We’re thrilled to share the Supply Chain APIs in the IAB Tech Lab Tools Portal now include the updates from Ads.txt version 1.1. The specification update was released in August 2022, and we’ve seen rapid adoption of the new version from publishers. This update introduced two directives that empower publishers to declare domain ownership – both the business domain of the owner of the website or app and the domain of the exclusive manager of website or app inventory monetization. These two directives provide definitive linkage between a publisher’s ads.txt file and the referenced sellers.json files and better insight into the supply path, specifically direct path to a particular publisher inventory. For a deeper dive into these two updates check out our previous blog post: Why the ‘OwnerDomain’ & ‘ManagerDomain’ Fields are Important Additions to ads.txt.
In this post, we’ll explain how these new values are presented in our aggregated dataset and ways in which they can be interpreted for validation.
Unveiling the New Attributes
The IAB Tech Lab now includes these new data points from domains crawled by our aggregator. This data is collected from across the Internet every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and included in a number of datasets and products that we offer within the Tools Portal (tools.iabtechlab.com).
Navigating the Data Explorer
Our Supply Chain APIs include many datasets (see here), but today we’ll focus on the ones that include these new attributes.
- Ads.txt: This dataset validates each line of a domain’s ads.txt file, ensuring adherence to proper syntax and formatting guidelines for websites.
- App-ads.txt: Similar to its counterpart, this dataset verifies syntax and formatting within domains’ app-ads.txt files, tailored for mobile and CTV apps.
- Supply Chain Validation (Web & Apps): This dataset plays a pivotal role in verifying each line of a domain’s ads.txt or app-ads.txt file against the referenced sellers.json files. Any inaccuracies or discrepancies are highlighted using standardized notification codes.
Elevating Your API Experience
We expanded our ads.txt/app-ads.txt crawler and aggregator to now include Ads.txt 1.1 attributes when available. For API subscribers, this development translates into immediate value, they can tap into the updated files and start using them today.
ManagerDomain and each region are represented in the results of a domain by a unique line item at the top of the dataset. Their values are contained in new columns labeled “Manager Domain” and “Manager Country.” The OwnerDomain value is applied to all lines of the domain’s ads.txt file and its value is present on each line of the file in a new “Owner Domain” column.
To accommodate backwards compatibility for customers that have a parser built for the files, we’ve introduced new endpoints for the files with these new values. Subscribers can now seamlessly integrate these ads.txt 1.1 compliant endpoints alongside their existing ones. This empowers subscribers to test the updates without disrupting any ongoing validation operations.
For comprehensive instructions on accessing all API endpoints, see the Transparency Center via the following link:
https://tools.iabtechlab.com/transparencycenter/apiAccess/all
Embracing the Future
We continue our commitment to helping make Supply Chain Transparency data available as economically as possible. We want datasets like ads.txt, app-ads.txt and sellers.json to be ubiquitously used by all partners in the supply chain, and maintaining this industry resource is one way that we do so.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Senior Product Manager
IAB Tech Lab