What do all the different costs (for example, media spend) mean?
With new features comes new terminology! Here are the most common terms to help you better understand the new system:
Media spend is the cost of buying media.
Data cost is the cost of data usage from various data providers (eg. BlueKai, LiveRamp, etc.).
The license fee is DSP’s fee, which is agreed upon in the Master Service Agreement.
Agency spend is the amount Outbrain DSP bills to the agency. It’s the sum of media spend, data cost, and license fee.
Total spend is the amount billed by the agency to the end client.
How are license fees and margins calculated?
Margin is calculated as a percentage of total spend (the amount billed to the end client). The license fee is calculated as a percentage of agency spend or it can be a flat fee.
How is an account migrated to the new scheme of margins?
An account can easily be migrated into the new scheme at any time and this will eventually happen with all accounts. After this transition, metrics (such as average CPC, bid CPC, etc.), campaign budgets, and daily budgets will include the license fee and your selected margin. The change will also affect past data and any reports generated post-migration.
If your account has been migrated and you can't see the Total spend and Agency spend columns in the table, click on the Columns button and adjust the view by checking the appropriate boxes.
Can I hide the margin column from certain types of user accounts?
For now, this is provided on a per-user basis. Please contact your customer success manager for more information.
Is data cost also part of agency spend?
Yes. Agency spend is the sum of media spend, data cost and license fee.
Why is my average CPC suddenly higher?
In the past, the license fee and margin were not taken into account when calculating average CPCs in the Outbrain DSP dashboard, so users had to add them manually to keep track of their actual costs. This extra work has now been eliminated, as the average CPCs post-transition also include the license fee and margin.
I’m using margin. What will be on my invoice?
Using the margin function will not affect your invoice. The amounts featured on your invoice will only include agency spend, so media spend, data cost and license fees. Then the agency adds the margin when billing its client.