Curation is the latest buzzword in programmatic advertising, but the concept is far from new.
We’ve seen SSPs package publisher inventory in various ways for years now. But the slew of third parties coming in to do on-platform curation is changing the dynamics in our space.
For publishers, the promise of curation lies in its potential to drive incremental revenue by offering more tailored inventory packages to buyers at scale.
Yet the industry is missing a critical piece: standardized reporting. Without it, curation risks becoming a black box, leaving publishers in the dark about its actual value.
No standard, no clarity
Each SSP has its unique way of reporting – or doesn’t report at all – making it nearly impossible for publishers to assess the performance and incremental value of curated deals.
In some cases, publishers are left to rely on naming conventions and complex regex searches to piece together insights. This isn’t just cumbersome; it’s unreliable.
Without clear reporting, publishers face several risks:
- Blended reporting: Curated deals often get lumped into broader PMP or OM reporting, making it difficult to discern their unique contribution.
- Forgotten deals: Set-it-and-forget-it, always-on deals may linger for years, with publishers unaware of their continued activity, potentially leading to channel conflicts with their direct efforts.
- Opaque inventory packaging: Publishers can’t easily tell whether bid priorities are respected or if their flooring rules are followed. This undermines confidence in programmatic deals and, again, potentially conflicts with publisher sales efforts.
- Undermining ads.txt: Ads.txt was designed to give publishers control over who is authorized to sell their inventory. But with curated deals, third parties can package and sell inventory in ways that may potentially bypass this authorization, making it difficult for publishers to know who’s selling their inventory in the market. And with no easy way to keep track of authorizations or clear controls to revoke authorization, it’s hard to compare lists with SSPs.
In essence, publishers are left asking: Is curation really working for us? Or are we just adding noise to our programmatic stack?
Best practices for curation reporting
While the industry works toward a standardized solution, here are a few steps publishers can take today:
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1. Use existing SSP dimensions and naming conventions
Use available fields that currently exist for some SSPs, like Magnite’s “Magnite Deal” or OpenX’s “Deal Source.” Either set up or look for patterns in deal names (e.g., “Curated” or “Marketplace”) to quickly identify curated deals across platforms.
Note that some of these fields exist in the SSPs’ reporting UI but not in their API-based reporting. Most SSPs do not include obvious ways to identify the curator. Check and check again.
2. Centralize deal-tracking
Maintain a record of curated deal IDs along with the curator, and link them to specific revenue streams. This ensures you can monitor performance and avoid forgotten deals that may cause conflicts or cannibalization. Consider focusing all your curation deals on one or two main partner platforms to make monitoring easier.
3. Automate reporting
Streamline reporting by using a unified reporting platform, which automates SSP-specific logic to classify curated deals and provide actionable insights into their performance.
4. Push for standardized reporting from SSPs
Advocate for clearer tracking and transparency by engaging with SSPs. Consistent publisher feedback can drive the development of standardized solutions.
5. Audit and optimize regularly
Periodically review your curated deal portfolio to ensure deals are aligned with your revenue goals and eliminate underperforming or redundant agreements.
The path forward
Curated deals hold real promise for publishers, but only if they can be properly tracked and evaluated. The lack of standardized reporting is not just an operational inconvenience but also a strategic risk.
Publishers need visibility into their curated deals to ensure they’re driving incremental value, not cannibalizing existing revenue streams or creating channel conflicts for themselves in the market.
While industry bodies like the IAB Tech Lab work to catch up on standards, publishers must push SSPs to adopt better reporting practices now. Otherwise, the curation gold rush could leave publishers holding little more than fool’s gold.
“The Sell Sider” is a column written by the sell side of the digital media community.
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