OpenX Report Finds Ads.txt Adoption Accelerating with Majority of ComScore 1000 Now On Board; Company Announces New Ads.txt Policy Banning All Unauthorized Resellers

OpenX retains top spot as the #1 independent exchange listed on comScore 1000 ads.txt files

LOS ANGELES and NEW YORK — 31 January 2018 — OpenX, the world’s leading independent advertising technology provider, today announced the results of an audit of the nation’s top 1000 publishers, revealing that a majority have now adopted ads.txt, a method for denoting who is approved to sell their inventory. The company has strongly supported the growth of ads.txt since the initiative was first launched, and for the second consecutive month, OpenX is the #1 independent exchange listed as an authorized seller among comScore top 1000 publishers (#2 overall behind Google).

OpenX also announced that it is the first major global exchange that will block all reseller traffic that is not authorized on a publisher’s ads.txt file from entering its exchange. By applying strict ads.txt compliance to the exchange, buyers and DSPs will no longer have to take inventory validation into their own hands and can trust that all inventory flowing through OpenX is authorized by the publisher in instances where an ads.txt file is available.

“Enforcing a strict ads.txt compliance protocol is just another way OpenX is actively working to curate the highest quality marketplace for advertisers looking to access premium inventory,” said John Murphy, head of marketplace quality at OpenX. “Ads.txt is bringing the industry one step closer to being fraud-free, and the rapid adoption of this initiative highlights the need in the market for solutions like these while building confidence in the value of programmatic overall. We encourage publishers and advertisers to push for mass adoption of standards, like ads.txt, that allow them to hold their technology partners accountable.”

Up from just 7% in August 2017, ads.txt adoption rates now exceed 50% of the comScore top 1000 publishers, and several major DSPs and buyers have already announced that they will no longer buy inventory that isn’t authorized in a publisher’s ads.txt file. OpenX will begin implementing strict ads.txt compliance in the coming weeks and by the end of Q1 all reseller traffic that is not ads.txt-authorized will automatically be blocked from the exchange.

“The level of domain counterfeiting we are seeing across the digital landscape today is staggering. Ads.txt represents the first industry initiative that has put control back into publishers’ hands to combat this issue,” said Jana Meron, senior vice president of programmatic and data strategy at Business Insider. “Publishers have been in search of a proactive solution for ensuring our inventory is being represented and sold at its true value in programmatic marketplaces, and ads.txt provides that. While it isn’t a silver bullet, it is a huge step in the right direction, and to be fully effective we need the entire ecosystem to follow in the footsteps of OpenX and implement changes to honor ads.txt.”

Ads.txt is an industry initiative created by the IAB to address serious quality and fraud concerns stemming from the unauthorized reselling and counterfeiting of publisher inventory. It offers a simple and secure method for publishers to publicly declare the companies they trust to sell their digital inventory, creating greater transparency in the digital media supply chain.

About OpenX
OpenX is focused on unleashing the full economic potential of digital media companies. We do this by making digital advertising markets and technologies that are designed to deliver optimal value to publishers and advertisers on every ad served across all screens.

At OpenX we have built a team that is uniquely experienced in designing and operating high-scale programmatic ad marketplaces. We are constantly looking for thoughtful, creative executors who are as fascinated as we are about finding new ways to apply a blend of market design, technical innovation, operational excellence, and empathetic partner service to the frontiers of digital advertising.

www.openx.com @openx