ads.txt 1.1 Explained: How to Update OwnerDomain and ManagerDomain for Publisher Compliance

​​​​Keeping Your ads.txt Current Is Essential

Keeping your ads.txt file current isn’t just housekeeping, it’s essential to protecting your revenue, reputation, and relationships with buyers. Since its launch in 2017, ads.txt has been the foundation of supply chain transparency, helping buyers verify authorized sellers and reducing fraud across the open web.

But as the ecosystem evolves, new complexities have emerged, especially around who owns a site and who manages its monetization. To address this, the IAB Tech Lab’s ads.txt 1.1 specification introduced two new directives: OwnerDomain and ManagerDomain. These updates create stronger connections between ads.txt, sellers.json, and SupplyChain Object (SChain) data, giving buyers a clearer view into how inventory flows through the supply chain.

For publishers, this means it’s time to review, update, and validate your setup to stay compliant and stay in the game.

What’s Changing: OwnerDomain and ManagerDomain

The ads.txt v1.1 specification was released in August 2022, marking the first major update since the standard’s introduction. The update enhances transparency and accuracy by clarifying ownership and representation in the supply chain.

OwnerDomain

The OwnerDomain directive identifies the business domain that owns the media property. It links directly to the seller.domain field in sellers.json, giving buyers a clear way to confirm who truly controls the site.

Even publishers with a single property are encouraged to include it:

OwnerDomain=publisher.com

By aligning your OwnerDomain and sellers.json data, you help buyers validate the authenticity of your inventory and ensure your domain remains trusted.

ManagerDomain

The ManagerDomain directive is designed for publishers represented by ad management partners or sales houses. It signals who is responsible for monetization and shows buyers the most direct path to purchase inventory.

Examples:

ManagerDomain=monetizationpartner.com

ManagerDomain=regionalpartner.com, DE

This distinction reduces confusion between “direct” and “managed” relationships — giving buyers the transparency they need to optimize spend toward trusted, high-quality inventory.

Why Ads.txt 1.1 Matters More Now Than Ever

1. Verification and Buyer Confidence

Buyers are increasingly scrutinizing the supply chain. Incorrect or incomplete transparency files can cause your inventory to be excluded from private marketplaces or curated deals. Keeping your entries accurate ensures that buyers can verify your identity — and feel confident bidding on your inventory.

2. Compliance as a Competitive Advantage

With the growing emphasis on supply path optimization (SPO), demand partners are beginning to reward transparency. Having your OwnerDomain and ManagerDomain set up correctly can give you an advantage in being included in direct, high-quality buying paths.

3. Fewer Middlemen, Cleaner Revenue

By clearly defining ownership and management, these directives reduce mislabeling and “pseudo-direct” paths where intermediaries represented themselves as direct sellers. This helps ensure your revenue reflects true direct relationships.

4. Alignment With Privacy and First-Party Data Initiatives

A clean and verifiable domain setup builds the foundation for effective first-party data activation and identity frameworks. In an increasingly cookieless environment, clear ownership and management signals are critical to maintaining buyer trust and monetization strength.

Recent Shifts in Practice (2024–2025)

Even though ads.txt 1.1 was introduced in 2022, its adoption  and enforcement are accelerating now. Here’s what’s new across the industry:

• 🧩 Buyers are beginning to enforce compliance.
  Some buyers have started factoring ads.txt 1.1 compliance into their supply-path decisions. In at least one reported case, buyers refused to bid on publisher sites that weren’t running version 1.1, signaling that compliance is starting to influence inclusion in private deals. [AdExchanger, 2025] 
• 📊 Adoption remains uneven.
  Independent analyses show inconsistent adoption and quality for the new directives. For example, HUMAN Security’s 2023 OwnerDomain Adoption Deep-Dive found that many supply paths still lack the new fields entirely — with 38 % of app inventory missing OwnerDomain and 23 % showing mismatches between ads.txt and sellers.json.[HUMAN Security] 
• 📱 AdMob now requires app-ads.txt for new apps (January 2025).
  App publishers must have verified app-ads.txt files in place before ads can serve — reinforcing a broader industry trend toward stricter compliance. (Source: PPC Land, 2025) 
• ✂️ Publishers are “decluttering” their ads.txt files.
  There’s a growing movement to remove inactive or underperforming sellers. A leaner file means faster validation, fewer errors, and more buyer confidence. (Source: AdExchanger) 
• 🔍 Increased scrutiny of misclassified paths.
  Buyers are leveraging sellers.json and SChain data to detect inconsistencies — such as resellers claiming direct relationships. The new fields are helping identify and correct those issues, which benefits compliant publishers. (Source: Blockthrough) 
• 🚀 Closer alignment with SPO goals.
  According to the IAB Tech Lab’s ads.txt 1.1 Implementation Guide, the ManagerDomain directive clarifies the most direct route to a publisher’s inventory — a key signal for supply-path optimization (SPO) buyers seeking fewer hops and higher transparency.

✅ Publisher To-Do List: Preparing for ads.txt 1.1 Compliance

If you manage your own domain, here’s how to stay current and compliant:

1. Audit your existing ads.txt
   Remove outdated or unauthorized sellers, and ensure all entries match active SSP partnerships.
2. Add your OwnerDomain
   Even if you operate only one site, include your business domain:
   OwnerDomain=yourdomain.com
3. Add ManagerDomain (if applicable)
   If you work with a monetization partner or regional manager:
   ManagerDomain=partnerdomain.com
4. Cross-check with sellers.json
   Ensure your OwnerDomain and ManagerDomain match the corresponding seller.domain fields in sellers.json.
   
5. Validate regularly
   Use tools from your SSP or Prebid to test your configuration and identify mismatches early.
6. Stay informed
   Follow IAB Tech Lab updates and demand partner policies — and review your files quarterly.
   

The Bottom Line

The addition of OwnerDomain and ManagerDomain marks an important step forward in programmatic transparency. They provide clarity for buyers, protection for publishers, and accountability for intermediaries.

While these changes originated in 2022, 2025 is shaping up to be the year of enforcement and adoption. Publishers who stay proactive — updating their ads.txt, validating connections, and maintaining transparency — will stand out in an increasingly quality-driven marketplace.