What is direct versus reseller?
Direct versus reseller is the distinction ads.txt draws between an account the publisher controls itself, labeled DIRECT, and an account a third party controls with the publisher's permission, labeled RESELLER. Buyers read it as a signal of how many intermediaries take a cut, and use sellers.json and the supply chain object to check whether the label matches the actual path.
Also called: DIRECT vs RESELLER, direct seller, reseller, authorized reseller.
How it works
In ads.txt and app-ads.txt, each authorized line ends in DIRECT or RESELLER. DIRECT means the publisher holds the account on that advertising system. RESELLER means another company holds the account and resells the publisher's inventory through it. Both are authorized; the label only says who controls the account.
sellers.json describes the same accounts from the platform's side. A seller_type of PUBLISHER should line up with a DIRECT line, and INTERMEDIARY with a RESELLER line. In the bid request, Source.schain shows how many paid hops the impression passed through: a direct path usually has a single node whose seller is the publisher, while a resold path adds a node for each reseller.
The pitfalls are mislabeling and opacity. A reseller account listed as DIRECT, or a sellers.json entry typed PUBLISHER for a company that resells, misleads buyers who rank paths by directness. Because buyers running supply path optimization often prefer direct paths, sellers have a reason to blur the line, and the only defense is checking all three sources against each other.
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Related terms
Every term is in the glossary.