Google AdSense - Provide your seller information with sellers.json

More hoops to jump through

[NickMNS]

New notification this morning from AdSense
Provide your seller information with sellers.json
[support.google.com...]

AdSense would like you to publish a JSON file with your business information, but it appears that providing details about your business is not mandatory. I don't really get the point of this.

Excerpt from the link:

Note: If you don't have a web presence or your account is set to confidential, you do not need to provide a domain.

How is this different than Ads.txt?

[JorgeV]

Hello,

How is this different than Ads.txt?

[iabtechlab.com...]

[CommandDork]

Just got this msg today myself, never heard of sellers.json before.

There's a "Seller Information Visibility" section in my Account Information section now too.

"This gives advertisers a reliable way to discover and verify the identity of publishers."

[JorgeV]

Now, what confuses me, is, if this is a file which has to be uploaded (like ads.txt), because, reading at the documentation, it's unclear, it looks like this is a file internally used by the advertising system.

[CommandDork]

I think it's internal, my impression is you get added to:

https://storage.googleapis.com/adx-rtb-dictionaries/sellers.json

...once you set your account to transparent. But I have yet to see my ID show up.

[JorgeV]

Thank you @CommandDork . This is what I was thinking. However, won't this file be giant? Imagine, all adsense publishers in one file! I say all publishers, because, if you choose to remain confidential, your pub id will still be published. (I can't find my pub id in this file).

Also, for European self employed publishers, like me, won't it be against the GDPR to have our name published in this file ?

I am OK, for advertisers to know my identity and so on, but making it fully public , I am unsure. You know, that people will abuse it, and collect data for "other" usages.

[CommandDork]

Ya that's the weird part - the file is huge already (and I'm not a seller of anything, except ad space), that's why I'm still not sure I'm understanding this correctly just yet. If I follow the directions at the link NickMNS posted above, it's a simple 4-5 step process. Then...

"Review Google’s sellers.json file at realtimebidding.google.com/sellers.json"

This is the strangest hoop yet that Adsense has thrown at us to jump through.

[MayankParmar]

Interesting. The sellers page looks very similar to the way they handle HSTS preload for Chrome.

[JorgeV]

Interesting. The sellers page looks very similar to the way they handle HSTS preload for Chrome.

Because, it's JSON.

[BoredMeteor]

Another pointless hoop to jump through that will improve nothing. Okay then.

[MayankParmar]

Just set it to transparent with the domain name and that should be enough?

It looks like if you monetize more than one domain, you need to enter the "business domain".

[CommandDork]

Ya, that's my take. I didn't fill in a name as I have multiple websites on the acct. Beyond that, I dont know anything more...looks like no one else does either.

And no, no improvememt/change in numbers after Day 1. Wait and see I guess.

[ronron]

I don't see how putting your domain name makes any sense if you have more than one.

[MayankParmar]

If you have more than one domain, they recommend you to add the business domain that presumably includes a portfolio of your sites. Because your business domain is unlikely to have ads or ads.txt, Google says they'll verify that you own the business URL.

I think things will still work even if you add your primary domain. The whole point is transparency (your information). We already have ads.txt to verify the domains and I don't see how advertisers will be able to trust/scan all our domains if we put the business domain.

"Your business domain is the domain for your corporate entity, not necessarily the domain where inventory is being monetized".

[MayankParmar]

Also, this is still a notification. It's not necessary at the moment, so we can contact AdSense support and clear our doubts. Last time I checked AdSense support was limited after the pandemic.

[ember]

I checked the transparent box but did not add a domain since I have several. I'll wait to see what, if anything, happens.

[yaashul]

How often does this google sellor.json file gets updated?

[Nazhahp]

I have updated the setting2 DAYS ago, however I till seeing "we encourage you to ...." when will seller.json file status get updated?

[MayankParmar]

I think we can safely ignore the notification after updating the setting.

[JS_Harris]

Is there a threshold @ google that if a publisher has more than one domain they become a seller?

Very vague.

[JorgeV]

This is what I was thinking too. I can't imagine a single file with the millions of Adsense 's publishers , even if this is only 2 or 3 lines for each. So may be it's only the nth bigger publishers which are listed. I don't know.

[freitasm]

How stupid can this be? Google's JSON file is now at 136,713,330 lines... Who is going to sift through this to find anything?

[MayankParmar]

Looks like a fantastic page to make Chromium eat all my RAM :)

[MayankParmar]

Interesting, a lot of "confidential" entries.

[JorgeV]

Interesting, a lot of "confidential" entries.

Since this is the default setting, most of publishers certainly didn't bother changing it (like me).

By the way, I am still not in the list ...

[NickMNS]

How stupid can this be? Google's JSON file is now at 136,713,330 lines... Who is going to sift through this to find anything?

Although JSON is a human readable format, it is not intended to be read by humans. JSON works with key value pair making searching and reading the sections one needs very fast and efficient. It can also be chunked relatively easily so that you can read the file in section as opposed to fitting the large file entirely into memory.

[freitasm]

Yes, I know how JSON works. My point is that small advertisers won't have even the tools (or interest, or time) to sift through this kind of data (new business idea!) to be meaningful, really.

[puente]

fyi, added my name and main domain when this was announced and it's in there now, whatever that means. file hogs the browser so had to resort to wget and grep to search.