A deal is a pre-negotiated agreement between a buyer and seller to transact ad inventory. Contrary to an open auction, where a bid is placed on inventory without a necessity for prior contact between the buyer and the seller, a deal uses a unique deal id (also known as deal key or deal token) in the bid request and the bid response to identify the agreement.
To participate in a deal, it is required to bid above the agreed deal CPM. Note that bidding above the agreed CPM will not result in a cost higher than the agreed deal. Just as in open auctions however, deal auctions may involve several bidding buyers. Hence the final price may be above the set deal CPM price, as a consequence of competition. Consult with your seller to understand the details and what type of deal you are setting up.
Types of Deals
The seller may set up different types of deals depending on what you have agreed and wish to accomplish. We list some common deal types below.
Deal Type | Purpose - Description |
Auction | Curation - Target inventory that matches buyers needs |
Private Auction | Targeting - Buyer <> Seller shared identifier |
Preferred | Priority - Help the buyer win more impressions |
Guaranteed | Guaranteed - Reserving inventory |
Seat ID
The deal id is generated by the seller and communicated to the buyer. The seller may need to know the unique seat ID identifying the buyer account at BidTheatre. This is visible in Account Settings.
How to work with deals
To use deals in your bid strategies, follow the following steps:
Once the deal id is available, add the deal in Supply > Deals
Manually create a sitelist and add the deal to the sitelist by following the sitelist's "view > edit deals" link. You may add several deals to one sitelist. Also add the sites that are relevant to the deal to the sitelist.
Or, check "Autosync to sitelist" on the deal to automatically create a sitelist and add the deal to it and any sites that have incoming bid requests with the deal id. Note that sites are automatically added based on yesterday's activity on the deal.
Follow the "Tags" link on the deal to inspect incoming bid requests on the deal. This is useful to verify that the deal is active at the seller. Note that this statistics is based on yesterday's activity.
Use the deal sitelist in your bid strategies as usual.
Automatic Synchronization
BidTheatre automatically synchronizes deal information with some of the connected SSPs. This means that besides setting up the deal in the SSP no additional actions are needed to have the deal and corresponding sitelist created in the Bidtheatre platform. Only active deals are synchronized. Synchronization is done once per hour.
Xandr
If you BidTheatre account is tied to a personal Xandr Member ID (instead of the default BidTheatre member ID 1247), deals can be synchronized.
NOTE: If the deal token already exist in the Bidtheatre platform, only the cpm and currency of the deal is is updated. If the deal type manually is changed to Programmatic Guaranteed, no further data will be synced for that deal.
Pubmatic
Pubmatic does not provide the seat id the deal is created for but only the corresponding seat name. If the seat name is equal, or at least close enough, to your Bidtheatre account name the deal will be synced to your account.
All deal floor CPM prices are given in USD and stored as such, they are however listed in your accounts currency when viewed via our GUI.
NOTE: If the deal token already exist in the BidTheatre platform, no action is taken.
Magnite (Rubicon)
NOTE: If the deal token already exist in the Bidtheatre platform, no action is taken.
NOTE: If the deal token already exist in the Bidtheatre platform, no action is taken.
Programmatic Guaranteed Deals
Some sellers support so called "programmatic guaranteed" deals. The idea behind these deals is that the buyer refrains from all types of targeting, and commits to bid and buy each available impression sold.
Campaigns running programmatic guaranteed deals will:
Run with ASAP priority
Not be able to use audiences
Not be able to use filter targets, including any frequency caps
Not be able to use period schedules or targets
When setting up a campaign to target programmatic guaranteed deal(s) you need to make sure that campaign settings comply with what has been negotiated with the seller. Check each of these settings:
All needed creative formats are available
The set max CPM is above the fixed deal price, including any technical fees
Cycle flight date and targets will fit what is expected by the seller, with some margin. Keep in mind potential time zone differences between the platforms.
The "All countries" geo target is used
To set up a programmatic guaranteed campaign, follow these steps:
Set up the deal like any other deal, choose deal type "Programmatic Guaranteed" and check "Auto sync to sitelist". Within a few minutes, a site list with the deal will be created.
Set up your campaign, choosing "Programmatic Guaranteed" as priority. This will disable all disallowed settings such as audiences and filters.
Create a bid strategy with the deal site list, using all available creative formats.
To troubleshoot programmatic guaranteed deals, we recommend to inspect campaign Bid Metrics.
NOTE: BidTheatre DSP may refrain from bidding on programmatic guaranteed campaigns in the following scenarios:
The bid request is from a blocked IP
The bid request is from a blocked domain
The publisher id + domain has not previously been seen (allow 24 hours to pass for new publisher id + domains to become available)