About Ads.txt Validation Test

This test will check if your website's ads.txt file has a valid format.

In order to pass this test, the ads.txt file should be publicly available in the website's root domain and its content should be properly formatted.

The advertising systems will read the content of the ads.txt file only if the request will return a 200 OK HTTP status code. The content of this file should be encoded as a formatted plain text and the HTTP Content-Type header should be text/plain (all other Content-Types are treated as an error and the content will be ignored).

As outlined in the IAB Tech Lab specifications for ads.txt file, the format logically consists of three types of records: comments, data records and variables:

1. Comments

   Lines starting with # symbol are considered comments and are ignored.

2. Data records

   For each Exchange or Supply-Side Platform (SSP) that is authorized to sell your inventory you must add a data record. Each of these lines should contain 3 or 4 comma separated fields:

           <FIELD #1>, <FIELD #2>, <FIELD #3>, <FIELD #4>

   • #1 - The canonical domain name of the system where bidders connect (e.g. google.com, appnexus.com, etc)
   • #2 - The publisher account ID
   • #3 - The type of account or relationship (e.g. DIRECT or RESELLER)
   • #4 - (Optional) An ID that uniquely identifies the advertising system within a certification authority
3. Variables

   Any line containing a pattern of <VARIABLE>=<VALUE> should be interpreted as a variable declaration. The <VARIABLE> is a string identifier without internal whitespace. The only supported separator is the equals sign '='. The <VALUE> is an open string that may contain arbitrary data.

   human readability it is recommended that variables be declared at the end of the file, but this is not a strict requirement.

   Only the following variables are supported: CONTACT, SUBDOMAIN and INVENTORYPARTNERDOMAIN.