Digital Campaign Launch Process- via Digital Ad Sales Team

If you are not familiar with the launch process of Digital Advertising Campaigns sold through with a content provider’s Digital Advertising Sales team- this is for you.   (*Note- this is NOT the process for launching a campaign with a self-services such as Facebook- (Meta Ads Manager), Amazon (Amazon Ads Manager), or Google (Google Ads))

There are a couple of different types of Digital Advertising Campaigns that can be sold through and launched directly with a content provider’s Digital Advertising sales team:

• Direct IO campaigns (which is set up and launched by the content provider)

• Programmatic campaigns (which is set up by the content provider, and launched by the advertiser).  For more information about Programmatic Advertising,  check out “WTF is Programmatic Advertising?”

Direct IO Campaigns (DIO):

Direct IO (or DIO) campaigns are usually launched solely by the content provider.  In Direct IO campaigns, the Advertiser sends over an Insertion Order (or IO), which is a mutually agreed upon legally binding contract that provides the terms and conditions of the deal, in addition to the campaign details. 

Once the content provider receives the Insertion Order (or IO), they usually work to sign the Insertion order and will then work with appropriate internal teams to set up the deal in the in the content provider’s campaign management systems and ad-servers.

The Advertiser will then send over their creative assets directly to the content provider for a process called “Creative QA”, or “Creative Quality Assurance”.  During the Creative QA process, the content provider’s Ad-Serving team will review the Advertiser’s creative to assure that the assets are within the requested creative specifications.  For more information about Digital Ad Creatives, check out:” Digital Advertising and Creative Assets”  Once creative is confirmed to be in spec, the campaign is greenlit, and launched by the content provider’s ad-serving team.  The content provider will typically send over screenshots to the Advertisers of their campaign once it is live (or an Advertiser can request the screenshots). 

Programmatic Campaigns:

Programmatic Campaigns are set up by the content provider, and launched by the advertiser.  There are a few different types of Programmatic Campaigns:

*Programmatic Guaranteed (PG)- “A programmatic deal where the Seller and the Buyer negotiate a price and terms for inventory that's reserved (guaranteed) for that buyer. Inventory is designated only for that buyer at that price. “

Source: (Google 360 Ad Manager Help - Programmatic Guaranteed vs. Preferred Deals)

*" Preferred Deal: “A programmatic deal where the Seller and the Buyer negotiate a price and terms for inventory that the buyer can optionally buy. The buyer has an initial, or "preferred," opportunity to bid at the negotiated price when there's an ad request for the inventory. Preferred Deals are non-guaranteed because:

• The inventory negotiated isn't reserved for the buyer—you can opt to reserve it in a guaranteed campaign for a better price.

• Buyers aren't required to buy the inventory.”

*Source: (Google Ad Manager Help Programmatic Guaranteed vs. Preferred Deals)

*PMP (Private Marketplace)- “An exclusive programmatic deal which only certain advertisers are invited. It functions like an open RTB auction, but it’s exclusive to select ad buyers. With PMP programmatic deals, publishers can hand-pick trusted brands and advertisers gain premium access to high-quality inventory.”

(*Source: Taboola Blog Guaranteed, PMP and Direct: Types of Programmatic Advertising Deals Explained)

To set up a Programmatic Deal, the Advertiser must provide the below information to the content provider in order to set up the deal in the content publisher’s ad-server:

Seat Name: (or the name assigned to identify a specific buyer that is participating in an auction)
Seat ID: (or the unique ID created to identify a specific buyer that is participating in an auction)
DSP: Demand Side Platform

Campaign Details: (Start/End Date, Budget, Etc)

Once the content provider has the above details from the advertiser, they will work to set up the deal and will create a “Deal ID” for the advertiser to find the deal in the DSP to upload the creative to the campaign.  Once the creative is uploaded, the content provider will typically go through the same QA process that is used in a Direct IO (DIO) campaign launch to assure that creative is to spec.  Once the campaign is confirmed to be up to spec,   the advertiser then will be responsible for launching the campaign and responding to bid requests.