• MarTech Today
  • Sections
    • Advertising
    • Marketing
    • Content
    • Social
    • Commerce
    • Sales
    • Analytics
    • Management
    • All
    • Home
  • Follow Us
    • Follow
  • MarTech Today
  • Ads
  • Marketing
  • Content
  • Social
  • Sales
  • Analytics
  • Mgmt
  • More
  • Events
    • Follow
  • SUBSCRIBE

MarTech Today

MarTech Today

Customer Data Platforms

Why are they so hot now?

Podcasting's Rise

Creating new marketing opportunities

Events

Attend the MarTech conference

  • Advertising
  • Marketing
  • Content
  • Social
  • Commerce
  • Sales
  • Analytics
  • Management
  • All
  • Events
  • Newsletters
  • Home
Martech: Advertising

Subscribe to MarTech Today to receive news and insights of where marketing, technology, and management converge.

Note: By submitting this form, you agree to Third Door Media's terms. We respect your privacy.


Google allows advertisers to buy ads.txt authorized-only inventory

Display & Video 360 buyers can opt in to exclude publishers that have not published ads.txt files

Ginny Marvin on July 26, 2018 at 9:00 am
  • More

Google announced Thursday that advertisers using Display & Video 360 (formerly DoubleClick Bid Manager) can now opt to only buy inventory that has been authorized via a publisher’s ads.txt file.

Ads.txt is an initiative spearheaded by the IAB Tech Lab to help eliminate domain spoofing ad fraud. By simply placing an ads.txt file on their domains, publishers can list the IDs associated with the seller accounts of ad networks and exchanges that are authorized to sell their advertising inventory. Advertisers can then do an ID lookup to verify they are buying inventory from authorized sellers.

Ads.txt adoption has continued to rise. Google says more than 430,000 domains have added the file since February and that close to 600,000 publishers — and 90 percent of its publisher partners — are using ads.txt.

Last fall, Google began filtering unauthorized inventory from its ad systems. Now that adoption is high, Google is giving advertisers the ability to exclude publishers that don’t have ads.txt files from their ad buys. The new feature is an opt-in.

Pooja Kapoor, head of GDPR and data trust at Google, told MarTech Today in an interview Wednesday that the company quietly enabled the opt-in feature on June 27 and that they’ve already seen 15 percent of line items in Display Video 360 opted-in as buyers came across the option.

The move to allow advertisers to exclude publishers that don’t have ads.txt files should push adoption by publishers even higher.

Kapoor noted the recent test run by The Guardian, MightyHive and Google to better understand the risks of buying unauthorized inventory. “The results showed clear evidence of unauthorized exchanges claiming to have sold Guardian US inventory and taking revenue when the buy was made through the open exchange. In contrast, there were no signs of fraud through the DSP only buying ads.txt authorised inventory,” The Guardian reported.

Publishers should care about publishing their files and making sure they are correct, and buyers should also be taking similar approaches, said Kapoor. “We are working toward a future in which authorized only is the only option on Display Video 360. Other buyers also need to follow suit and honor ads.txt files. It doesn’t work unless we have broad adoption on the buy-side.”



About The Author

Ginny Marvin
Ginny Marvin is Third Door Media's Editor-in-Chief, managing day-to-day editorial operations across all of our publications. Ginny writes about paid online marketing topics including paid search, paid social, display and retargeting for Search Engine Land, Marketing Land and MarTech Today. With more than 15 years of marketing experience, she has held both in-house and agency management positions. She can be found on Twitter as @ginnymarvin.

Popular Stories

Tappx teams with Pixalate for industry-first OTT fraud solution
Exclusive: IAB Europe to release updated consent framework later this year, Google to sign on
LinkedIn adds custom list sharing, Salesforce tie-in to Sales Navigator
Brightcove to buy video ad tech platform Ooyala for $15 million

Related Topics

Channel: Martech: AdvertisingDisplay Advertising & MartechDisplay Advertising: Ad FraudGoogleProgrammatic Advertising & Media Buying

Subscribe to MarTech Today to receive news and insights of where marketing, technology, and management converge.

Note: By submitting this form, you agree to Third Door Media's terms. We respect your privacy.


We're listening.

Have something to say about this article? Share it with us on Facebook and Twitter.

Attend Our Conferences

Gain new strategies and insights at the intersection of marketing, technology, and management. Our next conference will be held:

April 3-5, 2019: San Jose

September 16-18, 2019: Boston



×

Attend MarTech - Click Here


Learn More About Our MarTech Events

White Papers

  • The Ultimate Guide to Site Search User Experience
  • The Marketing Analytics Buyer’s Guide 2019
  • Mission Possible: Quality Content Marketing
  • 2019 Marketing Trends: Nine factors reshaping marketing and how you can stay ahead of them
  • The Dummies Guide to Enterprise Customer Data Platforms
See More Whitepapers

Webinars

  • 2019 Martech Trends You Need To Know
  • How to Prepare for a Successful Marketing Analytics Implementation
  • Get More From Your Customer Data With Open Marketing Cloud: A Demo of Mautic’s Marketing Automation Platform
See More Webinars

Research Reports

  • B2B Marketing Automation Platforms
  • Account-Based Marketing Tools
  • Enterprise SEO Platforms
  • Call Analytics Platforms
  • Paid Media Campaign Management Platforms
  • Local Marketing Automation Tools
See More Research
Master these trends of martech
Sign up for our daily newsletter
Martech Today
Download the Martech Today app on iTunes
Download the Martech Today App on Google Play

Follow Us

Facebook Twitter

© 2019 Third Door Media, Inc. All rights reserved.