Pixalate Introduces Supply Chain Object Post-Bid Verification & Pre-Bid Blocking Technology

Pixalate, the global market-leading ad fraud protection, privacy, and compliance analytics platform, has launched a new Supply Chain Object (SCO) audit and verification tool. The tool helps buyers prevent wasted ad spend and rectify problems that persist in complex and fragmented supply paths. Recent Pixalate research found that 17% of SCOs failed verification, and those SCOs had a likely 32% higher IVT rate.

Across every supply path, the tool enables buyers to detect, trace, and root out both the sources and causes of the following at scale:

• Invalid traffic (ad fraud)
• Unauthorised sellers
• Redundant supply paths
• App/domain spoofing

Pixalate classifies invalid SCO information using the following 16 validation & verification reason codes for every ad impression:

SCO verification analytics reports: Post-bid reports enable clients to perform audits based on chain length and various reason codes including IVT and viewability percentage metrics, as measured by Pixalate. The reports are broken down by CTV, mobile, and web. 

Pixalate SCO Verification Post-Bid Analytics Dashboard

Benefits
The actionable information from each report based on Pixalate’s data enables buyers to:

• Ensure compliance with the OpenRTB Supply Chain Object specifications by identifying and blocking traffic from unauthorised direct sellers and resellers.
• Identify and block publishers and sellers with invalid ads.txt/app-ads.txt/sellers.json.
• Identify sellers and publishers with incomplete SCOs to ensure their compliance.
• Assess chain lengths on ad traffic to optimise paths with low IVT and high viewability percentages.
• Identify redundant paths from publishers to eliminate potential bid duplication.

Pre-bid blocking on SCO nodes: Pixalate also launched a data feed of high-risk SCO nodes associated with significantly elevated invalid traffic (IVT) rates, as measured by Pixalate. The block list includes four fields:

• Ad System
• Seller Id
• Primary IVT Risk type
• IVT probability score

Sample High Risk SCO Nodes Datafeed

Using the list, clients can surgically block ad traffic containing specific nodes instead of blocking entire apps, publishers, users, or even sellers.

“Though the SCO provides a valuable transparency standard, ad industry stakeholders have struggled to audit billions of SCOs due to the complexity of verifying the business relationships between ads.txt and sellers.json at scale,” said Amin Bandeali, Pixalate’s CTO. “Our new validation and verification audit tools provide the depth and breadth of actionable information buyers need to 'follow the money' and root out bad actors, ensuring the SCO and their bidding strategies are optimised.”

Watch this video to learn more about Pixalate’s SCO Validation and Verification Tools.