Do you want to add & manage an ads.txt file in WordPress? The Ads.txt file in the website protects publishers from advertising fraud, and it can potentially increase your advertising revenue. In this article, we will learn how to easily create and manage the ads.txt file in the WordPress website.
How to Set Up & Manage the Ads.txt For WordPress @Setting Up the Ads.txt File
What is an Ads.txt File?
The Ads.txt file, in a way, allows advertising publishers to declare who can advertise on their website. This is an initiative created by IAB Tech Lab, which focuses on improving digital advertising standards.
The initiative is supported by Google’s advertising platforms such as Google Adsense, Doubleclick, Infolinks, AOL and Ad Exchange. It is also supported by almost all major digital advertising platforms.
Why is Ads.txt file important?
Advertising fraud causes millions of dollars annually to online advertisers and publishers. People with malicious intentions constantly attempt to drive the ad platform with domain spoofing, fake clicks, fake impressions, etc.
The Ads.txt file improves the transparency in online advertising, allowing publishers to declare who can sell their ads. Here is how it works:
If you are an advertiser and someone tells you that they can show your ads on a particular website, you can visit and view the ads.txt file of that website. It will show you that the company you are working with is allowed to sell ads space on that particular website.
This data is publicly available, so it can be crawled, searched and stored by advertisers, publishers & resellers.
If you are displaying ads on your website using Infolinks, Google Adsense, AOL, DoubleClick or Ad Exchange, then adding the Ads.txt file to your website is recommended. Much other advertising platform and software also support or require the ads.txt file to be declared.
Create and Manage Ads.txt Files in WordPress?
First, you have to install and activate the ads.txt manager plugin. Apart from this, you see our WordPress Plugin section for other useful plugins.
When the plugin is installed, first of all, have to activate it and you have to go to Settings »Ads.txt to configure plugin settings.
This plugin provides a simple text field in your website where you can add a line to declare each individual platform or reseller. As an example, you can add the following line to declare Google Adsense.
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1
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google.com, pub-0000000000000000, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 |
Remember to replace this pub-0000000000000000 publisher ID with your publisher ID.
As you can see, four fields in this line are different from the comma. In which the first area is the company’s domain that allows you to sell or resell your advertising inventory. Right after that is the publisher ID that matches your account ID in the Advertising Platform. Third field declares relationship type DIRECT or RESELLER. The end area of the line is optional, and it represents an ID of the advertisement platform. For all Google Adsense advertising programs, all will use the same unique ID.
Adsense Earnings at risk Error Troubleshooting
Your Google Adsense account may have the following warning message as a result of a missing announcement in your website ads.txt file.
EARNINGS AT RISK – ONE OR MORE OF YOUR ADS.TXT FILES DOESN’T CONTAIN YOUR ADSENSE PUBLISHER ID. FIX THIS NOW TO AVOID SEVERE IMPACT TO YOUR REVENUE.
This message in Google AdSense indicates that your publisher ID is either incorrect or incorrect in your ads.txt file. To fix this mistake and to ensure that you have the correct Publisher ID in the plugin settings, just go to Settings »Ads.txt section.
Please Note: ads.txt file is supposed to be in the root directory of a domain name, this plugin currently only works for root level domain like hardisha.com. It does not work for WordPress installed in subdomain, subdirectory, or a single site in a multi-site network.
We hope this article helped you learn how to create and manage ads.txt file in WordPress Website. If you liked this article, then please share with your friends.