Programmatic direct: PMPs, preferred deals, and guaranteed deals

Programmatic direct is when a publisher directly invites advertisers to purchase their inventory through a programmatic ad buying system. Publishers and advertisers negotiate a price for a fixed amount of time that the direct deal will serve. Programmatic direct allows advertisers to have a guaranteed amount of impressions from a publisher's website whether it is a site take over, on one specific page, or even a specific ad unit.

Programmatic direct is also available for a variety of programmatic deals such as private marketplace, preferred deals, and guaranteed. Below is a breakdown of each.

Private marketplace

Commonly referred to as a PMP or private auctions, a private marketplace is a real-time auction of a publishers’ inventory with a select number of advertisers in an invite-only auction. PMPs help publishers provide advertisers with high quality impressions, which in return ensure publishers' inventory is being filled with quality advertisements from reputable brands. Additionally, private marketplace deals helps reduce ad fraud, mistargeting audiences, and connects relevant buyers with publishers. 

Preferred deals

A preferred deal is an agreement between a publisher and an advertiser that provides the advertiser with a first look at the publisher’s inventory before it is auctioned in the open market. This preferential access provided to an advertiser is in exchange for a fixed CPM, but this does not guarantee that the advertiser will always participate and bid on the inventory available. This is why a preferred deal is also called programmatic non-guaranteed. 

Programmatic guaranteed

Programmatic guaranteed (PG) is a method that provides advertisers access to purchase a publisher's inventory directly for a campaign. It provides a way for advertisers to buy targeted impressions based on a device ID or cookie. The advertiser and publisher agree to serve a fixed number of impressions for a guaranteed price. Once a deal is agreed upon, the publisher’s ad server has to send bid requests to the advertisers DSP along with the deal ID. If there is a cookie or device ID match, the DSP bids at the agreed-upon price and the impression is won.