WHAT IS CURATION?
As an application layer on top of programmatic infrastructure and bidstream, curation is the process of combination of supply inventory (typically supply you do not own), data/audiences (either your own first-party or third-party data), and performance settings packaged together to create unique PMP-based deals which can then be sold and activated on the buy side through any DSP. Because curation relies on existing programmatic workflows, it’s a quick and simple way for both the sell and buy side to transact while protecting data assets, providing greater visibility and transparency in the supply path.
Creation deals use filters and enrichment rules that are applied in real-time on ad opportunities emerging from suppliers and surfaced via a deal to customers' DSP of choice. From the trader’s point of view, the curated deal looks just like a regular deal in their DSP.
Curation, as simple way for both the sell and buy side to transact while protecting data assets, enables a wide variety of use cases.
WHO CAN PARTICIPATE IN CURATION?
Partners like retailers, data companies, independent trading desks, and other media companies to use their proprietary assets to enhance the value of a seller’s inventory and create unique offerings for buyers. These proprietary assets can include audience data, preferred inventory access, specially negotiated rates with sellers, optimization capabilities, investment strategy, and other features.
WHAT FEES ARE ASSOCIATED WITH CURATION?
Certain fees or charges apply to curated transactions, but only if the bid for the curated deal wins the impression in the seller’s final auction. These fees or charges may include a tech fee charged by Criteo to the third-party curator for its use of the platform and the Commerce Grid technology and a margin to be charged by the curator for their inventory enhancement. If you are a seller, all bids for curated transactions will be submitted to your final auction net of such fees or charges unless you agree otherwise with the applicable curator, and such bids will need to compete in your final auction in order to win the impression. Again, to be clear, no curation-related fees or charges will apply if a bid for inventory via curation does not win.
WHAT IS THE REQUIRED DEALS TO SETUP A CURATED DEALS?
Below are required deal settings to review against campaign components when curating Deal IDs in Commerce Grid.
Required Deal settings must be applied to the Deal targeting within the Supply Configuration stage and in the DSP setup for enhanced match rates, scale, and performance.
REQUIRED
DSP Name (Ex: DV360, TTD)
Advertiser
DSP Seat ID (Partner or Buyer ID associated with the buyer's DSP account seat in any DSP with a direct connection to Commerce Grid)
Media Format(s) - Display/Video/Native/CTV (only one Media Format per Deal ID)
Campaign Flight Dates – Start date, End Date
Campaign Geo - Country, State, City, Zip Code
Inventory Type - Web/App
Campaign KPI - Required only for Viewability & VCR settings in Performance Based Deals.
OPTIONAL
Language
Specific Publishers, Domain Allow/Block Lists, App Lists
Device / Device Model
Browser
OS
Viewability Target
Target Audience
First-Party Data - Client Owned
Third-Party Data - Contextual/Category Targeting
Brand Safety Settings
Sensitive Categories – For Alcohol, Gambling, Tobacco, and CBD, apply the corresponding Sensitive Category Publisher List. Optional
WHAT ARE SOME BEST PRACTICES FOR OPTIMIZATIONS FOR CURATED DEALS?
If your buyer has provided their campaign’s flight dates and you’re creating a curated deal for them in advance, use start and end dates so that it launches at the same time as their campaign.
If a deal is not needed for a prolonged period, deactivate it and reactivate it later, such as with seasonal deals. Alternatively, if a deal is no longer needed, delete it.
WHY DOES THE NUMBER OF AVAILS CHANGE FOR CURATED DEALS?
As part of the curation process, we can deprioritize unnecessary information by predicting which curated deals will drive spending in a given auction. For example, we can sample curated deals that a buyer has stopped bidding on and unsampled them if the buyer starts bidding again, which leverages Optimized Traffic Shaping (OTS).
WHAT IS OPTIMIZED TRAFFIC SHAPING (OTS) FOR CURATION?
Curation processes thousands of supply and demand deals with each bid request. Criteo uses OTS (Optimized Traffic Shaping) to reduce the traffic shared with DSPs to ensure each auction focuses on processing the most valuable curated deals. In this way, buyers, curators, and sellers will achieve better results.
WHAT IS DEALS THROTTLING?
Commerce Grid applies a deal throttling algorithm to curated deals that are older than two weeks and not serving impressions. This is a proactive measurement process to ensure the SSP is focused on optimizing active, performing deals, and mitigating excess QPS and costs associated with non-active deals.
Commerce Grid will automatically mark deals as ‘non-performing' when the deal age exceeds two weeks and there is no impression delivery.
These deals are excluded from 95% of bidstream, with 5% left as exploration traffic.
If you do not intend to use a deal, you can deactivate it by navigating to the Demand Deal and selecting Inactive status. If you wish to keep a deal active, ensure the deal is set up correctly and activated in the DSP campaign setup so Commerce Grid will recognize cleared impressions.
WHAT ARE PROGRAMMATIC HOPS?
In programmatic advertising, a "hop" refers to the handoff of a bid request or ad response between entities in the supply chain. This can include:
Demand-Side Platforms (DSPs)
Supply-Side Platforms (SSPs)
Ad Exchanges
Ad Servers
For CTV, video, and in-app inventory, hops are more frequent due to technical, compliance, and monetization requirements.
WHY DO ADDITIONAL HOPS OCCUR?
Programmatic advertising involves multiple steps and entities to facilitate ad inventory's seamless buying and selling. However, it should be noted that additional "hops" can occur due to a variety of situations. The addition of those hops cannot be removed and shouldn't be considered as an evaluation of "directness" to the inventory. These situations include:
Complex Ad Formats CTV and Video Ads: These formats often involve larger files and multiple creative variations. Additional hops occur to ensure proper creative rendering and transcodings, such as adapting resolution or bitrate for the target device.
In-App Ads: SDK-mediated environments often require additional integrations with third-party SDKs or mediation layers.
Inventory Quality and Verification Ad Verification Tools: Additional hops ensure that ads comply with quality standards and viewability metrics.
Fraud Prevention: Platforms may introduce intermediary services to validate traffic and prevent invalid activity.
Regulatory Compliance Privacy Laws: Ensuring compliance with regulations like GDPR or CCPA may require intermediary hops for consent validation and data processing.
ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS?
Reach out to your Criteo account manager to learn more about Commerce Grid.