Overview

Programmatic guaranteed deals have a fixed price and only one buyer. The buyer commits to buy all the impressions, as agreed upon in the deal.

With programmatic guaranteed deals, publishers monetize inventory similarly to direct campaign monetization, but rely on programmatic transaction mechanisms. Programmatic guaranteed deals share a priority level similar to guaranteed direct campaigns with the impression volumes being reserved in the forecast.

The holistic yield mechanism ensures guaranteed volume commitments are met while maximizing revenues from non-guaranteed campaigns. 

DSPs that support programmatic guaranteed deals with Equativ include: Google, Infillion, The Trade Desk (TTD), adform, Amobee, Mobsuccess, Unruly, Hawk (Tabmo), Piximedia, Beeswax, Active Agent, LiquidM, Basis Technologies and Mediasmart. 

New programmatic guaranteed deal workflow

As of late Q2, 2024, a new creation workflow for programmatic guaranteed deals is in place with a new campaign monetization channel Programmatic Guaranteed, which has been added to the existing set of monetization channels (Direct, RTB, Video Ad Exchange and Mediation).

The benefits of the new workflow include:

• increased efficiency through the consolidation of the programmatic guaranteed workflow in the campaign management workflow
• seamless and less error-prone workflow with insertions adapted to the needs of programmatic guaranteed deals
• enhanced automatic deal synchronization thanks to the impression type assigned in the programmatic guaranteed campaign
• improved deal monitoring in the deal list thanks to programmatic guaranteed deals being deactivated automatically at their end date

Notes

• The new workflow is in place only for programmatic guaranteed deals - the workflows for private auctions and preferred deals remain unchanged.
• Programmatic guaranteed deals created in the new workflow can be monitored in the deal list as usual, but cannot be accessed from there - more details in chapter “Programmatic guaranteed deals in deal list” below.
• The legacy programmatic guaranteed workflow remains operational for now, but it will be deprecated progressively. 

Creating a programmatic guaranteed campaign

To create a programmatic guaranteed deal:

• go to the campaign list
• click on New campaign 
• select the channel Programmatic Guaranteed

Fill in the fields:

• Name - a meaningful name for the programmatic guaranteed deal.
• Start and end date.
• Impression type - select from Display, In-stream video, Native, Out-stream video or Audio. The impression type selected here is inherited by all programmatic guaranteed insertions and cannot be changed once the programmatic guaranteed campaign is saved.
• Buyers - the buyer commits to buying 100% of the impression volume.
• Deal price - the final fixed price in your network’s currency that will be sent in the bid requests. If you use third party data in the insertion(s), then make sure this price covers the data cost you will pay (more about data costs in chapters “Targeting costs” in the Set audience targeting (third party data) and Set contextual targeting articles 
• Currency - an optional custom currency for this specific deal, different from the currency set in the network; default value: the network’s currency. The currency cannot be changed after the deal was saved. Note that the custom currency is meant to provide a convenient way to manage prices without the need of manual currency conversion. The revenue shown in reports remains in the network’s default currency and bid requests to demand partners are done in the partner’s preferred currency.
• Deal Id auto-generated - the Id of the programmatic guaranteed deal. If enabled, a deal Id is generated automatically when the deal is saved. The buyer must use or select this Id in the DSP to bid on the deal.
• Select advertiser - select an existing advertiser - or
• Create advertiser - create a new advertiser: define the Name, User group (more details in  Manage users and user groups and - optionally - the Agency/Agencies the advertiser is associated with.
• click Create - once the programmatic guaranteed campaign is created, the deal is also available in the deal list (read more in section “Programmatic guaranteed deals in deal list” below).

After the programmatic guaranteed campaign is created, additional options are available through the ... > Edit menu in the top right corner: Sales person, Traffic manager, External ID, External description, Booking status and Frequency capping. For more on these features, refer to the “Editing a campaign” chapter in the Create direct insertion: create direct campaign article. 

Creating a programmatic guaranteed insertion

Use cases

You can create one or multiple programmatic guaranteed insertions within the programmatic guaranteed campaign, allowing for multiple use cases:

• multiple insertions, each with its own creative template (Default Banner, Parallax etc.), always displayed together on the same publisher page, using the link feature - see Link and exclude direct insertions   
• multiple insertions, each with its own set of acceptable sizes (specified on creative template level) 
• multiple insertions, each with its set of targeting criteria, monitored and optimized by performance

General settings

• Name - define a meaningful name for the programmatic guaranteed insertion
• Ad type
  • Impression type inherited from the programmatic guaranteed campaign - cannot be edited
  • Environment
• Additional information - refer to Create direct insertion: general settings and delivery  for details on these fields 

Delivery

• Start and end date/time - if the deal is synchronized automatically (see Automatic deal syncing with DSPs), the start and end date of the first insertion created in the programmatic guaranteed campaign (i. e. the insertion having the lowest insertion ID) will be the one synchronized with the DSP. Therefore, it is strongly recommended that all insertions within the programmatic guaranteed campaign have the same start and end date, if the DSP is among the ones that support automatic synchronization with Equativ. If needed, create separate programmatic guaranteed campaigns (deals). 
• Time zone - default: the network’s time zone
• Priority - only the priorities Exclusive 2-4, High 1-4 and Normal 1-4 are available; more details in  Create direct insertion: priorities.
• Volume - set a volume, typically an impression volume
• Frequency capping / Delivery mode / Personalized Ad - refer to the Create direct insertion: general settings and delivery article

Placement

Refer to the Create direct insertion: inventory article for details on the Placement section.

Creative template

Select the required creative template (RTB creative templates only).

Targeting

Set the required criteria - refer to Set general targeting criteria for more details.

Save and put online

Once you are done with the setup, click:

• Save - in the deal list, the deal will have the status Deactivated.
• Save and put online - in the deal list, the deal will have the status Delivering

Copying a programmatic guaranteed campaign

To copy a programmatic guaranteed campaign, go to the campaign list, locate the programmatic guaranteed campaign and click Copy from the "..." context menu. Fill in the following fields:

• Name of copy
• Advertiser: by default, the advertiser of the original campaign is selected.
• Agency: select either the agency for the campaign copy or select Direct advertiser, if no agency is involved.
• Copy insertions: enable this option to copy the campaign including its insertions.
• Copy archived insertions: select this option to include archived insertions in the copied campaign.
• Copy insertion inventory: select this option to copy sites, pages, formats, packs, domains, and bundle IDs.

Programmatic guaranteed deals in deal list

Programmatic guaranteed deals created in the new workflow are listed and can be monitored in the deal list. However, they cannot be edited from the deal list. To edit them, click on Campaigns in the top navigation bar and search for the programmatic guaranteed campaign.

Programmatic guaranteed deals created in the legacy workflow, private auctions and preferred deals can be edited from the deal list as usual.