The ads.txt initiative was developed to prevent various types of counterfeit inventory across the publishing ecosystem by improving transparency in the programmatic supply chain. Ads.txt stands for Authorized Digital Sellers and is a simple, flexible and secure method that publishers and distributors can use to publicly declare the companies they authorize to sell their digital inventory.
Ads.txt files and the correct lines are required by all demand platforms. If a site does not have an ads.txt file, does not have the correct ads.txt lines, or the ads.txt file is not accessible, many advertisers and demand platforms will not bid on ad requests for that site. This lowers PIS (programmatic impressions served) which in turn lowers competition and rates.
Sulvo offers an ads.txt checker to help publishers ensure that their ads.txt file is accessible and has the correct lines for Sulvo. The ads.txt checker and the correct ads.txt lines for your account can be found here: https://surge.sulvo.com/settings?vtab=adstxt. Sulvo ads.txt lines are specific to your account.
If the Sulvo ads.txt checker shows an error with your lines there are some common issues that publishers should check and resolve.
First, click the "Recheck now" button to ensure that the results are current.
Lines are incorrect. If "Recheck now" does not change the status, be sure that you have the correct lines on your site. Sulvo ads.txt lines are specific to your account. Please keep in mind that it can take 24 hours or more for ads.txt changes to propagate.
Non HTTPS site. If the lines are correct, it has been over 24 hours since updating the lines, and "Recheck now" still shows an error, be sure that your URL to your ads.txt lines is HTTPS. This is the most common error we see publishers make and the easiest to fix. To be certain that crawlers can crawl your domain, the domain URL should be encrypted as HTTPS and not HTTP. Correct: https://sulvo.com/ads.txt. Incorrect: http://sulvo.com/ads.txt
Subdomain vs. Top-domain. If the above is correct, make sure to keep your ads.txt file on the top domain and not the 'www' subdomain. By default, crawlers use the top-domain, and won't fetch subdomain ads.txt unless redirected. Correct: https://sulvo.com/ads.txt. Incorrect: https://www.sulvo.com/ads.txt.
Not plain text. Your ads.txt file must appear on a plain text file and not an HTML document. Also, the header must state: "Content-Type: text/plain." Correct: content-type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8. Incorrect: content-type: text/html; charset=UTF-8.
Blocked non-standard User-Agents. Finally, be sure that you are not blocking non-standard user-agents (UA), which is one of the most common errors we see. Ensure that your ads.txt file is available to any UA and is not getting blocked. This will ensure that any crawler can access it. Correct: User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 <platform> <extensions>. Incorrect: user-agent: sulvo.com Crawler.
If you have ensured the above is correct, and "Recheck now" still shows an error, please open a ticket with Sulvo support and we can help you troubleshoot any issues.