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Picnic Inventory Quality Report — 2026

DEFINING QUALITY
IN AN AI-DISRUPTED
INTERNET

AI has made low-quality supply nearly free to produce. Picnic's annual Inventory Quality Report shows what's actually happening to open-web inventory and how advertisers can protect ad-spend.

IQR
120k domains scored by PIQ
in 2026
100+ quality signals measured
per domain
44% of domains fail PIQ's
quality threshold
5× More consented sessions
on high-quality inventory
 

QUALITY ISN'T
INVISIBLE... 

AI didn't create the open web's quality problem but it did make it cheaper to scale. The industry has accumulated metrics, viewability, brand safety, domain authority — but none of them were designed to measure quality holistically. Buyers have been lacking an independent view that combines them into something they can actually act on.

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Advertisers are filtering out some risk, but they’re also missing the majority of high-quality inventory. That's where spend and performance are being lost. 

Matthew Goldhill

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INSIDE THE REPORT

THE THREE FORCES RESHAPING THE OPEN WEB

Together, they're changing how value is created and lost in programmatic.

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THE PIQ10

THE DOMAINS DELIVERING QUALITY FOR ADVERTISERS

Each year, PIQ surfaces the top domains providing the most consistently high-quality advertising environments. Even within the top tier of open-web inventory, quality can vary significantly.

The 2024 PIQ10

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The PIQ10 has changed. Download the report to see who made the cut this year, and which domains dropped from the list.

GET THE REPORT
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WHAT IS THE PIQ SCORE?

PIQ analyses 100+ quality signals, including ad density, ad refresh rates, video player behaviour — and combines them into a single score from 0–100. Unlike single-metric filters, PIQ reflects the full ad environment a real user experiences.

Scores above 50 are classified as High Quality and anything below 30 is Low Quality. According to PIQ data, 44% of domains are in that bottom tier.

VIEW PIQ METHODOLOGY
MAKE EACH IMPRESSION COUNT.

The Inventory Quality Report shows where programmatic spend is being wasted, which signals to trust, and how to build a higher-quality inventory strategy in 2026.

DOWNLOAD THE REPORT

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