How to add an app-ads.txt file to a website

Google strongly recommend that we use an ads.txt and app-ads.txt files. This files can help protect our brand from counterfeit inventory that’s intentionally mislabelled as originating from a specific domain, app, or video. In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to create and add an app-ads.txt file to your website.

Note! These instructions describe how to create an app-ads.txt file for Google publishers. Non-Google publishers should contact their SSP or exchanges.

This article is about the app-ads.txt file. For information about the ads.txt file, I recommend reading another article.

What is app-ads.txt file?

Google strongly recommend that we use an ads.txt and app-ads.txt files. This files can help protect our brand from counterfeit inventory that’s intentionally mislabelled as originating from a specific domain, app, or video. Declaring authorised sellers can help us receive advertiser spend that might have otherwise gone toward counterfeit inventory.

«Authorized Digital Sellers for Web», or «ads.txt», is an IAB initiative to improve transparency in programmatic advertising. You can create your own ads.txt files to identify who is authorised to sell your inventory. The files are publicly available and crawlable by exchanges, Supply-Side Platforms (SSP), and other buyers and third-party vendors.

«Authorized Sellers for Apps», or «app-ads.txt», is an extension to the Authorised Digital Sellers standard. It expands compatibility to support ads shown in mobile apps.

You can learn more about an ads.txt and app-ads.txt files at the following links:

• IAB Tech Lab: About ads.txt
• Google AdSense: Declare authorized sellers with ads.txt
• Google Ad Manager: Ads.txt management in Ad Manager
• Google AdMob: Overview of app-ads.txt

Let’s begin

Creating an app-ads.txt file for a website is a really easy process. To do this, we need to add an app-ads.txt file to the root level of our domain (for example, https://example.com/app-ads.txt). Now, step by step guide.

Create a text (.txt) file named app-ads.txt on your computer (we will move this file later) by using any text editor.

Note! If you have the Mac computer then just use the TextEdit app that ships with every macOS in order to create this file. Save the file in the .txt format.

Include the following line in the app-ads.txt file you just created:

google.com, pub-0000000000000000, DIRECT, f088c47fec942fa0

Important! Make sure you replace pub-0000000000000000 with your own publisher ID.

Note! You can easily get your personalised code snippet from AdMob by following these steps:
a) Sign in to your AdMob account at https://apps.admob.com.
b) Click Apps in the sidebar.
c) Click View all apps.
d) Click the app-ads.txt tab.
e) Click How to set up app-ads.txt.

Place your app-ads.txt file to the root directory of your website. Make sure you save the file.

You can do this by using cPanel or accessing your server via FTP or SFTP. If you aren’t sure how usually your web hosting provider will have instructions somewhere on their website.

Finally, you can visit your website and verify that you have the app-ads.txt file now. For example, https://example.com/ads.txt.

Conclusion

That’s it, you’re done. Now you have added an app-ads.txt file to your website. So simple isn’t it?

Changes require some time and do not take effect immediately. Patiently wait for Google to cheque if the app-ads.txt file is added correctly.

I hope this article has helped you learn how to create and add an app-ads.txt file to your website. If this article has helped you then please leave a comment

Thanks for reading!