Ads.txt Lines:
In May 2024, the addition of 81,179 new ads.txt lines and the removal of 74,733 existing lines resulted in a net change of over 6,000 more lines. Surprisingly, this is the lowest net change observed in the past five months, despite it being the highest ever recorded for both new and removed 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 3,500 lines.
Market Shakers:
Although there has been minimal change in Ads.txt lines compared to recent months, some SSPs continue to gain significant advantages and are moving in a very positive direction.
- As we approach the Paris Olympics, Connected TV (CTV) demand partners are preparing to allocate their budgets. With FreeWheel and The Trade Desk partnering with NBCUniversal, which owns the U.S. digital streaming rights for the Paris Olympics, FreeWheel has observed changes in their ads.txt lines, likely indicating new partnerships with additional demand partners.
- Interestingly, native advertising partners like Adyoulike have seen a significant increase in ads.txt lines over the past month, topping the list.
- In March 2024, Sharethrough announced a direct integration with Adform. Since then, we’ve observed monthly updates to publishers’ ads.txt lines. According to the latest news from Business Insider, Sharethrough is set to be acquired by Equativ.
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.
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.
- After Perion released their Q1 2024 results on May 8th, their stock fell sharply due to a price adjustment by Microsoft. However, this did not hinder their progress; in the past month, they have significantly increased their direct connections, with Undertone adding 326 and Vidazoo adding 91 in their respective tiers.
- Following Insticator’s integration with Audience Cloud to access 350 million consumers monthly, Insticator experienced a significant rise in their direct connections. This boost helped them advance from Tier 3 to Tier 2.
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.
- Insticator gained over 95 new direct connections in May 2024, which significantly elevated their position in Tier 2 on the leaderboard by 12 positions.
Auction Duplication: A Critical Issue in the AdTech Industry
- 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.
