The Adoption of App-Ads.txt on Apple App Store
The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has taken it upon themselves to help companies combat ad fraud. Back in 2017, they devised the “ads.txt” and “App-Ads.txt” internet fraud prevention standards. The initiative is aimed at enabling ad space aggregators to acquire ad space from legitimate and authorized suppliers only, thus addressing the pervasive issue of revenue loss precipitated by app spoofing. Indeed, by allowing app owners to declare which companies are authorized to sell their ad inventory, the IAB’s standards provide a crucial mechanism for mobile advertising transparency.
The following provides a deep dive on the state of “App-Ads.txt” adoption on the Apple App Store platform and will answers questions like how many apps finally implemented App-Ads.txt, what are the top ad providers listed in App-Ads.txt and more.
How many of the Apple App Store Apps adopted the App-Ads.txt?
15.61% of all Apple App Store apps have implemented "App-Ads.txt". Overall that means 272,128 out of all 1,743,112 Apple App Store apps have finally adopted the standard.
Apps with App-Ads.txt
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Total Apps on Apple App Store
How Did App-Ads.txt Got Adopted on Apple App Store over Time?
The following graph shows the historical adoption of App-Ads.txt on Apple App Store over the last 9 months. Today there are more than 272,128 apps on the Apple App Store which implemented "App-Ads.txt". The adoption grew from 231,090 in July 2022 to 273,556 in March 2023. The adoption increased by 3% within the last 3 months.How many of the top 1,000 Apple App Store Apps adopted the App-Ads.txt?
48.3% of the top 1,000 Apple App Store apps implemented "App-Ads.txt". 483 of the top apps have adopted it. Overall a higher rate of the top apps adopted the new standard compared to the overall apps.
Top Apps with App-Ads.txt
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Total Apps on Apple App Store
Where Can I Get Raw App-Ads.txt Insights of All Apps?
Ever since IAB announced these standards, we at 42matters have been keeping a close eye on their trajectory. Moreover, we’ve aggregated “App-Ads.txt” data for apps across all major app stores. This enables us to provide our customers and partners with insight into the authorized suppliers of any given “App-Ads.txt-” compliant app in a matter of seconds – critically, enabling them to reap the benefits of this data without expending valuable time and resources.
We cover App-Ads.txt insights about the following app stores:
- Google Play
- Apple App Store
- Amazon App Store
- Roku Store
- tvOS Store
- FireTV Store
We update this data on a weekly basis so that we can offer our customers the latest and greatest information at all times. By giving them access to our managed data service, they will have no need to implement their own crawler, nor to individually validate the data they acquire about each app. Reach out if you're interested in this data.
What is the App-Ads.txt Adoption Rate for Apple App Store Apps vs Games?
The following chart compares the adoption rate of App-Ads.txt among Apple App Store apps and games. Overall 41.64% apps have implemented the standard, whereas 6.97% of all games have adopted it.
What Is the App-Ads.txt Adoption Rate per Apple App Store Category?
The below chart shows the Apple App Store categories that have the highest App-Ads.txt adoption rate. The category Apple App Store Games is number one with the highest adoption rate of 41.64%.
Who Are the Top Listed Ad Partners Inside the App-Ads.txt in Apple App Store Apps?
Ad partners are companies that have been granted permission by app developers, either directly or indirectly as a reseller, to sell ad space on their apps. Google.com is listed as an ad partner on 84.72% of all "App-Ads.txt" files for Apple App Store apps. This makes it the most frequently listed ad partner for apps available on Apple App Store. Coming in at second is facebook.com, which is listed on 45.63% of Apple App Store apps, followed by rubiconproject.com, which is listed on 43.03%.
Who Are the Top 'Direct' Ad Partners Inside the App-Ads.txt in Apple App Store Apps?
Direct ad partners are those which have been granted direct permission by app developers to sell app ad space. That is, they are explicitly listed on the app's "App-ads.txt" file. Google.com is listed as a direct ad partner on 82.96% of all "App-Ads.txt" files for Apple App Store apps. This makes it the most frequently mentioned direct ad partner for apps available on the Apple App Store. Coming in at second is unity.com, which is listed by 27.62% of Apple App Store apps. facebook.com comes in at third with 27.15%.
Who Are the Top 'Reseller' Ad Partners Inside the App-Ads.txt in Apple App Store Apps?
Reseller ad partners are those which have been granted permission by the app developer to resell app ad space. Rubiconproject.com is listed as a reseller ad partner on 42.15% of all "App-Ads.txt" files for Apple App Store apps. This makes it the most frequently listed reseller ad partner for Apple App Store apps. Coming in at second is pubmatic.com with 41.32%. Openx.com places third, having been listed on 41.31% of Apple App Store apps which have App-Ads.txt.