App.Ads.txt benefits App Developers and Publishers

How app-ads.txt Benefits App Developers and Publishers?

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 StepsDescriptionNotes
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

  1. Make sure to list “chocolateplatform.com” and
    “vdopia.com” on your app-ads.txt file as we are
    known as either or both by advertiser side systems.

  2. Replace “Chocolate Publisher Account ID” with
    your Chocolate Account ID. Note: Please obtain
    this from your Chocolate Account Manager.

  3. The third item is used to describe our relationship
    with the app inventory. Since Chocolate is working
    directly with you (the app developer), you can put
    “DIRECT” here.
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".
by Shivam Shrivastava - AVP, Business Development