Sellers.json is an IAB provided standard to allow buyers to discover and verify the entities who are either direct sellers of or intermediaries in the selected digital advertising opportunity for purchase. This includes verifying publisher identities, including the name, domain name, and seller ID.
Google's sellers.json file provides a reliable way for buyers to identify direct inventory versus reseller inventory.
Sellers.json fields
The sellers.json file, that Google hosts, includes a JSON object with the following fields:
| Field | Description |
seller_id |
16-digit publisher code, e.g. pub-1234567890123456 |
is_confidential |
When true, the name and domain fields are omitted. |
seller_type |
Seller is listed as one type:
|
name |
Name of the seller entity. This name can be found in Payments
If you change your business name, this will result in an automatic payment delay of two weeks. |
domain |
Domain of seller entity. If you're an |
Publisher transparency
An account with the seller type of PUBLISHER sells inventory directly on a site, app, or other medium and is directly paid by Google.
We encourage you to make your information transparent and publicly available by allowing your information to be listed in the sellers.json file to best help ad buyers verify your inventory. If this information is not made transparent, buyers will not be able to see your business name or business domain.
Opt in to have your information listed
First, your site must be verified by Google to add it to sellers.json, unless you are a child publisher in Multiple Customer Management.
This setting is available for the seller type PUBLISHER. Intermediaries will automatically be set to transparent.
- Sign in to Google Ad Manager.
- Click Admin
Global Settings.
- Click Ad Exchange account settings.
- Select Enable next to "Sellers.json transparency".
- Add or edit your “Sellers.json business domain”.
- Click Save.
Please be aware that if you change your business name, this will result in an automatic payment delay of two weeks.
Your business name, business domain (if provided), and your publisher ID will appear in the Google sellers.json file. Some publishers may not be listed in sellers.json.
Example
The publisher Example Company Inc. has made their information transparent in the Google sellers.json file. This is what advertisers see:
"sellerId": "pub-1234567890123456",
"sellerType": "PUBLISHER",
"name": "Example Company Inc."
"domain": "example.com"Your business domain
Your business domain is the domain for your corporate entity, not necessarily the domain where inventory is being monetized.
Your business domain name may be hidden in sellers.json until we have verified that you own the URL.
Note: If you don't have a web presence or your account is set to confidential, you do not need to provide a domain.
Use the root domain. Domain names should not include “www” or the scheme (namely, “https://” “http://”, or “ftp://”). Your domain should use a public suffix. Top-level domains should not include the preceding dot.
| Use case | Example | |
|---|---|---|
| Domain name | google.com and google.co.uk |
|
| Scheme | https://google.com |
|
| Prefix and subdomains | google.com and subdomain.google.com |
|
| Slash | google.com/ |
|
| Unsupported domain suffix | google.ltd and google.tech |
Multiple domains
sellers.json file. The seller-id represents the company that is being paid for their inventory, rather than representing each individual site. The domain for this entry should be a business/company domain of the child publisher, where ads can serve but are not required to.Intermediary transparency
An account with a seller type of INTERMEDIARY sells inventory in Google Ad Manager which is not owned by the account or is not paid directly by Google. For example, Multiple Customer Management parent publishers would qualify as an intermediary.
Intermediaries and accounts with a seller type of BOTH will have is_confidential set to false by default.
Your information in Google’s sellers.json file
Review Google’s sellers.json file at realtimebidding.google.com/sellers.json.
If you have one or more accounts with AdSense, AdMob, or Ad Manager, you will appear in the sellers.json for each product. Your seller_id is unique to each product, but your transparency status and domain will be shared across all products. It’s not possible to be confidential for one product and transparent in another.
If you edit your business information for sellers.json in either AdSense, AdMob, or Ad Manager, your information will update across all products. For example, if you go into your AdSense account and activate Sellers.json transparency, this will automatically update your Ad Manager and AdMob accounts to also activate transparency.
Example
Example Company Inc. has accounts for AdMob (pub-9876543210123456), AdSense (pub-1122334455667788) , and Ad Manager (pub-1234567890123456).
Example Company Inc. activates transparency in their Ad Manager account (pub-1234567890123456). Example Company Inc.’s AdMob account and AdSense account will automatically be updated and set to transparent.
When Example Company Inc. updates the business domain to example.com in AdSense, their Ad Manager and AdMob accounts will automatically be updated to include the business domain example.com.
Find your information
- Download Google’s sellers.json file(right-click the link, and then click Save Link As).
- Open the downloaded
sellers.jsonfile. - Use Ctrl + F (Command ⌘ + F, for Mac) to find your
seller_id. - Review your information.
