and depending on how your site is set up you will want to save it as a text or similar file type, we suggest using Notepad or another similar program to do this.
Now there are two ways to upload this information:
- Using an Ads.txt Manager Plugin, which is shown in the video at the beginning of this FAQ
- Manually uploading the information directly through your CPanel
Let’s start with the steps using the plugin:
- Open your WordPress Dashboard
- Click “Plugins”
- And select your ads.txt manager
If you don’t have one installed, you will want to Click “Add New” and then search for and select the plugin that works best for you and install.
- Next click “Settings” on the left-hand admin panel and select the “Ads.txt” option
- Paste the information from your login or the text file you have saved.
- Click the “Save Changes” button
Once your changes are saved, you’re done.
If the above method isn’t quite what you’re looking for, you can instead upload through your CPanel
- First open your CPanel
- Click on “File Manager”
- Click on public_html
- Click “Upload”
- Click “Select File”
- Select the Ads.txt you saved in Notepad and upload it
- Next go back to your CPanel and find the ads.txt to confirm it has uploaded correctly
- To verify everything is correct, open your browser and type in your website domain with ads.txt added to the end so your URL looks like this: https://example.com/ads.txt
As long as the information you uploaded displays, you should be good to go.
What information is included in an ads.txt file?
- Publishers should include a separate line in the file for each authorized seller. Each line in a publisher’s ads.txt list requires three pieces of data (plus a fourth optional field). Example:
<Field #1>, <Field #2>, <Field #3>, <Field #4>
- The domain name of the advertising system (required). Example:
revcontent.com
- Publisher’s Account ID (required). Example:
12345 (Your Revcontent publisher ID)
- Type of Account/Relationship (required) DIRECT - A direct business contract between the publisher and the advertising system RESELLER - Publishers who do not directly control the account indicated in should specify RESELLER NOTE: This field is case-sensitive and should always be in all-caps for both DIRECT and RESELLER
- Certification Authority ID (optional) A current certification authority is the Trustworty Accountability Group (TAG), and the TAG ID would be included here.
How do I create an ads.txt file in DFP?
Google provides a step by step guide on ads.txt management within DFP here
Need more Information?
You can learn more about this IAB initiative here. For more information from Revcontent, feel free to reach out to your Publisher Account Representative.