Adding ADS.TXT Boosted Publisher RPMs by 8%

Have you implemented ADS.TXT already? A recent study on its effects on performance in our customer base showed that publishers received an 8.3% revenue uplift after implementation.

ADS.TXT is a project of the IAB Tech Lab, designed to increase transparency, fight ad fraud and create a better environment for all players in the industry. The initiative offers a way of listing all the partners that the publisher has allowed to sell their inventory. This significantly reduces the chances of domain spoofing in the ad supply chain and boosts advertisers’ trust in the inventory they are buying.

Our business intelligence team conducted an analysis of the data from our publisher base to find out more about the effects of ADS.TXT implementation for our customers. We found that on average ADS.TXT brought an increase of 8.3% in RPM. In the same time, we are also observing that more and more demand partners have made ADS.TXT a requirement and refuse to monetize publishers’ inventory unless there is a correct version of the file in place. Thus, having an ADS.txt in place automatically means greater competition for publishers’ inventory and respectively, higher revenues.

However, this is only true when your file is up-to-date, with all your demand partners in the list. We also recommend using the free AppNexus ADS.txt Validator to make sure you don’t have any typos or errors in your file.

Even though ADS.TXT isn’t a perfect solution and the industry has much more to do in fighting ad fraud, we do encourage all publishers to adopt the initiative as it’s a simple and easy-to-implement tool to help with brand safety and getting more competition for your inventory.