Glossary/Programmatic/Ad fraud and invalid traffic (IVT)
What is ad fraud and invalid traffic (IVT)?
What counts as invalid traffic, the difference between general and sophisticated IVT, and how publishers keep their inventory clean.
Written by Samhub with the help of AI·Updated 13 Oct 2026·3 min readInvalid traffic (IVT) is ad impressions or clicks that do not come from real, interested people, for example bots, crawlers or fraud. Ad fraud is invalid traffic created on purpose to steal ad money.
Types of invalid traffic
| Type | Examples |
|---|---|
| General IVT (GIVT) | Known bots, search crawlers, data center traffic |
| Sophisticated IVT (SIVT) | Bots that mimic humans, hijacked devices, hidden ads, domain spoofing |
How IVT is detected
Verification vendors and ad platforms check traffic patterns, devices and behavior. Buyers often filter IVT before bidding and refuse to pay for impressions flagged after delivery.
16 pages for publishers, with a checklist for data, programmatic and direct sales.
How publishers stay clean
Publish ads.txt and sellers.json
So buyers can check who is allowed to sell your inventory.
Watch traffic sources
Bought traffic is a common source of IVT.
Use verification
Monitor IVT rates per source and section.
CPM uplift at Stampen Media after activating first-party audiences with Samhub.
Frequently asked questions
No. Search crawlers and monitoring tools are invalid but harmless. Fraud is deliberate.
Fraud where low-quality inventory is passed off as a well-known publisher’s site.
Yes. Buyers deduct invalid impressions and may avoid publishers with high IVT.
It lists the companies allowed to sell your inventory, which makes spoofing harder.
Related terms
Keeping ads away from harmful content.
Whether an ad had a real chance to be seen.
The software publishers use to sell impressions.
The technology used to buy, sell and measure ads.
Sites built mainly to sell ads.
Ads used to spread malware or scams.
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