Agency private marketplaces: how agency deals reach client campaigns
Part of Curated deals and PMPs
The short answer
An agency private marketplace is the set of private deals an agency or trading desk negotiates with publishers and exchanges at the agency level, then makes available to several client advertisers. The agency holds the relationships and the deal terms, and client campaigns target the shared deal IDs, so clients should ask what is shared and how it is reported.
Key takeaways
- An agency marketplace is a library of deals negotiated once at the agency level and reused across client campaigns.
- Deals reach a client when the agency grants that client's advertiser account access, or when the publisher accepts bids from every seat on the agency's bidder.
- Seat settings decide who may bid; buyer platforms can also limit what a client's own users may see, negotiate or approve.
- Clients should ask in writing whether the agency acts as their agent or sells media as a principal.
- Reporting by deal ID, seller and served domain lets a client see what an agency deal delivered for its budget.
What is an agency private marketplace?
Definition
- Agency private marketplace
- A group of private marketplace deals negotiated by an agency, holding company or agency trading desk on behalf of more than one client, kept in the agency's buying platform and made available to client campaigns under agency level terms.
Publishers set up private deals with agencies as well as brands. Google Ad Manager's help page on Private Marketplace deals (opens in a new tab) says the feature offers publishers the ability to strike non-guaranteed deals with their agency or brand buyers. When the buyer is an agency, the deal can be negotiated before any single client brief exists, around an audience, a content type or a format the agency expects several clients to use.
The bid request supports this. In the OpenRTB 2.6 (opens in a new tab) Deal object, wseat is the allowed list of buyer seats, with advertisers and agencies given as examples, and the seat IDs must be coordinated between bidders and the exchange in advance. wadomain separately lists advertiser domains allowed to bid. An agency deal can name the agency's seat and leaves advertiser domains open, so any client buying through that seat can use it.
The result looks like a marketplace from the client's side: a menu of deals the agency already holds, with terms the client did not negotiate. That speeds up launch. It also means the client should understand how the menu was built before its budget runs through it.
How do agency negotiated deals work?
An agency deal moves through the steps below. The details come from Google's buying and selling documentation, which shows the mechanics in published form.
| Mechanism | What the documentation says | What it means for the client |
|---|---|---|
| Advertiser access in the buying platform | When adding an inventory source in Display & Video 360 (opens in a new tab), the buyer specifies which advertisers should have access to it | The agency chooses which clients can target the deal |
| Bidder level permission on the sell side | In Ad Manager's shared deals beta (opens in a new tab), when Bidder is selected, bids are accepted from all seats within the DSP, so agencies can share the deal with their partners or seats | Publishers cannot see bidders beyond the seat where the deal was created, and cannot restrict permission to specific advertisers |
| Client roles in a marketplace | In the Authorized Buyers Marketplace API (opens in a new tab), a client represents an agency, a brand or an advertiser customer of the buyer, with viewer, negotiator or approver roles | A client's own users may see deals, negotiate them, or also approve them, depending on the role granted |
| Seat lists in the bid request | OpenRTB wseat lists the buyer seats allowed to bid on the deal | The deal is open to whichever seat the agency registered, not to the brand by name |
The Authorized Buyers client roles are worth a closer look. A negotiator can view and negotiate proposals and send requests to publishers but cannot approve deals; the buyer must approve on the client's behalf. An approver can view, negotiate and approve. A separate sellerVisible setting decides whether the client will be visible to sellers. These are one platform's settings, but they map onto questions a client can ask its agency.
Who owns the deal terms in an agency marketplace?
When a deal is set up for the agency's seat, its terms sit between that seat and the seller. The client benefits from the terms but may not be a party to them. Whether the client can see the terms, keep the deal if it changes agency, or audit what it paid depends on the client's contract with the agency.
| Question | Where to find the answer | What to ask for |
|---|---|---|
| Who is the contracting party with the seller? | The deal setup: the seat named in wseat and the seller's records | The seat ID and the seller's name for each deal |
| Is the agency buying as agent or as principal? | The client's agency agreement | A written statement for each deal, or for the marketplace as a whole |
| Can the client see the price and terms? | The agency agreement and the platform's client role | Read access to the deal terms, or a copy of the deal sheet |
| Does the deal move with the client if the agency changes? | The agency agreement and the seller's willingness to reissue the deal | A plan for reissuing the deal to the client's new seat |
| Do rebates or volume incentives attach to the deal? | The agency agreement and the seller relationship | Disclosure of any payment tied to spend on the deal |
What should clients ask about agency deals?
Client questions before an agency deal runs on its budget
- We have a list of every agency deal our campaigns will target, with deal ID, seller, deal type and floor or fixed price.
- For each deal we know whether the agency buys as our agent or sells the media to us as a principal.
- We know whether any fee, markup, rebate or curation charge sits between our spend and the publisher.
- We have the domain list behind each deal and can compare it with our own approved site list.
- We know which of our competitors, if any, can target the same agency deal.
- We know whether our own users can view, negotiate or approve deals in the agency's platform.
- Our agreement says who keeps each deal if we change agency.
- Our audit rights cover the agency, its holding company and affiliates that touch our media.
The last item comes straight from the ANA's action steps, which recommend that audit rights cover not only the media agency but the holding company and any affiliated companies, and that contracts let the advertiser follow the money. An agency marketplace that runs through an affiliated trading desk is exactly the case those steps describe.
How are agency deals reported to clients?
Because one agency deal can carry several clients' campaigns, a report at the deal level alone does not show what any one client received. Ask for reports cut by the client's own advertiser account, then by deal. In Display & Video 360, per deal impression volume is available in the My Inventory view (opens in a new tab), which Google describes as a way to see how much inventory is flowing and how often you are winning what is available.
A client report for agency deals, in five parts
- Show spend by deal ID for our account only. Separate our delivery from other clients on the same deal.
- Name the seller and deal type. State the deal type, price model and currency for each deal.
- List served domains. Give impressions by domain for each deal, so we can compare them with the domain list we approved.
- Disclose costs between spend and media. Show any agency fee, markup, rebate or curation fee attached to the deal.
- Flag changes. Note any deal whose sites, price or seller changed during the period, with the date.
What does an agency deal look like on a real client plan?
Fictional example
A regional zoo uses its agency's family events deal
An unnamed regional zoo wants to sell annual memberships in Missouri and Kansas, around Kansas City, St. Louis and Wichita, in English. Its agency already holds a private auction deal with an unnamed group of local news and family events publishers, negotiated at the agency level for several family brands.
Before approving, the zoo's marketing lead asks for the deal ID, the seller, the floor and the domain list, and asks whether the agency buys the deal as agent or principal. The agency confirms it acts as agent with no markup on the deal, shares the domain list, and notes that two other family clients target the same deal.
The zoo approves on two conditions: monthly reports for its own account by deal and served domain, and a written plan for reissuing the deal to the zoo's own seat if the agency relationship ends.
How does PlacementGraph support agencies running deals for several clients?
Frequently asked questions
Is an agency private marketplace the same as an agency trading desk?
No. An agency trading desk is the team or unit that buys programmatic media for the agency's clients. The agency private marketplace is the set of deals that desk, or the agency, has negotiated and keeps available for client campaigns. A desk may run other buys outside its deal library.
Can a client's competitor use the same agency deal?
It can, if the deal is open to the agency's seat and the agency grants that competitor's advertiser account access. Clients with category conflicts should ask which other advertisers can target each deal, and whether the agency can split a deal or create a separate one.
Does an agency deal cost the client more than a direct deal?
Not necessarily. The media price may be the same; what differs is what sits between the client's spend and the publisher. Ask whether the agency adds a fee or markup, or receives a rebate, on that deal, and compare the deal's terms with what the client would get on its own seat.
What happens to agency deals when a client changes agency?
A deal set up for the agency's seat stays with that seat unless the seller reissues it. The client can ask the seller to reissue a similar deal to its own seat or its new agency's seat. Settle this in the agency agreement before the relationship ends.
Sources
- About Private Marketplace deals (opens in a new tab)Google Ad Manager Help
- Share deals to buyers with the same bidder (Beta) (opens in a new tab)Google Ad Manager Help
- Add an inventory source to Display & Video 360 (opens in a new tab)Display & Video 360 Help
- Monitor impression volume in your private deals (opens in a new tab)Display & Video 360 Help
- REST resource: buyers.clients (opens in a new tab)Google, Authorized Buyers Marketplace API
- ANA Independent Study Finds Rebates and Other Non-Transparent Practices to be Pervasive in U.S. Media Ad-Buying Ecosystem (opens in a new tab)ANA, June 7, 2016
- Media Transparency Initiative: Marketer Action Steps (opens in a new tab)ANA
- OpenRTB 2.6 specification, Deal object (opens in a new tab)IAB Tech Lab, OpenRTB repository
Researched and written by PlacementGraph Research. Read how we research, source and update these pages. Corrections: diana@placementgraph.com.