Maximizing the Quality and Performance of Programmatic Direct Deals with DV’s Data Solutions

Since its inception, programmatic advertising has become increasingly more sophisticated. Originally used as a way to sell leftover inventory, it has since transformed into a tool premium media owners use to facilitate direct sales through programmatic direct deals. 

Programmatic direct deals outshine direct sales with numerous advantages, such as reducing manual processes, speeding up campaign setup and providing access to exclusive inventory. Yet, is the perception of guaranteed quality as reliable as the industry believes?

Let’s explore the main types of programmatic direct deals and how you can ensure optimal performance with DV’s data solutions.

Pursuing Cost-Effective Inventory While Enhancing Performance

Advertisers understand that making an impact requires capturing consumer attention. To cut through the noise and achieve the greatest potential outcome for your campaigns, ads must be fraud-free, viewable, contextually relevant and appropriate for your brand. In doing so, you maximize ROI by removing the media waste. In fact, the ANA recommends that you balance cost-effective inventory in programmatic media by prioritizing ad quality — ensuring that all of the above criteria are met. 

That’s why it’s essential to curate your programmatic media, focusing on inventory that aligns with your predefined quality and performance criteria for better outcomes.

What Are the Three Types of Programmatic Direct Deals?

Many advertisers are already familiar with the open marketplace, where any advertiser can bid on inventory, and any publisher can sell their ad space. Programmatic direct deals were introduced as an alternative option for purchasing ad placements, providing access to exclusive inventory and specific audiences.

The three main types of programmatic direct deals include:

1. Private Marketplace (PMP): A PMP is similar to an open marketplace, but it operates on an invite-only basis. It involves a private, exclusive auction where only selected advertisers can bid on inventory. The inventory found in a PMP is often viewed as premium, and publishers can set higher prices for their ad space.
2. Preferred Deals: Preferred deals are a type of programmatic transaction where a publisher offers an advertiser priority access to ad impressions at a fixed price. These deals are also invite-only, and while advertisers are given the first look at inventory, they are not obligated to purchase it.
3. Programmatic Guaranteed: This deal type involves a direct negotiation between a publisher and an advertiser to determine a fixed price and volume for ad inventory. It guarantees that the advertiser will receive specific impressions, and the publisher reserves this inventory exclusively for them. 

True or False: All Programmatic Direct Deals Are Inherently High Quality

Because of the nature of programmatic direct deals, there is often a perception that brand-suitable, high-quality inventory is guaranteed.

Yet, this is false.

A 2021 analysis of the DV clients examined programmatic partners that had not implemented DV Authentic Brand Suitability®. Our findings revealed that the post-bid brand suitability violation rate for PMP transactions was 11 percent — 22 percent higher than the violation rate found in open marketplace transactions. This indicated that, regardless of whether transactions occurred in a private or open marketplace, there was still a risk of brand safety violations and media waste.

However, like any programmatic exchange, violations can be significantly reduced by implementing DV Authentic Brand Suitability. 

In 2024, we conducted an analysis of the impact of DV Authentic Brand Suitability on PMP transactions. This analysis utilized a year’s worth of data from one of our largest programmatic partners, allowing us to compare post-bid brand suitability violation rates for PMPs where DV Authentic Brand Suitability was applied versus those where it was not. The results showed that the post-bid brand suitability violation rate for PMP deals with DV Authentic Brand Suitability applied was 61 percent lower than for PMPs without it.

Driving Programmatic Performance with DV

Advertisers have long depended on DV’s programmatic solutions to bid on inventory in the open marketplace through demand-side platform (DSP) integrations. These solutions can also be used to curate supply for programmatic deals directly in leading supply-side platforms.

No matter where or how you engage in programmatic transactions, DV has you covered:

• Buy-Side Activation: Activate DV’s programmatic solutions directly in leading DSPs for open marketplace campaigns, private marketplaces and preferred deals to prevent bidding on inventory that does not meet your brand’s quality and performance standards. 
• Supply-Side Activation: Activate DV’s programmatic solutions directly in leading supply-side platforms (SSPs) to curate private marketplace, preferred deals and programmatic guaranteed deals based on your brand’s quality and performance standards.

DV’s data solutions ensure that you only purchase media that meets your established quality and performance criteria. We offer two methods to enhance your media buying experience: ready-to-use segments and customizable solutions.

Optimize Performance with DV’s Data Solutions

Removing media waste by only purchasing media that meets your criteria elevates the value of your programmatic direct deals. DV’s data solutions help you avoid bidding on inventory that does not align with your brand standards, thereby enhancing campaign effectiveness and efficiency.

Key benefits of DV’s data solutions for programmatic direct deals include:

• Flexible Activation: Enhance performance and ensure global consistency across all programmatic buying platforms, including DSPs, SSPs and ad servers. 
• Reduce Waste: Reduce blocks by activating your post-bid media quality and performance settings in a pre-bid environment.
• Enforce Consistency Across Inventory: Using a single DV Authentic Brand Suitability segment ID, avoid brand-unsuitable content everywhere you buy open web inventory. 
• Secure Broad Protection and Coverage: Curate deals using DV’s unbiased, privacy-friendly, third-party pre-bid data segments. DV offers 1000+ pre-bid segments supported across 40+ languages. 
• Advanced Classification: Unlock precision at scale with property (i.e. page) level data backed by Universal Content Intelligence, DV’s AI-powered classification engine.
• Operational Efficiency: Save valuable time and streamline your media buying process by using a single data segment to curate inventory. This eliminates the need to evaluate each publisher individually, allowing for quicker and more efficient campaign setups.

Activate DV’s Data Solutions

Learn more and download an overview of how to leverage DV’s data solutions for improved campaign effectiveness in PMP or programmatic direct deal transactions.