Pixalate Blog

Pixalate’s Q2 2025 Programmatic Ad Seller Misrepresentation REPORT

Written by Pixalate | Sep 17, 2025 5:00:00 PM

According to Pixalate’s latest Supply Path Optimization (SPO) research using SupplyChain Object (SCO) data, 14% of traffic with SCOs on CTV apps failed Pixalate’s SCO verification due to an unauthorized seller (including direct or resellers); for measured web traffic, the figure was 10%   

LONDON, September 17, 2025 -- Pixalate, the global market-leading ad fraud protection, privacy, and compliance analytics platform, today released the Q2 2025 Programmatic Ad Seller Misrepresentation Report for Connected TV (CTV), desktop and mobile web, and mobile apps. The report uses SCO data to examine unauthorized mobile app, CTV, and web sellers within the open programmatic advertising supply chain.

The SupplyChainObject (SCO) lets buyers and intermediaries view all parties selling or reselling open programmatic advertising inventory. Numerous partners are often involved in open programmatic supply paths, fragmenting the ecosystem and making it vulnerable to ad fraud attacks. Pixalate's latest report highlights the prevalence of unauthorized selling within the global programmatic supply chain despite the implementation of ads.txt or app-ads.txt.

Programmatic Ad Seller Misrepresentation Key Findings

Mobile

  • Failing Verification. 35% of traffic with SCOs on mobile apps failed Pixalate’s SCO verification due to an unauthorized seller (including direct or resellers)
  • Higher Ad Fraud Rates. 107% higher IVT, including ad fraud, in traffic with an unauthorized direct seller 
  • Unauthorized Direct Sellers. 5% of all mobile app traffic with an SCO marked as ‘complete’ was sold by unauthorized direct sellers

CTV

  • Failing Verification. 14% of traffic with SCOs on CTV apps failed Pixalate’s SCO verification due to an unauthorized seller (including direct or resellers)
  • Higher Ad Fraud Rates. 4% higher IVT, including ad fraud, in traffic with an unauthorized direct seller 
  • Unauthorized Direct Sellers. 15% of all CTV traffic with an SCO marked as ‘complete’ was sold by unauthorized direct sellers

Desktop Web

  • Failing Verification. 10% of traffic with SCOs on web failed Pixalate’s SCO verification due to an unauthorized seller (including direct or resellers)
  • Higher Ad Fraud Rates. 83% higher IVT, including ad fraud, in traffic with an unauthorized direct seller 
  • Unauthorized Direct Sellers. 4% of all web traffic with an SCO marked as ‘complete’ was sold by unauthorized direct sellers

Pixalate’s analysis includes a set of SCO verification checks as defined by Pixalate, utilizing IAB Tech Lab’s ads.txt/app-ads.txt standards, along with SCO data from the OpenRTB bid stream to evaluate the accuracy of declared supply paths in the ad bid stream.  Learn more about Pixalate’s SCO verification and validation.

For this report series, Pixalate's data science team analyzed over 18 billion programmatic ad impressions containing the OpenRTB SupplyChain Object (SCO) during Q2 2025.

Download the complete Q2 2025 Supply Path Optimization (SPO) Reports:

       

About Pixalate

Pixalate is a global market-leading ad fraud protection, privacy, and compliance analytics platform. Pixalate works 24/7 to guard your reputation and grow your media value by offering the only system of coordinated solutions across display, app, video, and CTV for the detection and elimination of ad fraud. Pixalate is an MRC-accredited service for the detection and filtration of sophisticated invalid traffic (SIVT) across desktop and mobile web, mobile in-app, and CTV advertising. www.pixalate.com

Disclaimer

The content of this press release, and the Programmatic Ad Seller Misrepresentation Reports (the “Reports”), reflect Pixalate's opinions with respect to factors that Pixalate believes can be useful to the digital media industry. Pixalate's opinions are just that, opinions, which means that they are neither facts nor guarantees. Pixalate is sharing this data not to impugn the standing or reputation of any entity, person or app, but, instead, to report findings and trends pertaining to programmatic advertising activity across mobile apps in the time period studied. 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.”

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