Programmatic trading continues to evolve and, as buyers move away from the open exchange in favor of more failsafe options, we look at how this is shaping programmatic deals and the smart practices SSPs can adopt to deliver for buy-side partners and drive their own revenues.
In its infancy, the open programmatic marketplace was praised by the digital advertising industry for its reach.
But trust has since eroded, and today the open exchange is perceived as inefficient and risky, thanks to issues including opaque supply chains, signal loss (driven to a great degree by privacy regulations), duplicated bids, ad fraud, and low-quality inventory in the form of made-for-advertising (MFA) sites.
More than sheer scale, brands now want nuance. They need to know their ads are appearing in premium, brand-safe environments where they reach real people and relevant audiences. This evolution is driving a demand for programmatic curation so that inventory is pre-vetted to filter out unwanted impressions. Transparency and trust are essential so that advertisers know how budgets are allocated and that direct, efficient routes to inventory have been favored, with intermediaries cut out as much as possible.
Programmatic deals deliver on all fronts, with different options for trading: programmatic guaranteed, preferred deals, private marketplace (PMP), and curated marketplaces. This gives buyers the flexible tools required to match audiences securely and efficiently in premium environments without relying solely on open web signals.
Programmatic guaranteed and preferred deals offer advertisers one-to-one connections - exclusive deals between a single buyer and a seller, often with negotiated terms (price, targeting, inventory access). Brand safety, transparency, and control over where ads appear is assured, and buyers have tailored access to the inventory that aligns with the specific objectives of their campaign.
One-to-many deals are facilitated by private marketplaces (PMPs) and, more recently, curated marketplaces. They combine the benefits of scale (including a reduction in manual negotiation overheads) with curation and quality control by making pre-packaged inventory offers available to select DSPs simultaneously. Campaigns can be optimized across a wider pool of inventory, while retaining transparency and brand safety standards.
The critical nature of programmatic deals for buyers in today’s digital landscape puts SSPs under pressure to factor the shift into their programmatic trading strategies. They need their deal practices to be working as hard as possible. BidSwitch Deals Center was built to address the pain points of managing, troubleshooting, and reporting on deals.
Deals Discovery (part of the BidSwitch Deals Center suite of tools) helps SSPs manage one-to-many deals. Specifically, it makes it straightforward for BidSwitch SSP partners to expose their deals to BidSwitch-connected DSPs, and DSPs can easily find and activate all the deals that are relevant to them.
SSPs upload their deals (Deals Discovery enables an efficient route from deal creation to activation, thereby cutting down on the time it usually takes to go live), which DSPs discover, based on criteria such as country, publisher, creative type, keyword, etc. The SSP is then notified once the deal is activated. Inventory can be updated with more data at any time, and new deals can be uploaded as more inventory becomes available.
But what about one-to-one deals? Here as well, SSPs working through BidSwitch have the right tools at their fingertips.
Another component of the BidSwitch Deals Center, the BidSwitch Deals Sync API streamlines and automates the process of uploading, setting up, managing and synchronizing direct deals between buyers and suppliers using the platform. Adopting this protocol allows SSPs to handle their one-to-one programmatic deals in bulk, so hundreds can be pushed out at once thanks to the single API and, once live, variables such as availability, pricing, and targeting parameters are instantly updated across multiple deals.
Plugging in to the vast pool of programmatic demand available through Google’s Display and Video 360 (DV360) to scale their operations is a top priority for most SSPs.
BidSwitch has two integrations with the DV360 Marketplace - one for private deals and one for open deals - that makes this goal attainable. Open deals get pushed to the DV360 Deals Marketplace where they can be activated by buyers. Private deals can be pushed to DV360 via Deals Sync or the Deals Management UI for further activation and troubleshooting.
In short, buyers can browse, negotiate and activate PMP deals directly within the platform via a simple process that reduces friction. SSPs meanwhile have access to detailed reports and, armed with insight on metrics such as buyer behavior, deal performance and pricing trends, can optimize their deals accordingly.
Buyers always see the latest information, while this level of transparency aids better forecasting and reporting for SSPs because deal data is up to date. The risk of manual data entry errors, which can delay deal activation by buyers, is also significantly reduced by automation.
Workflows can also be automated by integrating internal CRMs, inventory management systems, and sales platforms. Details of a deal closed by the sales team that's automatically pushed on the programmatic platform via the API allows inventory activation to be triggered without manual intervention for example. Similarly, real-time accuracy of the availability of deals is maintained by automatic updates to inventory changes.
We’ve looked at the technology SSPs can adopt for their programmatic deals. But how can they also play more strategically to ensure these deals are discoverable and therefore activated by interested buyers?
There are some general best practice rules:
These best practices ensure that, once a deal has been created, it's kept active, optimized, and high-performing. Monitoring ‘deal health’ metrics (such as impressions served, bid requests generated, win rates, fill rates, spend trends and buyer engagement levels) flags underperforming deals early so that corrective action can be taken before they lose visibility.
Deals that aren't visible can't be found by buyers, rendering them inactive - which risks their delisting, as mentioned above.
Availability data that is incorrect, out-of-date seasonal data, poor naming conventions and inactive or mismatched targeting parameters are all common reasons for delisting. The guide for deal discoverability above will assist searchability and consistent buyer interest. Re-evaluating pricing is also important. Low bid rates can be improved so that deals remain attractive to buyers, while high-performing premium inventory that's brand-safe, viewable, and fraud-free will build and maintain buyers’ trust. Long-term buyer relationships can also be cultivated with initiatives such as sharing updates, opportunities and performance insights that encourage repeat purchases.
In addition, the BidSwitch Deals Reporting capability in Deals Center allows SSPs to monitor the performance of their deals and troubleshoot with buyers as required.
BidSwitch is built to smooth the path of programmatic trading. It's straightforward for SSPs to upload deals to Deals Discovery. From there, they can ensure they are proactively managing their deal strategies - by adopting strong naming conventions and inventory labels that boost discoverability, for example - so that deals are visible, active, and optimized.
To ensure your programmatic deals are delivering, get in touch with your BidSwitch account manager today.