Programmatic Guaranteed
Programmatic guaranteed (PG) is a guaranteed, reserved buy conducted over real-time bidding (RTB) using a deal ID. PG is a substitute for using an insertion order (IO) to place a buy with a publisher for reserved inventory. The defining characteristics of PG are that it's executed using RTB pipes, and that the buy is reserved or guaranteed.
Instead of PG, some exchanges use the term automated guaranteed (AG), Private Marketplace - Guaranteed (PMP-G), or something similar.
Just like with an IO-based buy:
-
PG is an agreement to buy a specified number of impressions (or dollars) over a specified time period.
-
The publisher reserves the supply in their ad server.
-
The buyer is responsible for making arrangements with a publisher, in exactly the same way that they would for an IO. The execution happens differently but the essential aspects of the negotiation are the same.
-
All targeting and pacing is controlled by the sell-side. The buyer requests the desired targeting from the publisher when negotiating the deal. For example, if a buyer wants the campaign to run only in Illinois with a 3 per day frequency cap, evenly paced, flighted from the 1st of the month to the end of the month, the buyer must specify all of this to the publisher.
PG Scenarios Supported by Basis
PG on Basis is currently supported for campaigns geo-targeted to North, South, and Central America, as well as Europe. It is not currently supported for Asia-Pacific regions.
All PG deals must be struck in US Dollars (USD).
Go to Programmatic Guaranteed Support by Exchange to find a complete list of integrated exchanges that support PG.
Benefits of Programmatic Guaranteed
Programmatic guaranteed offers several workflow efficiencies that make it preferable to IO-based buying in many cases:
-
Less overhead or manual labor for both the buyer and the seller. Instead of manually e-mailing tags to the publisher and collecting reporting from them, the buyer manages all of this in the DSP like any other RTB tactic.
-
Some publishers set smaller order minimums when executing PG buys since there is less overhead for them.
-
Consolidated billing. All billing happens through the DSP and is a part of the bill the buyer receives from Basis for RTB transactions.
-
Unified attribution across your reserved and non-reserved RTB buying.
-
Holistic reporting.
-
The buyer can swap creatives without contacting the seller (subject to the publisher's business rules).
-
If the publisher permits it, the buyer can immediately pause or stop campaigns.
How Programmatic Guaranteed Works
The execution of a PG buy happens through RTB:
-
The exchange sends bid requests to Basis for the PG deal. There is a business obligation that Basis bid on approximately 100% of them.
-
Basis bids on these requests, resulting in impressions won. The impressions will always clear at the agreed-upon price.
-
The exchange continues to send bid requests to Basis until they believe that enough impressions have been served to fulfill the agreed-upon budget, so long as it is within the agreed-upon flight dates.
-
The exchange paces the flow of bid requests as appropriate. If the campaign is evenly paced, then the exchange will space our bid requests over the agreed-upon flighting to achieve even delivery.
Campaigns must be properly configured to allow bidding. If the campaign's settings prevent bidding, Basis won't be able to fulfill the obligation to bid on all of the exchange's bid requests. To learn more about how to configure your campaigns for PG, see Creating Campaigns with Guaranteed Deals.
The obligation to bid is shared between Basis and the buyer. Basis is responsible for ensuring that its bidders are technically capable of responding to 100% of bid requests. Targeting is not automatically applied by the DSP--the buyer is responsible for configuring campaigns appropriately to bid on the deal. If the buyer doesn't, the PG requests will not be bid on.
Buyers must configure their campaigns in such a way that the agreed-upon spend occurs over the agreed-upon flight. If this doesn't happen, the buyer won't be billed, but the publisher might choose to not conduct further deals with that buyer since they have not upheld the commitments they agreed to. Basis reserves the right to suspend customers' access to PG if they repeatedly fail to meet their obligations, as this negatively impacts Basis' reputation with exchanges and publishers.
Negotiating Guaranteed Deals
The process differs slightly by exchange, but in general, as PG is a substitute product for IOs, buyers should make arrangements for a PG deal the same way they make arrangements for an IO-based buy: by directly contacting the publishers that they are interested in setting up PG deals with.
Almost all publishers have the technical ability to execute PG deals, as the functionality to do so on Google's exchange is integrated into Google Ad Manager, the most common publisher ad server. However, some publishers may choose not to offer PG regardless of technical capability.
Use the vendor directory to identify publishers you may want to work with, as well as contacts at those publishers.
The buyer should provide the publisher with the following information:
-
The seat ID on Basis. On all exchanges where PG is supported, your seat ID is the same as your DSP advertiser ID.
-
To find your DSP advertiser ID, select the question mark on the top navigation bar.
-
-
The flight dates for the campaign.
-
The budget (in impressions or spend).
-
What sort of pacing they would like.
-
Any and all targeting criteria they would like, such as geo targeting, frequency capping, first-party audience targeting, and so on.
After the buyer and the seller come to agreement on the terms of the deal, the seller will provide with the deal ID, and the buyer can proceed to create a PG campaign. See Adding Programmatic Guaranteed Deals and Creating Campaigns with Guaranteed Deals for information on how to execute your PG buys.
Google uses a different process for negotiating. See Google for more information.
Determining Budgets for Guaranteed Deals
Publishers expect that budget amounts are expressed in terms of the cost to the DSP – the amount the DSP sends the ad exchange. In other words, if a buyer says to a publisher that they want to buy $10,000 of media on a PG deal, the publisher will understand this to mean that the DSP sends $10,000 to the exchange. Any fees that the exchange charges the publisher are included in that amount, but any fees the DSP charges the buyer are not included.
To determine the budget to communicate to the publisher, buyers need to deduct:
-
The agency's desired margin, if applicable.
-
Any third-party ad serving fees the agency expects to incur.
-
The DSP tech fee.
-
Any DSP feature fees that might apply, such as cross-device or viewability measurement.
-
Any service provider add-on fees being tracked, if applicable.
These need to be subtracted from the dollar amount the buyer communicates to the publisher.
Use our PG Budget Calculator to determine the budget for your groups and tactics. If you don't know your tech fee, consult your contract details or contact your Basis representative.
Budgets in the DSP UI are inclusive of DSP tech fee, DSP ad serving fee, DSP feature fees, and service provider add-on fees. This means that the budget amount that the buyer will enter when configuring campaigns will be higher than the budget amount they communicate with publishers.