Overview
App-Ads.txt, or Authorized Digital Sellers for Apps, is an advertising industry-wide initiative designed to improve transparency in the advertising ecosystem, allowing app developers to declare who is authorized to sell their ad opportunities (inventory).
App-Ads.txt is a text file app developers post on their root domain to identify the authorized digital sellers. This allows brands and advertisers to have confidence that they are buying authentic app inventory.
IAB launched ads.txt initiative for web inventory in Q4, 2017. Since then more than 500,000 domains have used this tool to categorize their websites to create transparency in the inventory supply chain. App-ads.txt is an extension of this same effective mechanism to mobile apps.
Launched in Q4, 2018, app-ads.txt enables app developers & publishers to list their inventory as fraud-free and capture higher revenues from brands looking for authentic app inventory.
App Developers & Publishers working with Chocolate
Chocolate is committed to ensuring that your app inventory is highly valued by our demand partners. Use of app-ads.txt is highly recommended. Declaring authorized sellers can help you receive more advertiser spend that might have otherwise gone toward counterfeit inventory.
Implementation Steps
Implementation Steps | Description | Notes |
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Step 1 : In your app store listing, make sure the developer website URL is correct | Make sure that the developer website URL used in your app store listing is accurate. You will be hosting the app-ads.txt file on the root directory of this domain. | Publishing a website and providing its URL is mandatory for the app’s ad inventory to participate in the authorized seller scheme. |
Step 2 : Create the app- ads.txt file | This is simple. Create a .txt file and name it app-ads.txt | |
Step 3 : Add Chocolate Entry | Add Chocolate entry using the format below: chocolateplatform.com, “Chocolate Publisher Account ID”, DIRECT #video vdopia.com, “Chocolate Publisher Account ID”, DIRECT #video Example: chocolateplatform.com, 12345, DIRECT #video vdopia.com, 12345, DIRECT #video |
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Step 4 : Post | Post the app-ads.txt file to the root directory of your domain of the website used in your app store listing. The file can be accessible via HTTP or HTTPS. The HTTP request header must contain "Content-Type: text/plain". |