Campaign Setup
Part of Private marketplace deals
Testing a private deal before shifting a larger budget
Plan a limited private-deal pilot, check requests through wins and outcomes, and set a rule for increasing the allocation.
Before shifting a larger budget, give a private deal a limited, authorised allocation. The pilot should test whether it delivers eligible impressions under the intended rules and whether bought impressions justify their cost against the chosen campaign outcome. Spend alone cannot answer both questions.
Set the decision before launch
Record the intended inventory, market, format, outcome measure and maximum pilot spend. Set a review date and decide what would justify expanding, revising or stopping the deal. No pilot budget or sample threshold works for every campaign. Allow enough time to observe the inventory during periods when it is normally available.
Keep the proposed larger allocation separate until the review. Name the reporting currency and time zone, especially when Australian stakeholders use different daily cut-offs. Record the deal ID, exchange, price rule and seller’s expected request volume for the pilot period. That estimate is context, not a guarantee on a private auction or preferred deal.
Confirm a clean setup
Use a line item whose deal delivery can be identified in reporting. Configure targeting so the deal’s delivery is attributed separately from other inventory sources. Check that the deal is available to the intended advertiser and that dates, geography, budget and creative fit the offer.
Check the price condition before interpreting low delivery. Bids set below the deal’s applicable price, and automated bidding that values impressions below that price, can both result in no purchase. Record any platform setting that adjusts bids towards the deal price. Assess whether its trade-off against performance optimisation suits the pilot’s goal.
Review requests through outcomes
During the pilot, record these stages for the deal and line item where reporting permits:
- Available requests:Did relevant inventory reach the buyer during the agreed dates?
- Eligibility:Which opportunities were filtered by targeting, creative, frequency, budget or pacing?
- Bids and wins:Did the bidder respond, meet the price condition and win?
- Bought delivery:Where did impressions appear, and what spend and effective cost resulted?
- Outcome:Did the delivery produce a useful result under the agreed measure?
Use available deal-level diagnostics to help interpret delivery. Reporting availability and detail can vary. Treat missing data as unknown rather than zero.
Key Metrics to Track During Private Deal Pilot
- Available Requests
- Number of eligible impressions during pilot period
- Eligible Impressions
- Impressions meeting targeting and technical criteria
- Win Rate
- Percentage of bids that won impressions at deal price
- Effective CPM
- Average cost per thousand impressions delivered
Make the allocation decision
Expand only when there is enough relevant opportunity, acceptable placement and a defensible cost for the outcome. A small pilot may establish basic deliverability without producing enough outcomes to judge effectiveness. State that limit and decide whether another bounded run would answer the remaining question.
If delivery is weak, address the identified constraint and observe a new period before extrapolating. If the deal spends but misses the outcome, inspect placement mix, creative and measurement before increasing its share. Another buying route can provide context. Differences in publisher and audience may also explain different results.
