BidSwitch and Ads.txt

BidSwitch is a technology and infrastructure provider within the Ad Tech space, enabling integrations between Suppliers and Buyers. As it is not a Supplier, it will never appear in an ads.txt file as an approved seller of inventory. BidSwitch supports Ads.txt through a mapping document enabling the conversion of Supplier names from BidSwitch-specific names to those listed in Ads.txt files. This mapping document can be found at the following link:

• https://docs.bidswitch.com/_static/ads_txt_mapping.txt

For any Buyer seeking to leverage Ads.txt, the process would be very similar to a direct connection, except with the additional step of converting the name via the aforementioned mapping document prior to validation.

Ads.txt Validation

In addition to this mapping file, BidSwitch also provides two lists of domains that its Ads.txt crawler encounters daily. In doing so, it also validates whether each domain has a valid or invalid Ads.txt file.

• Domains with valid Ads.txt files: https://docs.bidswitch.com/_static/ads_txt_valid.txt
• Domains with invalid Ads.txt files: https://docs.bidswitch.com/_static/ads_txt_invalid.txt

If your domain is on the list of those with an invalid file, you can use the BidSwitch ads.txt validation tool to fix it: https://adstxt.bidswitch.com/

Note

Sometimes the https version of a website returns a garbled ads.txt file. If the http version of the site has a valid one, the BidSwitch crawler will fallback to using it, whereas the validator will return an error message for the incorrect(garbled) file.

Ads.txt Targeting

Buyers can configure their BidSwitch integration to only pass bid requests with authorised ads.txt traffic. This setting allows Buyers to receive bid requests only from Suppliers authorised by publishers in the site ads.txt file.

• To enable this feature, contact support@bidswitch.com
• You can check if this is enabled or disabled on the myBidSwitch UI Settings page

Note

This targeting will not filter out Private Deal bid requests

Bid Request Ads.txt Fields

Bid Requests from BidSwitch contain the data related to the ads.txt status of the publisher. Buyers can now use this information in their bidding logic without the need to crawl ads.txt files themselves.

• BidSwitch collects data from the ads.txt files
• Upon receiving the Supplier Bid Request, BidSwitch will check if that Supplier and Publisher are allowed to sell inventory from the specific site
• This information will be provided to Buyers in Bid Requests, see the ads.txt Object section for more details

Note

Some Buyers are not buying any inventory that fails ads.txt authorisation and this applies to both open deals and private deals. This may be the cause of some questions when looking at a Deal’s performance in Deals Insights reporting, see the Deals Insights FAQ section for more details.

Ads.txt Object Properties

Value	Type	Description
status	int	Indicates what information the Ads.txt file contained regarding this Suppliers selling relationship with the publisher 1 = direct 2 = reseller 3 = unauthorized
auth_id*	string	Passes the TAG ID if present in the ads.txt file, e.g. 8765jfhfg09
pub_id	string	The unmodified ssp_publisher-id for example, 123456789 Note: In the standard Publisher object BidSwitch passes the publisher.id field including the SSP prefix, e.g. aol_123456789, see the ext.ads_txt Object for more details

{
  "site":{
    "domain":"dailymail.co.uk",
    "publisher":{
      "id":"openx_537120563"
    }
  },
  "ext":{
    "ssp":"openx",
    "media_src":"openx",
    "ads_txt":{
      "status":2,
      "auth_id":"1kjhwk98691",
      "pub_id":"537120563"
    }
  }
}