How to Create an Ads.txt File For Google Publishers

This post will teach you how to create an ads.txt file for Google Publishers.

If you have a website of your own and are using ads for monetization, you need to have a proper ads.txt file at the root level of your domain. Ads.txt, also called as Authorized Digital Seller, makes sure that your ads are sold through trusted and authorized sellers like Google Adsense.

So why should you have your own ads.txt file?

Having your own ads.txt file ensures that you have control over who is allowed to sell ads on your site stopping unreasonable advertisers to leverage your inventory.

It further aids in stopping fraudulent inventories to gain from something which was rightfully yours to begin with. You invariably receive more advertiser spend which might have gone otherwise to a fake inventory.

NOTE: We are only covering how to create ads.txt for Google publishers here. Those who are not using Google Publishers should contact their own SSP.

Check Whether You Have an ads.txt file

Generally, if you don’t have an ads.txt file in your domain, you get the following error message at the top bar of your Google Adsense account:

which reads nothing but:

Earnings at risk – One or more of your sites does not have an ads.txt file. Fix this now to avoid severe impact to your revenue.

Even so, it is not necessary that you get an instant notification like that because Google is very slow in these processes.

To check upfront whether you have an ads.txt file for your website or not, you have to follow the below mentioned methods:

Step 1: Login to your cPanel.

Step 2: Enter your username and password and click on Log in button.

Step 3: Once you are in, find File Manager, and then click it open.

Step 4: Once you have opened File Manager, click on the Search box at the top right corner and type:

ads.txt

before clicking on Go.

When you click on Go button, if you get the following box:

that means there is no ads.txt file for your website.

Or if you end up with a result like this:

you have an ads.txt file and you needn’t worry about creating one.

What if you don’t have the ads file?

If you don’t have an ads.txt file, you can create one by following the below-mentioned steps:

Steps on How to Create an Ads.txt File

Step 1: Navigate to your root directory (It must be public_html of your website)

Step 2: Create a text (.txt) file by clicking on File as shown in the image above.

Step 3: In the dialog box that opens type “ads.txt” and ensure /public_html is being shown in the “New file will be created in” folder. Then click on Create New File.

Step 4: Right click on ads.txt file and click on Edit.

Step 5: In the next screen click on Edit again.

Step 6: Type the following in the editor:

google.com, pub-0000000000000000, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0

Replace “pub-0000000000000000” with your own Publisher ID.

NOTE: Here’s where you can find your own Publisher ID in your Adsense Account. Just navigate to Account > Account information.

So now the ads.txt file should look something like this:

Step 7: Just click on the Save Changes button.

Step 8: With that, a Success notification will be shown. You can then go ahead and click on close button.

That’s it!

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