IVT

Invalid traffic (IVT) is ad impressions, clicks or other events that do not come from a real person with a genuine chance to see the ad, including known bots, crawlers, fraud and hijacked devices.

The MRC's Invalid Traffic Detection and Filtration Guidelines, version 1.0, issued on 27 October 2015, split IVT into two classes (MRC via PR Newswire, 27 October 2015). General invalid traffic (GIVT) is caught by routine, list-based filtering. It covers known bots, spiders and crawlers, non-browser user agents, and pre-fetched or pre-rendered pages. Sophisticated invalid traffic (SIVT) needs advanced analytics, cross-checks from several sources or human review. It covers hijacked devices, ad tags or creatives, adware, malware and misappropriated content.

Measurement vendors report the two classes separately, and buyers usually ask for both. Sellers act too. ads.txt, app-ads.txt and sellers.json make spoofed inventory harder to sell, and a bidder can decline a suspect request with a no-bid reason code.

IVT and fraud overlap but are not the same. A search engine crawler is invalid traffic but not malicious. A botnet faking video views is both.

Example: In the ANA's Q2 2026 benchmark, spend lost to invalid traffic held at 0.1% of tracked programmatic spend (ANA via Fiducia, 6 August 2026). The figure covers only the spend the benchmark tracked, which is measured by its participants' vendors.

Related terms: ads.txt, sellers.json, ads.cert, MFA site, viewability.

Authoritative source: Media Rating Council, Invalid Traffic Detection and Filtration Guidelines, version 1.0, announced 27 October 2015.

Read the full guide: Ad fraud detection tools and companies compared.