Preventing Publisher Spoofing and Supply Path Optimization
A growing problem among publishers is app spoofing, where a fake, low volume, or brand-unsafe app disguises itself as a premium app to command higher Cost Per Mille (CPM). We avoid spoofing by allowing campaigns to target only publishers that support ads.txt & apps ads.txt, and we verify by comparing with Sellers.JSON.
Authorised Digital Sellers (ads.txt)
Authorized Digital Sellers, or ads.txt, is an IAB initiative to improve transparency (fighting ad fraud and misrepresented URLs) in programmatic advertising.
Publishers can create their ads.txt files to identify who is authorized to sell their inventory. The files are publicly available and crawlable by buyers, third-party vendors, and exchanges.
It is now available for:
mobile web inventory (ads.txt), and for
app inventory (apps.ads.txt); this specification is an extension of the original ads.txt standard to meet the requirements for applications distributed through mobile app stores, connected television app stores, or other application distribution channels.
It is supported for Android and iOS.
For a more transparent and brand-safe campaign delivery, an advertiser can select to target 'Only inventory with Ads.txt'.
Returned information
By selecting the drill-down parameter ads.txt Publisher, we will return information regarding the traffic quality. It could be any of the following options: Unknown, Mismatch, All, Direct or Verified. Check the ads.txt Publisher for more information.
Supply Path Optimization
Targeting only publishers that support ads.txt & apps ads.txt and the verification we do by comparing with Sellers.JSON files allows mediasmart to implement Supply Path Optimization (SPO).
SPO is pretty much the process of reducing the number of intermediaries until each is adding value. Since the launch of Header bidding, publishers have worked with many SSPs simultaneously, which means few SSP have exclusive inventory.
In this paradigm, working with more than three or four SSPs does not increase supply, it increases intermediaries. In mediasmart we strive for SPO, both to increase bid response time (maximizing the times we win bids) and to reduce CPMs.