Few in the programmatic industry can have failed to notice that there’s a new(ish) buzz word in town – curation. But for all the discussion, as with many things in fast-paced industries such as this one, there is still something of a knowledge gap around the term, with definitions and practices that vary and shift often causing confusion. That knowledge gap has real consequences.
With reports suggesting that nearly three-quarters of all bids are now classified as curated deals, the 'curation' label risks losing the meaning that once made it valuable. There is growing discourse in the industry about how curation is being overdone: repackaged inventory resold with no real value-add, opaque fee structures that inflate media costs without delivering incremental value, and premium pricing that doesn't always translate into premium supply.
Done well, curation solves real problems. Done badly, it compounds them.
Programmatic curation and its roots
To kick off with the basics, programmatic curation sees premium digital advertising inventory packaged with data (such as audience, contextual or environmental) into a unique Deal ID delivered through programmatic pipes. In contrast to open auctions, curated deals are intentionally crafted so that only the most relevant and high-quality supply, enriched with data, is presented to buyers – negating the need for them to manage multiple partner integrations. It enables scale and reduces wasted spend so that media trading is made more precise, efficient and transparent.
As with many developments in digital advertising, the emergence of curation is greatly down to the increasing complexity of the programmatic supply chain, along with the challenge posed to identity resolution, targeting and attribution by cookie deprecation.
But while curation is in the spotlight now, its roots go back to the early days of digital when ad networks bundled inventory into packages based on themes (such as ‘sports fans’ or ‘brand safe news’) and sold it directly to advertisers. The rise of programmatic introduced Private Marketplaces (PMPs) into the mix and with that invite-only auctions with premium supply; buyers had more control as they could cherry-pick publisher inventory while benefiting from automation.
As the number of bid requests sent to DSPs snowballed, media buyers were faced with evaluating ever higher volumes of deals with more and more media owners. This plethora of choice didn’t make for better advertising; buyers didn’t need to see every impression opportunity - they just wanted relevant inventory that would meet campaign objectives.
At the same time, increasingly stringent privacy regulation, coupled with browser changes around the use of third-party data ushered in an era of signal loss.
Curation moved with the times. Today’s curated marketplaces revolve around SSPs, data partners and curation houses using first-party data, contextual signals and privacy-compliant clean rooms (which combine insights without compromising first-party data) to build sophisticated supply packages so that buyers can manage deals effectively and efficiently.
More than a trend
More than ever, the all-important signals in digital advertising face threats from most sides. Privacy regulations are unlikely to be relaxed, and there is no evidence that Safari and Firefox will U-turn on their default blocking of third-party cookies any time soon. Chrome, meanwhile, could restart its cookie phase-out with a single blog post.
From a buy- side perspective, the open auction presents a complex and messy landscape at a time when the calls for transparency are getting louder. Buyers need to know what they are paying for and that the supply chain is optimized; they must also be confident that the impressions meet brand safety requirements and that there is a minimal risk of (ad) fraud. Moreover, in an industry facing up to its extensive carbon footprint, they are tasked with introducing greater carbon efficiency to campaigns, which means reducing the number of wasted impressions and unnecessary hops in the supply chain.
On the other side of the equation, publishers are also under pressure. They need to find incremental demand and new revenue streams. Their first-party insight is highly prized, but they must guard against revealing the raw first-party data. In short, they need to monetize their assets while retaining control and trust.
When executed with discipline, curation can fulfil all of these briefs – and deliver meaningfully on each one. The problem is that in practice, that bar is rarely met.
Curated deals enable buyers to reach their desired audiences using first-party data, contextual signals and modelled audiences – there is no reliance on fragile cookie-based IDs.
It also operates on the basis of a clear, pre-vetted inventory supply path with explicit commercial terms. In curation's earlier iterations, this reliably meant fewer, higher-quality partners, less waste, and lower energy per ad delivered. Today, that efficiency isn't automatic – it depends on buyers actively evaluating the supply chain and selecting curated deals with the fewest hops. Where that discipline is applied, the benefits hold. Where it isn't, curation can quietly add complexity rather than reduce it.
For publishers, working with trusted partners sees them build high-value curated deals by packaging premium inventory with audience and / or contextual insights; this generates higher CPMs and attracts incremental demand without revealing raw first-party data.
Under the hood: Curation in practice
The concept of curation is relatively simple, but the execution requires multiple parties to coordinate.
First up, let’s define the core players and their roles:
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SSPs select inventory from multiple publishers.
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Curator layers on data to a deal. This data can be sourced from audience data (first party, ID-less – grouped by interests, location, behavior, etc. - or modelled), plus contextual insight and other enrichment signals
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DSPs provide the buying platform where curated deals are activated.
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Tech facilitators (such as BidSwitch) orchestrate connections, ensuring compatibility and scalability so that deals move smoothly between SSPs and DSPs.
The curator is the entity that selects the supply and packages it with audience or contextual data (via partnerships with data providers, although advertisers can also provide their own first party data, and agencies can plug in proprietary data or preferred data providers). This is often the SSP, but it can also be a specialist curation platform, a DSP (pre-packaging deals for their buyers or enabling agencies to build curated PMPs themselves), or an agency (curating its own deals for clients). The ability to aggregate across multiple publishers and SSPs directly addresses one of the buy side's persistent scaling challenges: no single publisher – or SSP – commands enough audience on its own to meet most campaign objectives at volume.
The curator selects premium, relevant and brand-safe supply from one or more publishers and layers on data, such as audience segments, contextual signals, enrichment insights, all of which are based on campaign goals. Commercial terms are negotiated, with these including pricing (fixed CPMs, dynamic pricing minimum spend, etc), ad volumes, campaign duration and scale, and targeting parameters. With inventory, data and trading terms in place, the Deal ID is created; containing the entire curated package in one source, this is sent to the DSP, which can activate it immediately.
As with any campaign, the starting point for successful curation is to define clearly before building the deal what is being optimized for, whether that’s attention, reach, brand safety, performance, cost-efficiency, sustainability, etc. The number of partners per deal should be limited – too many cooks spoil the signal, dilute performance and increase fees; simplicity aids transparency and troubleshooting. Once activated, the health of the deal should be monitored via log-level data which can track delivery, performance and win rates to enable optimization, and the early identification of supply path inefficiencies.
Looking ahead: What’s on the curation horizon?
Curation’s proven practices point to it outliving its buzzword status and becoming an essential part of the modern programmatic advertising playbook, evolving as the landscape continues to unfold.
The current curation playground is mainly the territory of display and video, but as omnichannel gains ground, we can expect to see it extend its reach into CTV, audio, DOOH and other channels as they emerge, so buyers can buy coordinated campaigns across multiple channels from a single deal framework. The drive for sustainability, will also flavor curation logic as buyers look to prioritize efficient supply paths with lower emissions.
And of course, AI has a highly significant role to play, ultimately allowing curators to assemble dynamic deals in milliseconds, rather than spending days building static packages. Manual elements will be automated, while smarter inventory selection, enhanced data enrichment, predictive audience targeting and real-time campaign optimization will make for precision advertising.
But the outlook for curation isn't unconditionally optimistic. The rapid growth in curated deal volumes – with reports suggesting nearly three-quarters of all bids now classified as such – risks undermining the term's own credibility. If the market can't reliably distinguish genuine curation from repackaged open auction inventory, the value proposition erodes for everyone. For curation to outlive its buzzword status, the industry needs a cleaner definition of what it actually means – and a higher bar for what qualifies.
Take action today
Programmatic curation, at its best, is a response to real industry problems. But as the market matures, the difference between curation that genuinely delivers and curation that merely labels will become the defining question.
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For buyers: Audit curated deals for supply path length – fewer hops means lower fees and lower emissions. Interrogate fee structures. Ask what data is actually being layered on. Test Deal IDs against open auction benchmarks with proper controls.
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For publishers and sellers: Repackaging open auction inventory without meaningful data enrichment adds noise, not value. The strongest curated deals are built on first-party insight that can't be replicated elsewhere.
But individual discipline only goes so far. The shift towards more meaningful curation – built on true signal enrichment, genuine transparency, and measurable outcomes – requires the whole supply chain to move together. SSPs, DSPs, publishers, and advertisers all have a role to play, and the standard only rises when all four choose quality over volume.
The 'curated' label should mean something. Right now, making it mean something is a collective responsibility.