Programmatic Guaranteed Troubleshooting

Why isn't my tactic spending?

If a programmatic guaranteed (PG) deal doesn't begin spending when expected, or stops spending unexpectedly, contact Basis Support immediately. Provide the following information:

  • The DSP tactic ID for the PG tactic.

  • The exchange and deal ID.

  • The budget amount you negotiated with the publisher and the CPM they specified.

Our support team has access to tools that enable them to quickly identify the cause of problems and resolve them—always start by contacting our support team instead of contacting the publisher or exchange. If we are not bidding, publishers or exchanges are not able to diagnose why.

After you file a support ticket, perform some troubleshooting to check for common problems:

  • Make sure that the budgets are set appropriately for the group and tactic. These budget amounts must include any DSP fees (tech fee, ad serving fee, feature fees) that apply. The amount you negotiate with the publisher excludes these amounts.

  • Check that the flight dates are correct and consistent with what the publisher agreed to.

  • Make sure that the tactic targets the PG deal.

Why did my tactic stop spending slightly before the budget was reached?

The sell-side paces out the sending of bid requests to the DSP based on its belief as to whether the tactic is on pace and the budget has been fulfilled. This occurs based on its own record-keeping. As is always the case in online advertising, there will be minor discrepancies between a DSP's count of impressions and an SSP's count of impressions.

For example, suppose that a deal is struck for 1,000,000 impressions. When the SSP believes that 1,000,000 impressions have been fulfilled, it stops sending requests. By our count, only 998,000 have been fulfilled due to the expected discrepancies. In general, we maintain close watch on discrepancies between the DSP and exchanges so that they remain as minimal as possible—typically below 2%.

Publishers can, if they wish, overbook a deal (for example, book it for 5% extra impressions) to account for this so that, from the buyer's perspective, it delivers in full.

Alternatively, it could be that we record more impressions than the SSP. In this case, we will stop bidding "early" from the SSP or publisher's perspective. This is expected, and as long as it is for a small number of requests, it isn't seen as a problem by the exchanges.

Another reason the tactic might stop spending prematurely is if the budget as set in our DSP is not correct—for example, if the budget doesn't account for the total cost inclusive of our tech fee, any feature fees, and so on. Follow the troubleshooting steps outlined in Why isn't my tactic spending? to address this issue.