Advertising
2 mins read

OpenX report finds ads.txt adoption accelerating with majority of comScore 1000 now on board

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OpenX, the leading independent advertising technology provider, has announced the results of an audit of comScore’s top 1000 publishers, revealing that a majority have now adopted ads.txt, a method for denoting who is approved to sell their inventory.

Ads.txt is an industry initiative created by the IAB to address serious quality and fraud concerns stemming from the unauthorised reselling and counterfeiting of publisher inventory. It offers a simple and secure method for publishers to publicly declare the companies they trust to sell their digital inventory, creating greater transparency in the digital media supply chain.

The company has strongly supported the growth of ads.txt since the initiative was first launched, and for the second consecutive month, OpenX is the #1 independent exchange listed as an authorised seller among comScore top 1000 publishers (#2 overall behind Google).

“Enforcing a strict ads.txt compliance protocol is just another way OpenX is actively working to curate the highest quality marketplace for advertisers looking to access premium inventory,” said John Murphy, head of marketplace quality at OpenX. “Ads.txt is bringing the industry one step closer to being fraud-free, and the rapid adoption of this initiative highlights the need in the market for solutions like these while building confidence in the value of programmatic overall. We encourage publishers and advertisers to push for mass adoption of standards, like ads.txt, that allow them to hold their technology partners accountable.”

Up from just 7% in August 2017, ads.txt adoption rates now exceed 50% of the comScore top 1000 publishers, and several major DSPs and buyers have already announced that they will no longer buy inventory that isn’t authorised in a publisher’s ads.txt file. OpenX will begin implementing strict ads.txt compliance in the coming weeks and by the end of Q1 all reseller traffic that is not ads.txt-authorised will automatically be blocked from the exchange.