Welcome to our guide on everything you need to know about ads.txt. This article is designed to provide you with a comprehensive understanding of what ads.txt is, its importance in the digital advertising ecosystem, and how it affects your site's monetization. We will walk you through the essential steps to set up your ads.txt file automatically or manually, including using the cURL command, ensuring your ad inventory is secure and compliant. Whether you are new to ads.txt or need to update your existing file, this guide has you covered with clear, step-by-step instructions.

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Navigate to your Ezoic dashboard and locate the "Ad Transparency" tab under "EzoicAds."
   
   
2. Click on the "Ads.txt app" and select the "AUTOMATIC SETUP" option.
   
3. Follow the prompts to create your ads.txt file. Ezoic will automatically create the file, import existing entries, and authorize Ezoic entries.
   
4. The instructions in the dashboard will guide you through previewing, adding/removing/editing entries, turning on ads.txt, and verifying the ads.txt file for wrong or missing entries.
   
5. Once the process is complete, Google will take some time to crawl and process the changes. This update may take up to 48 hours to appear in your dashboard.

NOTE: If you are using our Wordpress Integration, you will need to complete an additional step to link the Ezoic account to your Wordpress site.

In the Ezoic Wordpress Plugin, you will need to set the Ads.txt Manager Account ID to 19390: 

Manual Setup Instructions:

1. Go to adstxtmanager.com and create an account by clicking on "Get Started Now."
   
   
2. Authorize Ezoic, Ezoic Owned, and any other ad partners that you currently use to monetize your site (most likely Adsense).
   
3. Ezoic’s information will be automatically added when it is authorized. For other ad partners like Adsense, add their information manually. For example, for Adsense:
   • Ad network domain: Google.com
   • Ad network account ID: Your Adsense publisher ID
   • Account type: DIRECT
   • Certification authority ID: f08c47fec0942fa0
4. If you already have an existing ads.txt file, you can import it. Otherwise, skip this step.
5. You will receive an Account ID. If you're integrated with Ezoic via name servers or Cloudflare, skip to step 8.
   
6. Publishers integrated via Wordpress Plugin (not integrated via name servers or Cloudflare) need to set up an additional redirect. There are four ways to do this:
   • (Recommended) Use the Ezoic WordPress plugin. Install the plugin, go to Settings > Ads.txt Manager, and enter your Account ID.
     
   • .htaccess file redirect: Add the following line to your ".htaccess file":

     Redirect 301 /ads.txt https://srv.adstxtmanager.com/AccountID/yourdomain.com

   • Nginx redirect
     
   • PHP redirect (place in current ads.txt file if PHP)
     
7. Save your changes and proceed.
8. Go to the "Ads Transparency" tab under "EzoicAds" in your Publisher Dashboard.
9. Click on the "Ads.txt Manager" button.
   
10. Enter your Account ID in the text box that appears and save.
    
11. Go back to the ads.txt manager dashboard, click on ‘Get Started,’ and validate the file. This can take up to 30 minutes.

Ads.txt Redirect for Standalone

This method is only necessary when utilizing the Standalone/JS connection method

1. From your Ezoic dashboard, navigate to EzoicAds → Ad Transparency

2. Under the Ads.txt section, click on “Ads.txt Status”

3. Start Setup – Select integration: Standalone, click “continue.”

4. Edit Entries – Our system will automatically pull in your existing entries from your current ads.txt file, which you can see in the second step “Edit Entries.” 

1. You can also add individual entries or bulk upload entries if needed. 

2. After confirming that all of your existing entries have been uploaded, click “Next.”

5. Redirection – In order for Ezoic to manage your ads.txt file, you are required to set up a redirection from your website’s ads.txt file to the custom-generated URL. Below are the redirect options:
   a. Add: cURL command

   • Using the curl command is an easy way to fetch the content from Ezoic’s AdsTxtManager URL and append the entries to your existing /ads.txt file. 

   • If using this method, ensure the curl is set to run at least once every 24 hours. 

   • curl https://srv.adstxtmanager.com/19390/{domain} > ads.txt

     Once you’ve completed the redirect, click “Verify.”

6. After you’ve completed the ads.txt redirect, proceed with the “Connect to Google” step from your Ezoic dashboard.

1. Existing Ads.txt File Not Up-to-Date
   • Issue: Google will not allow ad partners to be monetized if they are not included in your ads.txt file.
   • Solution: Ensure your ads.txt file is up-to-date with all your ad partners. You can use the Ads.txt validation tool available in your Ezoic dashboard to check for any discrepancies.
2. Changes Not Appearing
   • Issue: Updates to the ads.txt file are not appearing in your dashboard.
   • Solution: It may take up to 48 hours for changes to be crawled and processed by Google. If the changes do not appear after this period, ensure that all steps were followed correctly.
3. WordPress Integration Additional Step
   • Issue: Using the WordPress integration but the ads.txt file isn't working correctly.
   • Solution: Make sure to link the Ezoic account to your WordPress site by setting the Ads.txt Manager Account ID within the Ezoic WordPress plugin. Navigate to Settings > Ads.txt Manager > and enter your 4 or 5 digit Account ID.
4. Validation Issues
   • Issue: Ads.txt file is not validating.
   • Solution: Use the Ads.txt Manager in your Ezoic dashboard. After completing all steps, validate the file. Validation can take up to 30 minutes. Make sure all entries are formatted correctly and include all required information for each ad partner.