Ads.txt Lines:
In March 2024, the addition of over 80,000 new ads.txt lines and the removal of nearly 64,000 existing lines resulted in a net change of over 16,000 more lines. This marks the highest level of change observed in the past three months. This indicates that publishers are actively seeking new partnerships and regularly revising their existing connections, leading to frequent changes in ads.txt lines.
The provided snapshot illustrates the distribution of line changes among different tiers of publishers. While looking closely, it appears that Tier-3 shows a significant positive net change in ads.txt lines, with an increase of approximately 9,000 lines.
Market Shakers:
Identifying the total changes in ads.txt lines, we spotlight the SSPs that are making a significant impact on the industry by influencing substantial modifications, breakdown by publishers tiers.
- The frequent fluctuation in ads.txt lines have become very common, largely attributable to the intermediaries partnered with each SSP. This surge is predominantly due to substantial addition of reseller lines resulting from these partnerships.
- If we closely look at the last three seller reports we’ve distributed, it’s evident that both Magnite and Unruly are among the top 5 market shakers.
- Upon investigation, we find multiple factors contributing to these spikes, with a primary driver being their partnerships with intermediaries such as Sharethrough, Vidazoo, Rise, and Outbrain. Each time these intermediaries establish a new direct connection, they incorporate the ads.txt lines of Magnite and Unruly to expand their reach.
Tier – 1,2,3 Publishers:
As we saw, all the tiers ads.txt lines net change have increased significantly, below are the top SSPs who contributed to that spike.
- Among all the top SSPs, pubmatic stock in March rose by 38% primarily due to its growing customer base.
Big Winners:
Analyzing the changes in direct connections among the connected publishers in the past week, the following SSPs appear as top domain gainers across each tier that we segregated SSPs based on their rank/coverage.
- Following MinuteMedia’s acquisition of STN Video to enhance premium sports content, and their recent win of publishing rights to ‘Sports Illustrated‘ they have experienced a surge in new direct connections.
- The recent collaboration between Bold Collective and Taiv, aimed at enhancing trust and transparency for CTV buyers, appears to have led to a notable increase in their direct connections.
Leaderboard Dynamics:
We’ve assigned ranks to each SSP based on their direct coverage among the top 10,000 publishers. Below, we highlight the significant jumps in ranks for top SSPs observed in the past week.
Auction Duplication:
- Tier 1 SSPs are expected to have a lower share of Direct Only Domains and a higher share of Direct + Reseller Domains in comparison to other tiers. This is attributed because Tier-2 and Tier-3 SSPs rely on Tier-1 to serve as a demand partner.
- However, during this process, Tier 1 SSPs may inadvertently be listed as a reseller on domains where they are already directly connected, leading to auction duplication and classification as Direct + Reseller Domains.
- For SSPs, especially Tier 1, managing intermediaries in choosing non-duplicate domains is challenging. Additionally, it becomes an added responsibility for SSPs to address both auction duplication and carbon emissions. Choosing the right intermediary is crucial for reaching unique domains where their ads.txt lines are not yet present.
At DataBeat, we offer assistance in identifying and managing ineffective intermediaries, reducing duplicate domains, and improving your green index score while not compromising on your net revenue. Leveraging our Competitive Intelligence (CI) Tool, we enable you to identify & address these challenges effectively.
Breakdown of domain connections to SSPs by relationship types (Direct Only, Reseller Only, Direct + Reseller)
- Direct Only: Domains exclusively connected through direct relationships.
- Reseller Only: Domains exclusively connected through reseller relationships.
- Direct + Reseller: Domains with both direct and reseller connection.
Proportion of unique and duplicate domains, and average number of intermediaries influence on duplicates.
- Unique Domains: Domains exclusively connected to an SSP through a single connection.
- Duplicated Domains: Domains connected to an SSP through multiple intermediaries or integrations, resulting in duplications.
Need More Insights:
For additional insights into this report and the CI Dashboard, which serves as the foundation for the seller’s report, don’t hesitate to contact us at [email protected].
Sellers Report DataBeat’s Methodology:
- Analyzing ads.txt files from the top 10k US publishers
- Tracking changes in publishers and SSPs across various categories over the past two weeks
- Publishers are categorized into three tiers based on their ranks, determined by traffic volume:
- Tier 1: 1 to 500
- Tier 2: 501 to 2000
- Tier 3: 2001 to 10000
- Similarly, SSPs are ranked based on the number of direct connections and are classified into three tiers:
- Tier 1: 1 to 50
- Tier 2: 51 to 150
- Tier 3: 151 to 500
- Ads.txt lines, Domain gains, and Ranking dynamics as key metrics
