A curated deal example, from the brief to the first week
Part of Curated deals and PMPs
The short answer
A curated deal runs in five handoffs: the planner turns a brief into an approved site list, the client signs it, the seller checks supply and creates the deal on the exchange, the trading desk adds and targets the deal ID with creatives, and first week checks confirm requests, bids and delivery on approved sites.
Key takeaways
- Each handoff in a curated deal produces one artifact that the next person needs: a list, a signature, a deal ID, a targeted line item.
- The trading desk does the activation; exporting or sending a site list creates nothing on the exchange or in the buying platform.
- Several deal fields lock once saved, so the desk checks the deal sheet before entering anything.
- The first week is spent confirming the deal is live and on the list, not judging results.
What does a curated deal look like from start to finish?
Definition
- Curated deal
- A private deal on an exchange whose inventory is a chosen set of sites, which may come from several publishers, packaged under one deal ID to a buyer's criteria.
Fictional example
The brief: a cleaning service in Puerto Rico
A fictional carpet and upholstery cleaning service with crews in San Juan, Ponce and Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, wants display ads beside home care, family life and local news content, in Spanish and English, priced in USD, over an eight week flight.
The agency proposes a curated private auction on one exchange, built from a reviewed site list. This page follows that one deal through each handoff, with its owner and output. No performance targets or results are given or implied.
The hub guide to private marketplace deals explains the deal types and fields. This example stays with one deal and shows the order of work, the paperwork that passes between people, and the checks that close each step.
Who does each step of a curated deal?
Role names vary between agencies, and one person can hold two roles. The split below is an illustration, not an industry rule. What matters is that each step has one named owner and a clear finish line.
| Step | Owner | Output | Done when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brief to site list | Agency planner | A ranked list of 32 sites with a reason for each (fictional count) | Each site has example articles and a seller check |
| Approval | Client marketing lead | Signed list version 1 | The version number and date are on the sign off |
| Deal sheet | Agency planner, with the trader | Geography, languages, formats, price model, USD, dates, buyer seat | The trader confirms the seat ID and format |
| Supply check and deal creation | Seller on the chosen exchange | A deal ID, with the confirmed domain count | The seller's confirmation matches version 1 |
| Activation | Trading desk | Inventory source, targeted line item, approved creatives | The line item targets the deal and is live |
| First week checks | Trader, with the planner | A short note on requests, bids and served sites | Open issues have an owner |
During list building, the planner checks that each site authorizes the chosen exchange. The ads.txt 1.1 specification (opens in a new tab) describes the file as the way publishers declare who is "authorized to sell their inventory." That check tells the planner a site can be sold through the exchange. It does not tell anyone that the site will deliver, and it is not the client's approval.
How does the seller turn the approved list into a deal?
In the example, the trader sends the seller version 1 of the domain list and the deal sheet. Before creating anything, the seller and the desk talk through the details. Google's deal best practices (opens in a new tab) start with "Discuss the details of your targeting and settings with the publisher" and list what to confirm: that the publisher is "sending domain name information," country codes, environment information and the creative sizes.
Puerto Rico adds one point to raise here. The brief's geography is the island, so the deal sheet names it as the target region and asks the seller which location signals its bid requests carry. The seller reports that 29 of the 32 sites (fictional counts) are sold through its exchange with a direct account, removes the other three from the deal, creates a private auction with a USD floor and the desk's seat allowed, and sends the deal ID with the confirmed count of 29.
Does exporting a site list activate a curated deal?
No. A site list, whether exported, emailed or uploaded to the seller, prepares a deal. The deal exists once the seller creates it on the exchange, and it spends only once the desk targets it. Display & Video 360 shows the gaps clearly. Its inventory source targeting (opens in a new tab) page says a line item with no inventory source targeting will "target open auction inventory on all enabled exchanges by default," and that "Deals are only targeted when you add the deal itself or deal group to targeting."
The desk's activation steps in the example
- Add the deal. For an exchange that syncs deals, accept it under Negotiations; Google's synced deals page (opens in a new tab) says deals synced through Google Ad Manager "must be accepted" before they are available. Otherwise create a manual inventory source.
- Check locked fields first. Google's inventory source page (opens in a new tab) says the ID, exchange and inventory format cannot be changed once saved, so compare each with the deal sheet before saving.
- Target the deal in the line item. Add the inventory source to the line item's targeting, so the line item buys the deal rather than the open auction.
- Keep other targeting light. Leave out audience layers the seller does not support, so they do not cut the deal's supply.
- Upload creatives early. Google's best practices say "It's best to upload creatives beforehand," and creatives are reviewed once assigned to an active or future line item.
If the desk also wants a site level guard on the line item, Display & Video 360 channels (opens in a new tab) hold up to 65,000 websites or apps, and a channel has to be targeted by hand in line items or default targeting. A channel is a guard, not a substitute for the deal.
What does the first week of a curated deal check?
The first week answers three questions: is the deal sending requests, is the desk bidding and winning, and are impressions landing on the approved sites? Display & Video 360's deals troubleshooter (opens in a new tab) offers Last 7 days as its default range, and it follows impressions from total available requests through prebid, targeting and creative filters to bids and auction results. Targeting data is not available for the current day, so read it from day two.
First week checks on the fictional cleaning service deal
- Total available requests for the deal are above zero by day two.
- No requests are filtered at the prebid stage for unauthorized sellers.
- Requests filtered at the targeting stage have a stated cause, and line item settings are reviewed if the share is large.
- Creatives show as approved and are not filtered at the creative stage.
- A report by deal and App/URL lists only domains from approved version 1, less the three the seller removed.
- Both the platform's deal ID and the seller's external deal ID appear on the report.
- Any off list or unknown domain has been sent to the seller with dates and counts.
Display & Video 360's report dimensions (opens in a new tab) define App/URL as "The name of a site, or mobile app" and Inventory Source as "The name of the deal that supplies buyable impressions to your line items," which makes the served site check a single report. The deal delivery reconciliation guide covers the full weekly version.
What goes wrong in a first curated deal?
The public documentation describes failure points rather than ranking them, so the table lists them in the order a deal meets them. Each one maps to a step with an owner, which is where a fix starts.
| Step | What goes wrong | Where it shows | Owner of the fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seller setup | The seller loads a different list version or a different count | The seller's confirmation | Trader, with the seller |
| Deal entry | A wrong ID, exchange or format is saved and cannot be edited | Inventory source details | Trader, who creates a new entry |
| Acceptance | A synced deal sits unaccepted, so it cannot be targeted | Negotiations, Action required | Trader |
| Targeting | The line item buys open auction because the deal was not added | Line item inventory source targeting | Trader |
| Signals | The seller does not send domain names or geography | Troubleshooter targeting stage | Seller |
| Creative | Creatives are not approved or do not fit the deal's sizes | Troubleshooter creative stage | Trader, with the creative team |
What does PlacementGraph hand over in a curated deal, and what stays with the desk?
Frequently asked questions
How long does a first curated deal take to set up?
The documentation cited here gives no standard timeline, and it depends on the seller's turnaround and the client's approval. Plan the handoffs backward from the flight start: creatives uploaded before launch, the deal ID entered and targeted before that, and the seller's confirmation before that, with time to fix a count that does not match.
Can the planner set up the deal instead of the trading desk?
One person can do both if they have access to the buying platform and the exchange relationship. The steps stay separate even then: the list is approved before the seller is asked, and the deal is checked against the deal sheet before it is targeted. Keeping the roles distinct makes each check easier to prove later.
Should a first deal run in more than one language?
It can, as in the Puerto Rico example, when the brief calls for both languages and the creatives exist in both. Keep a separate line item per creative language if reporting by language matters, and confirm with the seller which sites publish in which language before the deal is built.
What should be written down at the end of the first week?
A short note naming the list version in force, the deal IDs on both sides, whether requests, bids and wins appeared, any off list or unknown domains, and each open issue with its owner. That note becomes the baseline for later reviews of the same deal.
Sources
- Best practices for deals (opens in a new tab)Google Display & Video 360 Help
- ads.txt 1.1 specification (opens in a new tab)IAB Tech Lab, Supply Chain Validation repository
- Inventory source targeting (opens in a new tab)Google Display & Video 360 Help
- Synced deals (opens in a new tab)Google Display & Video 360 Help
- Add an inventory source to Display & Video 360 (opens in a new tab)Google Display & Video 360 Help
- Channels (opens in a new tab)Google Display & Video 360 Help
- Troubleshoot deals (opens in a new tab)Google Display & Video 360 Help
- Dimensions in reports (opens in a new tab)Google Display & Video 360 Help
Researched and written by PlacementGraph Research. Read how we research, source and update these pages. Corrections: diana@placementgraph.com.