Ad tech glossary

Ads.txt

Technical definition

A text file placed on publishers' web servers that lists all authorized sellers of their digital inventory, helping to prevent unauthorized or misrepresented inventory sales.

The ADLINGO translation

The authorized seller list for programmatic inventory. Publishers declare which companies are allowed to sell on their behalf. Simple concept. Messy reality: publishers forget to update it, some copy-pasted from a file that was already wrong, and unauthorized sellers still move inventory they have no rights to. The tool exists. Discipline in using it is another matter.

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