Pixalate’s Q2 2025 Programmatic Ad Seller Misrepresentation Report for Connected TV (CTV) Traffic analyzes billions of web open programmatic ad impressions containing the OpenRTB Supply Chain Object (SCO) to evaluate the accuracy of declared supply paths.
Despite the industry’s adoption of ads.txt and app-ads.txt to increase transparency, Pixalate’s analysis found that unauthorized selling is a persistent issue, challenging the perception that these measures have secured the ecosystem.
The digital advertising industry introduced the ads.txt specification to curb inventory misrepresentation and unauthorized selling by enabling publishers to declare authorized sellers of their inventory. However, Pixalate’s latest findings hint that weak enforcement is undermining its effectiveness.
This report benchmarks the current state of supply paths, focusing on the scope of unauthorized sellers, including both direct sellers and resellers. For a comprehensive study of the supply chain, refer to our SupplyChain Object Verification Report.
For this report series, Pixalate's data science team analyzed billions of programmatic ad impressions containing the OpenRTB SupplyChain Object (SCO) during Q2 2025. Our analysis, based on a set of SCO Verification checks defined by Pixalate, utilized data from OpenRTB SCO and ads.txt / app-ads.txt files to evaluate the accuracy of declared supply paths in the ad bidstream.
The ads.txt initiative, created by the IAB Tech Lab, was designed to increase transparency in the programmatic advertising ecosystem. It allows publishers and other inventory owners to publicly declare which companies are authorized to sell their digital ad space, helping reduce domain spoofing and misrepresentation.
The app-ads.txt standard applies the same concept to mobile and Connected TV (CTV) apps, giving app developers a way to publish a list of authorized sellers for their inventory. Together, ads.txt and app-ads.txt help buyers verify authenticity and minimize the risk of fraud in programmatic transactions.
The sellers.json file is published by sellers to indicate the partners they work with. A published and accessible sellers.json file allows the identities of all nodes (entities that participated in the bid request) in the Supply Chain object to be discovered.
As used herein, and per the MRC, “'Invalid Traffic' (IVT) is defined generally as traffic that does not meet certain ad serving quality or completeness criteria, or otherwise does not represent legitimate ad traffic that should be included in measurement counts. Among the reasons why ad traffic may be deemed invalid is it is a result of non-human traffic (spiders, bots, etc.), or activity designed to produce fraudulent traffic.”
The SupplyChain Object (SCO) is an OpenRTB initiative designed to provide transparency and list all entities in the open programmatic ad supply chain for a given transaction. For more information, see Pixalate’s SCO background video.
To learn more about Pixalate’s SCO-focused IVT types, like ‘SCO Unauthorized Direct Seller IVT’, please visit our knowledge base article on the topic.
Pixalate is a global platform for privacy compliance, ad fraud prevention, and data intelligence in the digital ad supply chain. Founded in 2012, Pixalate’s platform is trusted by regulators, data researchers, advertisers, publishers, ad tech platforms, and financial analysts across the Connected TV (CTV), mobile app, and website ecosystems. Pixalate is MRC-accredited for the detection and filtration of Sophisticated Invalid Traffic (SIVT).
Disclaimer: The content of this page reflects Pixalate’s opinions with respect to the factors that Pixalate believes can be useful to the digital media industry. Any proprietary data shared is grounded in Pixalate’s proprietary technology and analytics, which Pixalate is continuously evaluating and updating. Any references to outside sources should not be construed as endorsements. Pixalate’s opinions are just that - opinion, not facts or guarantees.
Per the MRC, “'Fraud' is not intended to represent fraud as defined in various laws, statutes and ordinances or as conventionally used in U.S. Court or other legal proceedings, but rather a custom definition strictly for advertising measurement purposes. Also per the MRC, “‘Invalid Traffic’ is defined generally as traffic that does not meet certain ad serving quality or completeness criteria, or otherwise does not represent legitimate ad traffic that should be included in measurement counts. Among the reasons why ad traffic may be deemed invalid is it is a result of non-human traffic (spiders, bots, etc.), or activity designed to produce fraudulent traffic.”
