What is Sellers.json and OpenRTB Supply Chain Object?

IAB Tech Lab has come up with a new initiative to combat ad fraud in the digital supply chain. This new initiative comes as a package of two tools – Sellers.json and OpenRTB Supply Chain Object. The ads.txt initiative, which has seen rapid adoption in the last one year has helped to identify all direct sellers, a publisher has authorized to sell its inventory, however, it lacks transparency when multiple sellers – SSPs/Exchanges/Resellers are involved in selling the same ad impression. Sellers.json aims to fight fraud that might crop in due to this intricate chain of vendors involved in the sale of every impression. You can read in detail about these tools and how they work in our earlier blog here: https://chocolateplatform.com/faqs-sellers-json-and-openrtb-supplychain-object/

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Why DSPs/Buy Side need it? 

These tools are designed to give programmatic buyers more certainty in the multiple vendors involved in the selling of the ad impression. Ads.txt is there to list all the direct vendors that a publisher has authorized to sell its inventory. However, as you may know, there are multiple intermediaries involved in the selling of each impression – exchanges, ad networks, resellers, etc. Ads.txt lacked tracking of this chain and many a time DSP/buy side did not know who the final seller is. This led to the entry of fraudulent players who benefited from the lack of transparency and ended up eating ad dollars. Sellers.json and OpenRTB Supply chain Objects are designed to add that extra layer of transparency and list all sellers, resellers involved in the selling of every impression, including the final seller in the chain.

How does it benefit the DSPs/Buy side?

Large scale adoption of ads.txt has helped combat ad fraud considerably. App-ads.txt adoption is picking up well too. All industry players have supported these initiatives which have immensely helped make the digital supply chain ecosystem more fair and transparent. With sellers.json and OpenRTB Supply Chain Object, buyers can further increase their confidence in programmatic vendors as now buy side gets concise and accurate information on every seller participating in the programmatic transaction

• Know every reseller in the supply chain: With these two new tools, you get access to a list of all the intermediaries that are involved in selling the impression and not just the direct seller. Sellers.json is a public file that every SSP/Exchange is expected to host. Buyers can anytime study and validate the sellers.
• Track the final seller for every bid request: Supply Chain Object in every bid request ensures buyers see the complete trail of the bid right from the direct seller to any resellers involved in between to the final seller. Supply Chain is composed of nodes. The entire chain of nodes from beginning to end would represent all sellers who were paid for an individual bid request.
• Identify and eradicate fraudulent vendors: Buyers can now validate the sellers’ identity on ads.txt (authorized direct sellers), sellers.json (authorized intermediary sellers) and OpenRTB Supply Chain Object (bid request level tracking of the supply chain) and flag if any of the sellers are not listed in these files
• Work with quality supply platforms: Buyers can take measures to work with supply platforms that have adopted these new tools. This will boost the adoption of high-quality digital supply chain standards and help the overall industry to stop losing money to ad fraud.

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Who is responsible for implementing it?

SSPs/Exchanges are primarily responsible for implementing Sellers.json and OpenRTB Supply Chain Object. For sellers.json, they are expected to host a JSON file on their domain, something like chocolateplatform.com/sellers.json which will list all the sellers, resellers a particular SSP/Exchange is working with. This file will have information on each seller – seller Id (unique for every seller), type of relationship (Direct, reseller), seller domain and more. Buyers can review and examine these files anytime and match with ads.txt data for publishers. For OpenRTB Supply Chain Object, all bid request will contain these object primarily composed of nodes. Each node will represent a specific entity that participates in the selling of the bid request. Each valid complete Supply Chain Object shall include – asi (URL of the seller), pid (publisher id), rid (RequestId) and some more node identifiers. You can see the complete specs here: https://iabtechlab.com/sellers-json/

Here is how a sample sellers.json file contains:

Use case 1: Working with direct publisher

Ad request flow: Publisher -> Chocolate Exchange -> DSP’s

Ads.txt: Direct

Chocolate exchange seller.json

{

“seller_id”: “10001”,

“name”: “Pub1”,

“domain”: “pub1.com”,

“seller_type”: “DIRECT”

}

Use case 2: Working with indirect publisher

Ad request flow: Publisher -> Indirect publisher -> chocolate exchange -> DSP’s

Payment flow: DSP’s -> chocolate exchange -> Indirect publisher -> Publisher

Ads.txt: Reseller

Chocolate exchange seller.json for use case 2,

{

“seller_id”: “10002”,

“name”: “Pub2”,

“domain”: “pub2.com”,

“seller_type”: “Reseller”

}

Here is how a Supply Chain Object will look :

Use case 1: Working with direct publisher

Ad request flow: Publisher -> Chocolate Exchange -> DSP’s

“schain”: {

“complete”: 1,

“nodes”: [

{

“asi”:”chocolateplatform.com”,

“pid”:”10001″

“rid”:”BidRequest1″

“hp”:1

}

]

}

Use case 2: Working with indirect publisher

Ad request flow: Publisher -> Indirect publisher -> chocolate exchange -> DSP’s

“schain”: {

“complete”: 1,

“nodes”: [

{

“asi”:”pub2.com”,

“pid”:”101″

“rid”:”BidRequest1″

“hp”:1

},

{

“asi”:”chocolateplatform.com”,

“pid”:”10002″

“rid”:”BidRequest1″

“hp”:1

}

]

}

Where can I read more about it?

IAB has released a set of detailed documents. Here it is:

Press Release: https://iabtechlab.com/press-releases/iab-tech-lab-announces-two-new-technologies-to-build-more-transparency-trust-in-the-programmatic-supply-chain/

Seller.json Specs: https://iabtechlab.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Sellers.json-Public-Comment-April-11-2019.pdf

OpenRTB Supply Chain Object Specs: https://github.com/InteractiveAdvertisingBureau/openrtb/blob/master/supplychainobject.md

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