As more publishers have adopted ads.txt, advertisers have increasingly restricted their campaigns to only run on websites with verified ads.txt files. According to a Google spokesperson, over 90% of the ad spend that runs through Google’s demand-side platform (DSP) for desktop and mobile web is spent on ads.txt-authorized publishers. (This figure does not include mobile app spend because the IAB Tech Lab is working on how to apply ads.txt to apps.)
Ads.txt just states which vendors have permission to sell a publisher’s inventory. Ads.cert goes a step further by verifying the authenticity of the inventory sold.
“The primary difference is that ads.txt validates sellers, whereas ads.cert validates inventory,” King said.
What’s Next?
The IAB Tech Lab is testing ads.cert but it does not have definitive data pegged for its official release, according to Dennis Buchheim, senior vice president and general manager of IAB Tech Lab.
“It’s possible we will release ads.cert at the same time as the final OpenRTB 3.0 specification, but careful consideration and review is being prioritized over ‘time to market,’” Buchheim said.
The authentication features of ads.cert only work with the OpenRTB 3.0 spec, which is not compatible with previous specs. This means that ads.cert adoption will be dependent on ad tech firms upgrading their infrastructure to use OpenRTB 3.0, which is expected to come out in Q4 2018.