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How Do Ads.txt and Ads.cert Prevent Advertising Fraud?

Ad fraud is a significant concern in the world of digital advertising. It occurs when malicious actors engage in various activities to generate false impressions, clicks, or conversions for their financial gain. Ad fraud can lead to wasted advertising budgets, reduced campaign effectiveness, and mistrust in the advertising ecosystem. Technology like ads.txt has been developed to combat this issue to prevent ad fraud. Here’s a breakdown of how ad fraud works and how ads.txt technology helps prevent it:

How Ad Fraud Works

Ad fraud can take several forms, but some common methods include:

  1. Click Fraud: In this type of fraud, bots or low-wage workers repeatedly click on ads to generate fake traffic, leading advertisers to pay for non-existent engagement.
  2. Impression Fraud: Advertisers are charged for ad impressions that real users never see because they are displayed in non-viewable locations or to fraudulent audiences.
  3. Conversion Fraud: Malicious actors can fake conversions or sign-ups, leading advertisers to believe their ads are more effective than they are.
  4. Domain Spoofing: Fraudsters impersonate legitimate websites by displaying ads on fake sites, tricking advertisers into thinking they are getting premium placement.

How Ads.txt Technology Prevents Ad Fraud

Ads.txt, or Authorized Digital Sellers, is a simple and effective solution to mitigate ad fraud. It allows publishers to declare which companies are authorized to sell their digital ad inventory. Here’s how it works in the ad placement process:

  1. Publisher Implements Ads.txt: The publisher (website or app owner) creates an ads.txt file and places it on their server. This file contains a list of authorized sellers identified by their domain name.
  2. Ad Placement Request: When an advertiser, often using a Demand-Side Platform (DSP), wishes to place an ad on a specific website, the ad request includes the domain name of the site where the ad will be displayed.
  3. Verification by Ad Exchange: The ad exchange or ad network checks the domain against the publisher’s ads.txt file. The ad is considered legitimate if the seller is listed and matches the request.
  4. Ad Delivery: If the domain is authorized, the ad is delivered to the publisher’s site and displayed to the user.
  5. Ad Tracking and Reporting: Throughout the ad’s display, various tracking mechanisms are used to monitor the ad’s performance, ensuring transparency for the advertiser.
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Source: Mightyhive

Ads.cert Extends The Ads.txt Protocol

Ads.cert is a more advanced and secure extension of the ads.txt protocol. It is designed to enhance transparency and combat ad fraud in the digital advertising ecosystem. Here’s how ads.cert works:

  1. Cryptographic Signatures: Ads.cert uses digital signatures to verify the authenticity of the bid requests and responses in programmatic advertising. It ensures that the data has not been tampered with during the ad delivery.
  2. Seller Information: Like ads.txt, ads.cert includes information about the authorized sellers of ad inventory. This information is signed cryptographically, making it extremely difficult for fraudsters to manipulate or impersonate authorized sellers.
  3. Verification: When a bid request is sent, the recipient can verify the authenticity of the data by checking the cryptographic signature. The bid request is deemed legitimate if the data is unaltered and matches the authorized seller’s information.
  4. Transparency and Security: Ads.cert enhances transparency and trust in the advertising supply chain. Advertisers can have greater confidence that their ad budgets are spent on legitimate inventory, and the risk of ad fraud is reduced.

Ads.cert builds upon the principles of ads.txt by adding cryptographic signatures to the bid requests and bid responses, providing an additional layer of verification for the legitimacy of the advertising inventory.

Douglas Karr

Douglas Karr is CMO of OpenINSIGHTS and the founder of the Martech Zone. Douglas has helped dozens of successful MarTech startups, has assisted in the due diligence of over $5 bil in Martech acquisitions and investments, and continues to assist companies in implementing and automating their sales and marketing strategies. Douglas is an internationally recognized digital transformation and MarTech expert and speaker. Douglas is also a published author of a Dummie's guide and a business leadership book.

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