How to Fix ads.txt error message on Google AdSense account

Panayiotis Georgiou
3 min readMar 1, 2018

Does your adsense account has the same issue as the feature image of this post? If yes, then you are in the correct place as you need to take action otherwise your earnings is at risk. The post will show How to Fix ads.txt error message on Google AdSense account.

Let’s get started 🙂 few things before moving to the steps needed..

What is ads.txt?

It is an IAB-approved text file that aims to prevent unauthorized inventory sales. Ads.txt file protects publishers from ad fraud, and it can potentially increase your ad revenue. The initiative is supported by Google’s advertising platforms like Google Adsense, Doubleclick, and Ad Exchange.

How does it work?

Publishers drop a text file on their web servers that lists all of the companies that are authorized to sell the publishers’ inventory. This allows buyers to check the validity of the inventory they purchase.

Is it so important?

Of course, because it improves transparency in online advertisement by allowing publishers to declare who can sell their ad inventory. Since this data is publicly available, it can be crawled, stored, and searched by advertisers, publishers, and resellers. If you are displaying ads on your website using Google Adsense, DoubleClick, or Ad Exchange, then adding Ads.txt file is recommended.

Let’s get over with it 😉

How to Fix ads.txt error message on Google AdSense account

Non — WordPress websites

Step 1

Access your website via ftp and create a file ads.txt under the root directory

Step 2

Copy and paste the code from your adsense account to the ads.txt

google.com, **pub-xxxxx, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0

**Don’t forget to replace pub-xxxxx with your own publisher ID.

Step 3

Make sure you save the file and verify that you have the file now by visiting www.yourwebsite.com/ads.txt

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Wordpress Websites

Step 1

Download and activate this plugin if you are using WordPress

Step2

Under Settings go to Ads.txt page to configure plugin settings.

Step3

Copy and paste the code from your adsense account to the ads.txt

google.com, **pub-xxxxx, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0

**Don’t forget to replace pub-xxxxx with your own publisher ID.

Step 4

Save changes and verify that it works by visiting www.yourwebsite.com/ads.txt

**For adsense please allow up to 24 hours to reflect the changes.**

That’s it for now. 🙂

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