Deal priority in programmatic: why the ad server's order decides delivery
Part of Curated deals and PMPs
The short answer
Deal priority is the order in which a publisher's ad server considers demand for an impression. In Google Ad Manager, guaranteed line items, including programmatic guaranteed, rank ahead of preferred deals, private auctions and the open auction. A deal only gets impressions that higher priority demand did not take or outbid, so priority can explain delivery better than price.
Key takeaways
- In Google Ad Manager, lower numbers mean higher priority: guaranteed line items sit between 1 and 10, remnant and exchange demand at 12, house at 16.
- Dynamic allocation lets non-guaranteed demand win an impression when it pays more than the opportunity cost of not serving the guaranteed line item.
- The IAB's 2013 publisher paper placed private auctions above the open auction, and a publisher can rank its non-guaranteed deals against each other.
- First look has two meanings: a priority right for one buyer, and an Ad Manager feature that lets high bids serve ahead of reservations.
- A buyer cannot see priority in the bid request, so it has to ask, and read loss reasons such as lost to a bid for a deal.
How does an ad server prioritize different deal types?
Definition
- Deal priority
- The rank a publisher's ad server gives a line item or deal when several are eligible for the same impression. Higher ranked demand is considered first, and lower ranked demand gets what is left or what it can outbid.
A publisher ad server maps each line item to a priority number. Google Ad Manager's line item types and priorities (opens in a new tab) page says each line item type maps to a numeric priority value that serves as a guide for ad selection, and that the lower the number, the higher the priority. It also warns that type and priority are only one factor in ad selection, which is why the order below describes a tendency, not a rule that holds on each request.
| Demand | Line item type | Priority value | What a buyer should know |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sponsorship and takeovers | Sponsorship | 4 | Takes its share of matching impressions first |
| Reserved impression goals | Standard | 6, 8 or 10 | Competes with the guaranteed band above it for the same inventory |
| Programmatic guaranteed | Standard or Sponsorship | Within the guaranteed range of 1 to 10 | Ranks with the publisher's own direct campaigns |
| Preferred deals | Preferred Deal | A fixed priority value, which Google's page does not state as a number | Ask the seller where that fixed value sits against its auctions |
| Private auctions and open auction | Ad Exchange and other programmatic demand | 12 for Ad Exchange line items | Ranked among themselves by deal priority and price |
| Remnant campaigns | Network, Bulk, Price Priority | 12 | Compete on price with exchange demand |
| House ads | House | 16 | Fallback with no price competition |
Ad Manager's dynamic allocation page (opens in a new tab) places guaranteed Sponsorship and Standard line items in the priority range of 1 to 10, notes that a priority of 11 is no longer available for new reservation line items, and puts remnant and Ad Exchange line items at 12. Its pricing rules page lists Programmatic Guaranteed as Standard and Sponsorship line items, which is why a guaranteed deal ranks inside the publisher's direct band. The programmatic direct guide explains how those deals are negotiated.
Why can a higher priority deal block a lower one?
A guaranteed line item has to hit its goal, so the ad server protects it. When a guaranteed line item is eligible for an impression, Ad Manager's dynamic allocation page says it competes using a temporary CPM, an opportunity cost that Ad Manager calculates automatically, and the open auction or a remnant line item serves only if it pays more than that opportunity cost. Ad Manager says this temporary CPM maximizes revenue from auction and remnant demand without causing underdelivery of guaranteed line items.
For a buyer in a lower band, the effect is that the same inventory can open and close during a flight. When a sponsorship or a large guaranteed campaign starts on a section, it competes for the same impressions, and deals below it see fewer they can win. When the guaranteed campaign ends, the inventory comes back. Nothing in the buyer's own deal has changed, which is why delivery can drop with no change on the buy side.
Header bidding adds its own layer. Prebid's deals documentation (opens in a new tab) says bids from header bidding typically have a priority lower than directly sold ads but higher than competing house ads, and that deals should have a priority higher than the line items for regular open market bids. It also notes that if a publisher sends only the top priced bid to the ad server, a deal that is not the top price would never be seen there unless the setup sends deals along with the top bid.
Where does a private auction deal sit in priority?
The IAB's 2013 paper Programmatic and Automation: The Publishers' Perspective (opens in a new tab) said most publishers place their invitation-only auction above the open auction, and that some do not take part in the open auction at all. Below the guaranteed band, the seller decides how its non-guaranteed deals rank. Google Ad Manager's private marketplace page (opens in a new tab) lets a publisher give each non-guaranteed deal, including private auctions and Marketplace packages, a priority number, or let every deal compete on CPM.
The bid request shows only part of this. In OpenRTB 2.6 (opens in a new tab), private_auction set to 1 means bids are restricted to the deals in the request, while 0 means all bids are accepted, so deal demand and open bids meet in the same auction. The OpenRTB implementation guide warns that a publisher may configure the exchange to prioritize all deal ID bids above open auction bids, or to run a price auction between them with different floors by class of bid. Neither choice is visible in the request.
| Seller setup | What happens | Strength for the buyer | Weakness for the buyer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Deals ranked above open bids | Any valid deal bid beats the open auction | Predictable access once the floor is cleared | Other deals with a higher priority still win first |
| Deals and open bids compete on price | The highest bid wins, deal or not | No hidden rank above the buyer's deal | The deal gives access, not an advantage |
| Deals ranked by priority number | Deals with a better rank, where 1 is highest, see impressions first | A top rank can be negotiated | A low rank may see few impressions |
| Private auction only, no open auction | Only invited buyers can bid | Less competition overall | Smaller supply if few buyers bid |
What does first look mean in priority order?
First look is used in two ways. In the deal sense, it is a priority right for one buyer: the IAB's 2013 paper said publishers can give certain buyers priority in access to inventory, often called first look, and a preferred deal is one way to do it. The preferred deals guide covers that arrangement and what happens when the buyer passes.
In Google Ad Manager, First Look is also the name of a pricing feature. Ad Manager's About First Look (opens in a new tab) page says it lets publishers capture high CPM bids by allowing them to serve ahead of reservation inventory. First Look bids must clear the First Look floor and the value CPM of any remnant line item that dynamic allocation selects, but they do not need to clear the temporary CPM set for a guaranteed line item. In that sense first look moves qualifying auction bids ahead of guaranteed demand, the opposite direction to the priority order above.
| Question | First look as a deal right | First Look in Google Ad Manager |
|---|---|---|
| Who gets it | One named buyer | Bids that clear the First Look floor |
| How it is set up | A negotiated deal, such as a preferred deal, with a deal ID | Pricing rules the publisher creates |
| What it jumps ahead of | Private auctions and the open auction | Reservation inventory, within the rule's limits |
| What the buyer must do | Bid the agreed price on the deal | Bid above the First Look floor |
How can a buyer ask about a deal's priority?
Because priority lives in the seller's ad server, the buyer learns it by asking before the deal starts and by reading the losses after. IAB Tech Lab lists loss reason codes for OpenRTB's ${AUCTION_LOSS} macro, including 102 for lost to higher bid and 103 for lost to a bid for a deal. Display & Video 360's troubleshooting page (opens in a new tab) reports a similar reason, lost to a bid for a PMP deal, which tells the buyer another deal took the impression.
Questions to put to the seller about priority
- Which line item type or band will the deal run in, and what priority number does it carry?
- Do other deals or guaranteed campaigns target the same sections or placements during the flight?
- Are deal bids ranked above open auction bids, or do they compete on price?
- If deals are ranked by number, where does this deal sit among the publisher's other deals?
- Do any sponsorships or takeovers start during the flight that will take matching impressions?
- Does the header bidding setup send deal bids to the ad server even when they are not the top price?
- Will the seller share deal level availability and loss reasons if delivery falls short?
Write the answers on the deal sheet next to the floor and the dates. When delivery later falls short, the buyer can tell a priority problem from a price problem: a deal losing to higher bids needs a higher bid, as the floor price guide explains, while a deal losing to other deals needs a conversation about rank or timing.
What does a priority problem look like on a real deal?
Fictional example
A regional airline's route launch in Idaho and Montana
A fictional regional airline is launching new routes from Boise, Missoula and Bozeman and wants display ads beside travel and local news coverage in Idaho and Montana, in English, for five weeks. The agency negotiates a private auction deal with a regional news publisher group, ranked first among the publisher's non-guaranteed deals.
In week two, impressions on the deal drop sharply while bids and win rate on the requests it does receive stay steady. Loss reasons show few price losses. The publisher confirms that a guaranteed takeover for a hotel chain started on the travel section that week, so far fewer travel impressions reach the deal's band.
The agency shifts budget to the publisher's news sections for the takeover's two weeks and returns to the travel section afterward. Nothing about the deal's floor or rank changes.
How does PlacementGraph help when a plan depends on deal delivery?
Frequently asked questions
Can a buyer pay more to move a deal up in priority?
Not directly. Priority is a setting in the seller's ad server, and a higher bid only helps where the seller lets demand compete on price, such as through dynamic allocation or an open auction optimized setup. A buyer can negotiate a better rank for a non-guaranteed deal, or move to a guaranteed deal, which ranks with direct campaigns.
Does a programmatic guaranteed deal always serve before a sponsorship?
No. In Google Ad Manager a sponsorship line item carries priority 4, while Standard line items carry 6, 8 or 10, and programmatic guaranteed deals run as one of those two types. A guaranteed deal booked as Standard can therefore sit below a sponsorship on the same inventory. Ask the seller which type the deal uses.
Is deal priority shown in the bid request?
No. OpenRTB 2.6 carries the deal ID, floor, auction type, allowed seats and the guaranteed flag, but no priority value. The private_auction flag says only whether open bids are accepted. Priority is applied in the publisher's ad server and exchange setup, so the buyer learns it from the seller and from loss reasons.
Why does a deal deliver well some weeks and poorly in others?
Higher priority demand on the same inventory changes over a flight. Guaranteed campaigns, sponsorships and takeovers start and end, and while they run, dynamic allocation protects their delivery with a temporary CPM that lower demand has to beat. Seasonal events on a section can take impressions a lower priority deal would otherwise win, even with no change to the deal itself.
Sources
- Line item types and priorities (opens in a new tab)Google Ad Manager Help
- Ad competition with dynamic allocation (opens in a new tab)Google Ad Manager Help
- About Private Marketplace deals (opens in a new tab)Google Ad Manager Help
- About First Look (opens in a new tab)Google Ad Manager Help
- Pricing rules (opens in a new tab)Google Ad Manager Help
- Programmatic and Automation: The Publishers' Perspective (IAB Digital Simplified, 2013) (opens in a new tab)IAB
- OpenRTB 2.6 specification (opens in a new tab)IAB Tech Lab, OpenRTB repository
- OpenRTB 2.x implementation guide (opens in a new tab)IAB Tech Lab, OpenRTB repository
- OpenRTB 3.0, List: Loss Reason Codes (opens in a new tab)IAB Tech Lab, OpenRTB repository
- Deals in Prebid (opens in a new tab)Prebid.org
- Troubleshoot your deals and line items (opens in a new tab)Display & Video 360 Help
Researched and written by PlacementGraph Research. Read how we research, source and update these pages. Corrections: diana@placementgraph.com.