Publisher ID Reverse Lookup

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Why AdSense Publishers Matter to Your Marketing Strategy

Look, here’s the truth about AdSense publishers that nobody tells you. You’re about to spend money advertising somewhere. Maybe a lot of money. You need to know who you’re dealing with. That’s where this gets interesting.

What You’re Actually Looking At: 1.1M+ Publishers Decoded

Think of sellers.json like a phonebook for websites that show ads. Except instead of phone numbers, you get publisher IDs like "pub-1234567890". Google AdSense created this system because the advertising world had a massive problem: nobody knew who was actually selling ad space.

Before sellers.json existed, you could pay for ads on what you thought was Forbes.com, but your ads might actually appear on scammy-looking-forbes-news-dot-biz. That’s fraud. And it was costing advertisers billions annually. The IAB Tech Lab (Internet Advertising Bureau) said enough is enough and created the sellers.json standard in 2019.

Now here’s what we’ve done. We’ve taken Google’s entire sellers.json file—which is a massive 110MB JSON file that updates daily—and turned it into something you can actually use. We’re tracking 1,136,077 publishers and 182,292 verified domains. Updated every single day at 2:00 AM. No manual parsing required.

Here’s what that means for you:

• You can verify any publisher ID in 2 seconds instead of digging through a giant JSON file
• You get traffic data so you know which publishers actually matter
• You can track new publishers daily and spot opportunities before your competitors
• You see domain associations to catch fraud attempts instantly

The Numbers That Actually Matter

Let me break down what we’re seeing in the data. This isn’t theoretical—this is real intelligence from over a million publishers actively selling ad inventory right now.

Traffic Tier	Monthly Visits	Publisher Count	What This Means
Elite Tier	10M+	~100	Major media properties - premium pricing
High Tier	1M-10M	~1,000	Established publishers - solid ROI potential
Mid Tier	100K-1M	~10,000	Growing publishers - best value often here
Entry Tier	10K-100K	~50,000	Small publishers - niche opportunities
Emerging	<10K	~965,000	New or micro publishers - high risk

Notice something? The vast majority of publishers are small. Really small. That’s why traffic data matters so much. Without it, you’re flying blind. We pull traffic estimates from Keywords Everywhere API and cross-reference with AdSense API data to give you the clearest picture possible.

Domain Distribution Insights

Average domains per publisher: 0.2

New publishers this week: +0

Publishers with verified domains: 185,353

How Smart Advertisers Use This Data

Let me give you three real scenarios where this database saves your ass (and your budget).

1Vetting Publishers Before Ad Partnerships

You’re considering a direct partnership with a publisher who claims 5 million monthly visitors. Sounds great, right? But before you write that check, you search their publisher ID here.

What you discover: They actually have 500K monthly visitors (not 5M), operate across 12 different domains (some questionable), and their seller type is "BOTH" meaning they’re reselling inventory—not just their own content.

Result: You just saved 90% on that partnership by negotiating with real numbers. Or you walked away entirely.

2Competitive Intelligence on Competitor Placements

Your competitor is getting amazing results from somewhere. You see their ads on a specific domain. You grab that domain, search it here, and boom—you see the publisher ID and every other domain that publisher operates.

What you discover: That publisher runs a network of 20 niche sites in your industry. Your competitor is buying across the whole network. You just found their entire placement strategy.

Result: You can now approach that same publisher or identify similar networks to compete effectively.

3Fraud Detection - Domain Spoofing Identification

You’re seeing suspicious activity. Ads showing on domains that don’t match the publisher name. So you search the publisher ID and check their verified domains list.

What you discover: The domains where your ads are appearing aren’t associated with that publisher ID at all. Someone is spoofing the publisher. This is ad fraud in action.

Result: You report it to Google, block those domains, and prevent thousands in wasted ad spend.

Your Edge: Double-Verified Domains

Here’s where we go beyond just parsing Google’s sellers.json file. We also pull data from the AdSense API. Why does this matter? Because we can double-verify domains.

When a domain appears in both the sellers.json file and the AdSense API, we mark it with 100% confidence. That’s what we call "double verification". It means Google confirmed it twice through different systems. That’s as solid as it gets.

When a domain only appears in one source, we still show it but with 95% confidence. Still reliable, just not double-confirmed. This transparency lets you make informed decisions about which publishers to trust with your ad budget.

The Coverage Problem (And How We’re Solving It)

Here’s the reality: about 85% of publishers in sellers.json don’t initially have domain information. They just have publisher IDs. That’s a massive gap.

We’re systematically enriching this data by querying the AdSense API for every publisher. It’s a massive operation—we’re talking about 880,000+ API calls at 100 requests per minute. This enrichment process runs continuously.

Bottom line: Every day, more publishers get domain associations. The database gets smarter. Your intelligence gets better.

Confidence Scoring Methodology

100%

Double-Verified Domains

Appears in both sellers.json and AdSense API - highest trust level

95%

Single-Source Verified

Confirmed through AdSense API only - still reliable

N/A

No Domain Data

Publisher exists but domain information not yet available

This isn’t just data for data’s sake. This is actionable intelligence. You’re making decisions about where to spend your advertising budget. Those decisions should be based on facts, not guesses. That’s exactly what we built this for.

The advertising ecosystem is complex and sometimes deliberately opaque. Publishers don’t always want you to know how many domains they operate or how much traffic they really get. Intermediaries don’t always disclose their role. And fraudsters? They definitely don’t want transparency.

We’re giving you the transparency that should’ve existed from the start.

1,136,077 publishers • 182,292 domains • Updated daily • Free to use

How to Use Publisher Radar

Powerful tools for publishers, advertisers, and ad tech professionals

Publisher ID Reverse Lookup

Ever see a "pub-1234567890" in your ad reports and wonder who the hell that is? We get it. Paste that Publisher ID into our search and instantly see every domain they operate, their traffic numbers, and whether they’re legit. Takes 2 seconds. We’ve processed millions of these lookups for marketers like you who need answers fast, not hours of digging through JSON files.

Domain Verification

See a domain running ads and need to verify who owns the AdSense account? Search the domain here. You’ll see the publisher ID, traffic estimates, and confidence scores. This is crucial for spotting domain spoofing—where scammers pretend to be legitimate publishers. If the domain isn’t listed under that publisher ID, that’s a red flag. Simple as that.

Traffic Insights

Stop guessing which publishers are worth your time. Our database shows real monthly traffic estimates sourced from Keywords Everywhere and AdSense APIs. Sort by traffic to find publishers getting millions of monthly visitors. Whether you’re looking for partnership opportunities or scoping out the competition, traffic numbers tell you who actually has an audience worth advertising to.

Daily Monitoring

Google adds new publishers to sellers.json every single day. We track them all, automatically. Check our daily snapshot pages to see who joined yesterday, last week, or last month. This is how you spot emerging publishers before they blow up—and before your competitors find them. Early access = better deals and first-mover advantage in new niches.

TLD Analysis

Want to understand domain distribution patterns? Browse publishers by top-level domain—.com, .org, .net, .blog, whatever. You’ll see how many publishers operate each TLD and their traffic profiles. Super useful for niche research. For example, .blog domains might indicate content-heavy publishers, while .com suggests established businesses. Patterns matter.

Compliance Checking

Need to verify publisher authenticity for compliance or due diligence? Check seller types (PUBLISHER vs BOTH) to understand if they’re selling their own inventory or acting as intermediaries reselling others’ ad space. PUBLISHER means they own the content. BOTH means they’re also resellers. This distinction matters for supply chain transparency and regulatory compliance in programmatic advertising.

Frequently Asked Questions

Everything you need to know about AdSense Publisher Radar

What is sellers.json?

Sellers.json is a standardized file published by ad exchanges and SSPs (like Google AdSense) that lists all authorized sellers of their advertising inventory. Think of it like a phonebook for the ad tech industry—it tells you who’s allowed to sell ads on Google’s network. The IAB Tech Lab created this standard in 2019 to bring transparency to programmatic advertising and combat fraud. Before sellers.json, nobody really knew who was selling what ad inventory, which made it easy for scammers to pose as legitimate publishers. Now, every publisher gets a unique ID (like pub-1234567890) and can optionally list their domains. This transparency protects both advertisers and legitimate publishers from fraud.

How often is the data updated?

Our database automatically synchronizes with Google’s official sellers.json file every single day at 2:00 AM. We download the latest version (it’s about 110MB), parse it, compare it with our existing database, and update everything—new publishers, removed publishers, domain changes, the works. We also run AdSense API enrichment continuously to fill in missing domain information for publishers that don’t have it in sellers.json. So you’re always looking at data that’s less than 24 hours old. We track daily snapshots too, so you can see historical trends and growth patterns over time. Fresh data matters when you’re making advertising decisions.

What does "PUBLISHER" vs "BOTH" mean?

PUBLISHER means the entity owns and operates the website where ads appear—they’re the actual content creator. BOTH means the entity does two things: they own some sites AND they operate as an intermediary reselling other publishers’ ad inventory. This distinction is crucial for supply chain transparency. If you’re working with a PUBLISHER, you know you’re dealing directly with the content owner. If it says BOTH, they might be reselling space on sites they don’t actually own, which adds another layer to the supply chain. Neither is inherently bad, but you need to know which is which. It affects pricing, quality control, and compliance. Always check this field when vetting potential publisher partnerships.

Where does the traffic data come from?

Traffic estimates come from two primary sources: Keywords Everywhere API and Google’s AdSense API. Keywords Everywhere provides monthly search traffic estimates based on their extensive search data. The AdSense API sometimes includes traffic data when we query for domain information. We display whichever source has the most recent or reliable data. Important caveat: not all publishers have traffic data available. Smaller, newer, or more private publishers often won’t have traffic estimates because they don’t generate enough search traffic to be tracked reliably. When you see N/A for traffic, it doesn’t necessarily mean the site has zero traffic—it just means we don’t have reliable data for it yet. Focus on publishers with traffic data when volume matters.

Can I use this data for commercial purposes?

Absolutely, yes. Google’s sellers.json file is publicly available specifically for transparency purposes—anyone can download and use it. We’ve simply made it way easier to work with by building this searchable database. You can use this data for compliance checking (verifying publishers are legit), market research (understanding the competitive landscape), competitor analysis (finding where competitors advertise), partnership due diligence (vetting publishers before deals), and fraud detection (spotting domain spoofing). All of that is legitimate business use. The whole point of sellers.json is to make the advertising supply chain transparent, so Google expects people to use this data commercially. Just don’t scrape our API aggressively or try to resell our interface—use the data itself as much as you want.

How do I find a specific publisher?

Use the search bar on our homepage—it accepts three types of searches. First, you can search by Publisher ID (like pub-1234567890) for exact matches. Second, you can search by domain name (like example.com) to find which publisher owns that domain. Third, you can search by publisher name if they’ve registered one. The search is debounced and returns results in real-time. If you’re browsing rather than searching, you can use our directory pages sorted by traffic, domain count, or recent additions. We also have TLD-specific pages (like /tld/com) if you want to browse publishers by domain extension. And our daily snapshot pages (/new/YYYY-MM-DD) show publishers added on specific dates. Multiple ways to slice the data depending on what you need.

What is "double verification"?

Domains marked as double verified appear in both Google’s sellers.json file AND their AdSense API responses—meaning Google confirmed that domain-to-publisher connection through two separate systems. This is the gold standard for verification. It means there’s zero ambiguity about whether that domain belongs to that publisher. We assign a 100% confidence score to double-verified domains. If a domain only appears in one source (usually the AdSense API), we still show it but with a 95% confidence score. Double verification matters most when you’re doing fraud detection or compliance work where you need absolute certainty. For general research and prospecting, 95% confidence is usually fine. But when money or legal compliance is on the line, look for that 100% double verification.

Why do some publishers have no domains listed?

About 85% of publishers in Google’s sellers.json file initially have no domain information—just a publisher ID and maybe a name. That’s because Google doesn’t require publishers to disclose their domains in sellers.json; it’s optional. Some publishers keep their domains confidential for competitive reasons. Others just haven’t bothered to add them. That’s where our enrichment process comes in. We query the AdSense API for every publisher to try to find their domains. It’s a massive operation (880,000+ API calls), and we run it continuously. Every day, more publishers get domain data added. If you see a publisher with zero domains today, check back in a week—we might have enriched it by then. This is one of our key value-adds beyond just hosting sellers.json.

How do I identify fraudulent publishers?

Look for these red flags: (1) Publisher has domains listed, but the domains you’re seeing ads on aren’t in that list—that’s potential domain spoofing. (2) Publisher has zero domains and zero traffic data despite claiming to be established—could be fake. (3) Mismatched names—publisher name doesn’t match the domain names at all, which suggests reselling or fraud. (4) Confidence scores below 80%—means the domain association is weak or unverified. (5) Seller type is BOTH but they have tons of unrelated domains—likely an intermediary reselling others’ inventory without clear disclosure. Cross-reference everything: check the publisher ID matches the domains, verify traffic numbers make sense, and watch for inconsistencies. If something feels off, it probably is. Trust your instincts and our confidence scores.

What’s a "good" domain count for a publisher?

Context matters, but here’s the general pattern: Most legitimate individual publishers operate 1-5 domains. Media companies or larger publishers might run 10-30 domains across different properties or niches. Publisher networks or intermediaries often have 50+ domains. If you see someone with 200+ domains and seller type PUBLISHER (not BOTH), that’s unusual—investigate further. High domain counts aren’t inherently bad, but they should match the publisher’s business model. A small blog shouldn’t have 100 domains. A major media company should. The average across our database is around 0.14 domains per publisher, but that’s skewed by the 85% who have zero domains listed initially. Focus on the domains-to-traffic ratio: legitimate publishers with high traffic usually have fewer, high-quality domains. Lots of domains with little traffic? Red flag.

Can I track my competitors’ publisher networks?

Absolutely. Here’s how: Find a domain where you’ve seen your competitor’s ads. Search that domain in our database to find the publisher ID. Click through to see all other domains that publisher operates. Boom—you just found your competitor’s entire network on that publisher. Do this across multiple domains where you’ve spotted competitor ads, and you’ll map out their publisher relationships. You can also sort our directory by traffic to find the highest-traffic publishers and check if your competitors are likely advertising there. This competitive intelligence is 100% legal because all this data is publicly available from Google. We’re just making it searchable. Use this intel to approach the same publishers, find similar alternatives, or identify gaps in your competitor’s strategy. Knowledge is power.

What traffic threshold indicates a serious publisher?

Based on our data, here’s the breakdown: 100K+ monthly visits = legitimate, established publisher worth considering. 1M+ monthly visits = serious publisher with proven audience, usually safe bet for partnerships. 10M+ monthly visits = elite tier publisher, major media property with premium pricing. Below 100K? Could be emerging (good opportunity) or just small-scale (higher risk). Zero traffic data doesn’t automatically disqualify a publisher—it might just mean we haven’t captured their data yet, or they’re in a niche that doesn’t generate search traffic. But if you’re looking for safe, proven publishers with real audiences, start your search at the 100K+ level and work up from there. Use our traffic sorting feature to filter by volume. Don’t just chase the biggest numbers though—mid-tier publishers (100K-1M range) often offer better ROI and less competition.

Have more questions?

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