Before You Join a Curated Deal: Questions Publishers Should Ask

Curation has become one of the fastest-moving parts of programmatic. Instead of buying open auction inventory and applying their own targeting, more buyers now access packages that a third party has assembled: selected inventory, often combined with data or other signals, delivered as a deal ID the buyer can activate in its DSP. For publishers, curation can bring demand that would never have found your site through the open auction. It can also add a new party taking a share of the money between buyer and seller.

On July 2, IAB Europe published its Guide to Curation in Digital Advertising, developed by its Programmatic Working Group. It aims to give a commercially neutral overview of what curation is, how curated marketplaces work and where value may be created for buyers and media sellers. It is written for publisher sales and revenue teams as well as buyers, and it organizes the key questions under six areas: transparency, data provenance, fees, measurement, control and commercial incentives. Here is how we would apply those areas from the publisher side.

Transparency: what exactly is being sold?

• Which of your inventory is included in the curated package, and how was it selected?
• Is your site identifiable to the buyer, or is it pooled anonymously with other supply?
• How is the package described to buyers, and does that description match your content?
• Which SSP runs the deal, and does it appear correctly in your ads.txt and in the supply chain object?

If you cannot see what a curator is selling on your behalf, you cannot judge whether it helps or hurts your brand and direct sales.

Data provenance: where do the signals come from?

Many curated packages combine inventory with audience or contextual data. Ask where that data comes from, whether it is derived from your users, and under what consent. If a curator applies audience segments built from activity on other sites to your inventory, understand the legal basis, especially with European and US state privacy rules tightening. If it uses data derived from your site, understand whether it is used only for your inventory or taken elsewhere.

Fees: who takes what?

Curation adds a party to the transaction, and that party is paid. Fee structures vary: some curators take a share of media spend, others charge data fees, and some combine both. Ask:

• What is the curator's fee, and is it taken from the buyer's side or from the clearing price that reaches you?
• Does the SSP charge a different fee on curated deals than on the open auction?
• What is your net revenue per thousand impressions on curated deals compared with the same inventory in the open auction?

A higher gross CPM that nets out below your open auction yield is not a win.

Measurement: how will you know it works?

Agree up front on how performance is measured and reported. You should be able to see curated deal revenue, impressions and net CPM in your own reporting, broken out by curator and deal. If the curator reports outcomes to buyers, such as viewability or attention metrics, ask whether you can see them too. Performance data you cannot see cannot inform your pricing.

Control: what can you change?

• Can you set floors on curated deals, or does the curator set pricing?
• Can you exclude specific sections, formats or advertisers?
• Can you remove your inventory from a package, and how quickly?
• Do curated deals compete with your direct-sold campaigns and private deals, and how are priorities set in your ad server?

Commercial incentives: who benefits?

Every party in curation has its own incentives. A curator paid on media spend benefits from volume; a publisher benefits from yield. Ask how the curator is paid and whether that aligns with your goals. Be particularly careful if a curated package is priced below what the same buyers pay you directly. That is a sign the package is undercutting your own sales.

Finance and B2B publishers: a special case

Publishers with high-value professional audiences, such as finance, business and B2B titles, are especially attractive to curators because their audiences are distinctive and valuable. That makes the questions above more important, not less. Your audience is the product. Make sure curated deals price it accordingly, keep your site identifiable where that helps value, and protect direct relationships with the advertisers who already buy from you.

A simple way to start

You do not need to refuse curation or accept every offer. Start with one or two curators your SSPs already support, set floors that protect your open auction yield, and review net revenue, fill and buyer mix after a month. Keep what adds new demand at a fair net price; drop what cannibalizes existing buyers.

Keep your direct and private marketplace relationships in view while you test. If a buyer who previously bought you through a direct deal starts buying you through a curator instead, find out why. Sometimes the curated route adds data they need; sometimes it is simply cheaper for them, at your expense.

The takeaway

Curation can bring buyers to your inventory who would not otherwise find it, but it also adds a party and a fee to the chain. IAB Europe's guide gives the industry a common set of questions. Publishers should ask all of them before opting in, and keep asking once deals are live. The right curated deal widens your demand; the wrong one resells your audience back to your own buyers for less.