App Authorized Digital Sellers (app-ads.txt)

Owned by Luis Sastre Verzun (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Nov 20, 2020 by Daniel Skarga (Unlicensed)
3 min read

Overview

App-ads.txt is an extension of ads.txt (Authorized Digital Sellers). A specification designed to validate inventory purchased by buyers through programmatic demand channels.

The primary difference in app-ads.txt is how the file is located by the buyer's scraper, below is a generalized order of operations of app-ads.txt validation:

Metadata example from Google Play Store

<meta name="appstore:developer_url" content="https://www.developer.website/" />
<meta name="appstore:bundle_id" content="com.example.myapp" />
<meta name="appstore:store_id" content="SKU12345" />
  • The buyer will review app inventory they purchased and identify the app store id (usually the bundle_id) sent in the OpenRTB request.
  • The buyer will search for and identify this app in the relevant App store.
  • The buyer will scrape the store page to obtain the developer_url.
  • The developer URL is used to locate the app-ads.txt file, in the above example this would be https://www.developer.website/app-ads.txt.
  • App-ads.txt is then parsed and inventory is validated.

We require all app publisher using our demand adhere to the App-ads.txt Specification by the IAB to ensure trust by buyers, as well as maximize inventory (buyers may exclude inventory which does not have an app-ads.txt file or if app-ads.txt is missing relevant entries).

Additionally, we recommend publishers enable ads.txt and app-ads.txt on all domains they are monetizing for all included demand partners.

App-ads.txt Record Information

App-ads.txt record information is identical to ads.txt record information.

  • Record #1
    • Domain name of the advertising system
    • Mandatory
    • The canonical domain name of the SSP, Exchange, Header Wrapper, etc system that bidders connect to. This may be the operational domain of the system, if that is different than the parent corporate domain, to facilitate WHOIS and reverse IP lookups to establish clear ownership of the delegate system. Ideally the SSP or Exchange publishes a document detailing what domain name to use. 

  • Record #2
    • Publisher’s Account ID
    • Mandatory
    • The identifier associated with the seller or reseller account within the advertising system in field #1. This must contain the same value used in transactions (i.e. OpenRTB bid requests) in the field specified by the SSP/exchange. Typically, in OpenRTB, this is publisher.id. For OpenDirect it is typically the publisher’s organization ID.
      Note: Publisher account IDs are provided by your District M account coordinator.

  • Record #3
    • Type of Account/ Relationship
    • Mandatory
    • An enumeration of the type of account. A value of ‘DIRECT’ indicates that the Publisher (content owner) directly controls the account indicated in field #2 on the system in field #1. This tends to mean a direct business contract between the Publisher and the advertising system. A value of ‘RESELLER’ indicates that the Publisher has authorized another entity to control the account indicated in field #2 and resell their ad space via the system in field #1. Other types may be added in the future. Note that this field should be treated as case insensitive when interpreting the data. 

    Record #4
    • Certification Authority ID
    • Optional
    • An ID that uniquely identifies the advertising system within a certification authority (this ID maps to the entity listed in field #1). A current certification authority is the Trustworthy Accountability Group (aka TAG), and the TAGID would be included here.

Sample Ads.txt for District M Publisher Account

Below is a sample ads.txt entry for district m Publisher accounts which also includes additional demand district m is capable of offering to publishers looking for increased bid density.

districtm.io, 123456, DIRECT, 3fd707be9c4527c3
appnexus.com, 1908, RESELLER, f5ab79cb980f11d1
google.com, pub-5555555555555555, RESELLER, f08c47fec0942fa0

Obtaining app-ads.txt Records

App-ads.txt entries are available by logging in to our dmx Platform.

Instructions for obtaining app-ads.txt records for our demand are available here.

Hosting app-ads.txt (Access Method)

Hosting app-ads.txt is similar to ads.txt.

Your app-ads.txt file should be hosted on the developer_url domain you have listed in each app store eligible for programmatic monetization, for example, if your developer_url is www.automotivereviews.com, you should host app-ads.txt at http://www.automotivereviews.com/app-ads.txt. The file should be accessible via HTTP and HTTPS.

Refer to the IAB app-ads.txt specification for additional information.

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