Pixalate Launches Mobile Seller Trust Index 2.0 to Improve Transparency in Programmatic Mobile Advertising

Pixalate, a prominent platform in the field of ad fraud prevention and privacy compliance, has declared the launch of its Mobile Seller Trust Index (STI) 2.0, a more advanced measurement tool for increasing transparency in the open programmatic mobile app ecosystem.

The updated index introduces a significant advancement in how buyers evaluate mobile app sellers by clearly distinguishing between authorized publisher-direct inventory and arbitraged reseller inventory. Covering more than 200 open programmatic mobile app sellers across 100+ global markets, STI 2.0 is available as a free public resource and will be updated on a quarterly basis.

In the programmatic advertising model, the buyer finds it difficult to ascertain whether the ad inventory comes directly from the publisher or has been routed through several ad resellers. This has led to the cost layers, also termed the “tech tax.” However, SPO has been proposed as a solution to address the inefficiencies in the system. Nevertheless, the absence of independent benchmarking tools has hindered buyers in ascertaining the quality and transparency of the sellers.

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This is where STI 2.0 aims to make a measurable impact.

By providing seller-level and market-level intelligence, the index helps advertisers, agencies, and demand-side platforms better understand which partners offer direct inventory access at scale and which primarily operate as intermediaries.

“Buyers want to be one hop from the publisher at scale,” said Jalal Nasir, CEO of Pixalate. “Now they can see, seller by seller and market by market, who actually holds direct publisher relationships and who is adding hops.”

The launch is especially relevant as brands continue to prioritize media efficiency, fraud reduction, and transparent supply chains in their digital advertising strategies.

What the Mobile Seller Trust Index 2.0 Measures

For each seller in every covered country, the model evaluates three key dimensions:

• What Sellers Claim: The number of publishers listing the seller as DIRECT in their app-ads.txt files, as detected by Pixalate.
• Verification of Seller Claims: The scale and ratio of impressions that actually flowed through an authorized-direct supply path, based on Pixalate’s SupplyChain Object (SCO) analysis.
• Seller Arbitrage Risk: An independent Pixalate risk rating that identifies sellers distributing more than 50% of inventory as a reseller, according to SCO analysis.

This framework gives media buyers a more objective way to benchmark supply partners and make better-informed decisions around inventory sourcing and spend optimization.

For the wider advertising and marketing industry, the release of STI 2.0 represents an increased demand for transparency in the supply chain, lower intermediary costs, and stronger fraud detection capabilities in the mobile programmatic advertising sector.

It is likely to have an impact on agencies and enterprise brands’ approach to their SPO strategies, potentially shifting the focus from theory to data validation.

Given the continued growth and expansion of mobile app advertising around the world, the release of STI 2.0 is likely to have a significant impact on the wider industry and reinforce Pixalate’s position as a major player in the sector and an important tool to help the industry move towards a more transparent and cost-efficient model.