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.
Please refer to How to Order and Manage Deals for detailed instructions on how to order deals and add them to the platform.
If you require assistance with deal requests from BidTheatre's support team, we offer this service at a cost of +5 CPM.
When is a deal needed?
When inventory is not available on the open market. Not all programmatic inventory is accessible on the open market, and in these cases, a deal is required. This can include specific ad types, placements, or even entire websites and publishers.
When you need priority in the bidding process. If you find that a campaign is not delivering as expected with a particular publisher, it may be worth reaching out to the publisher to request a PMP (Private Marketplace) deal to gain priority in the bidding process.
When you want guaranteed impressions. If you want to ensure a specific number of impressions for a campaign, you can contact the publisher and request a Programmatic Guaranteed deal to secure those impressions.
Ad type | Is a deal required? |
DOOH | Required with all publishers except Ocean Outdoor. Reach out to your CSM or KAM for access to deal information for platform deals. For custom deals, such as Programmatic Guaranteed campaigns, contact the publisher directly. |
CTV | All publishers require customer-specific deals. |
Audio | Required by all publishers. |
Video | Required for in-stream placements. |
Display | May be required for certain placements and websites. |
Tip: If you can’t find a specific site you're looking for via Supply → Sites, a deal is likely required. However, it’s not guaranteed that the site offers its inventory programmatically. One way to check is by typing /ads.txt in your browser after the site’s domain to see if the site is integrated with an SSP. If it is, the SSPs will be listed, and it’s likely that a deal can be created for you.
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 |
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. For video one video matching each aspect ratio sent in the deal needs to be provided.
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)