Getting started with deals

Deals are formed as private marketplace contracts where a selling party can directly sell you, a buying party, access to their inventory not available in the open marketplace.

In the Platform API or Deal Desk UI, you can assess deal quality before campaigns launch, and organize and respond to deal proposals. After deals are accepted, The Trade Desk provides real-time reporting metrics to improve deal transparency around supply path optimization and price discovery.

The following sections outline deal types, key terminology, and the roles and responsibilities of each party involved.

Deal types

The Platform API provides structured deal types designed to work with Kokai decisioning features and deal market settings. The following table lists the main types of deals available and their classification in the Platform API.

Type	API Classification	Description
Standard	Endeavor	Provides flexible inventory buying while supporting ad group decisioning. NOTE: In the API, a standard deal is also known as an endeavor deal.
Commitment	Commitment	Provides guaranteed inventory and pricing while continuing to support ad group decisioning.
Programmatic Guaranteed (PG)	Commitment	Provides guaranteed inventory and pricing without ad group decisioning. NOTE: In the API, PG deals are listed under the commitment deal type.

Here's what you need to know about deals regardless of their type:

All deals are approved electronically on The Trade Desk platform by two parties: a single authorized The Trade Desk partner, such as an agency, and the deal owner, such as a publisher or intermediary.
A deal can specify what type of inventory is being sold, relevant inventory composition, and spend goals, when applicable.
To identify the deal and accurately track the associated spend in the platform, The Trade Desk automatically includes the deal ID in the bid response.

Standard deals

A standard deal is an agreement that grants access to a specific segment of a publisher's inventory. Standard deals are similar to commitments in terms of available terms, except for the following differences:

Unlike commitments, standard deals aren't strongly enforced and have flexible terms.
The selling party can pause standard deals in-flight.
Standard deals with no media spend goal can contribute their spend toward the media spend goal of another deal.

For details, see Standard deals.

Commitment deals

A commitment deal is an agreement in the platform that specifies goals for media investment. It ensures that the committed spend amount is fulfilled between the participating parties. Here are some key characteristics about the terms you might see in commitment deals:

Commitment deals must include a minimum win rate guarantee. If the win rate drops below this level for several days, you can request to cancel the deal.
Commitments can be a single deal, or as all the spend from a given agency into a given partner inventory.
Commitments may include expansion terms to unlock additional inventory if pacing toward the media spend goal falls behind.
The selling party defines cancellation terms, which are used to cancel the deal when pacing falls further below the agreed threshold.
You can ask the selling party to include additional deal IDs to count spend toward the commitment goal from other deals without spend goals. This spend is counted when the inventory from the contributing deal matches the commitment's terms.

For details, see Commitment deals.

PG deals

A PG deal is an agreement in the platform that specifies goals for media investment. It ensures that the committed spend amount is fulfilled between the participating parties. PG deals have all the same characteristics of a commitment, but with the following differences:

PG deal terms include a minimum bid rate guarantee of 90% or greater.
There are no open market or private market buys.
Campaigns and ad groups do not automatically select PG deals.
Koa, The Trade Desk AI, is disabled for PG deals.

For details, see Programmatic Guaranteed deals.

Deal participant responsibilities

The following diagram outlines the responsibilities of the buying party, selling party, and The Trade Desk when sending deals, while the sections that follow provide additional details.

Terminology

The following sections defines key terms for understanding the classification of deal participants in the Platform API and Deal Desk UI.

Term	Description
Buying Party	An agency or advertiser on The Trade Desk platform that negotiates, accepts, and bids on the deal. The buying party is the primary owner and administrator of the deal on The Trade Desk platform.
Selling Party	A seller, intermediary, or publisher that creates proposals for negotiated deals. It represents the sell-side user and uses the account ID to propose deals with the PDP API.
Additional Participants	Additional participants who own seats on The Trade Desk platform that you allow to bid on the proposed deal. As the deal owner, you create a delivery profile and allows access to additional participants.
Seller	An entity that owns one or more publishers, and sells inventory created by those publishers. Seller IDs are typically sourced from the `sellers.json` file. NOTE: Under limited circumstances, a classified seller might also resell small amounts of inventory owned by another seller.
Publisher	A content owner whose content or inventory is available for sale by a seller. The PDP API maps publishers using information found in the `ads.txt` file, with additional curation from The Trade Desk.
Intermediary	An entity, such as an SSP, that facilitates ad inventory distribution but doesn't own inventory.
Agency	An advertising agency that buys ad inventory on behalf of a brand. NOTE: Under limited circumstances, a classified seller might also be an agency.
Advertiser	A brand that acquires inventory through The Trade Desk platform.

Details on deal management for each party are included in the corresponding sections. See also The Trade Desk glossary.

Buying party

As the buying party, you're expected to do the following:

Accept or reject deal proposals, and communicate with the selling party to modify the deal terms.
Configure ad groups to target your deals and update base bid prices to match floor prices.

Selling party

The selling party is expected to do the following:

Send deals to a buying party for acceptance.
Communicate changes to accepted deals with additional proposals.
Meet the deal requirements for minimum daily avails and promised win rates.
Provide access to unique inventory not found in the public marketplace.

IMPORTANT: Supply vendors and publishers must have a clearly defined ads.txt file deployed on their site. See also Inventory policies.

The Trade Desk

The Trade Desk does the following through the PDP API or Deal Desk:

Provide deal quality scores to help brands make data-driven decisions.
Examine deal avails, signal completeness, and monitor delivery metrics when applicable.
Offer reporting tools to track commitments and pacing, helping all deal participants stay on track with their goals.

Benefits

Our Platform API offers several key benefits that improve efficiency, accuracy, and performance toward managing and reporting for deals:

Reduces reliance on manual input: Structured deal metadata minimizes errors by automating and clarifying inventory identification.
Improves deal accuracy: Clear identification of inventory ensures precise targeting and correct parameters.
Enhances performance analysis: Accurate metadata enables better tracking and analysis of deal performance.
Supports better decision-making: Improved data allows for more informed alternatives and recommendations.
Lowers operational costs: Reduces time-consuming troubleshooting and errors associated with poorly devised deals.
Eliminates redundant deals: Avoids duplication of inventory already available through the open market or always-on deals.
Increases efficiency of advertising investments: Optimizes the deployment of resources by improving deal structure and targeting.
Improves delivery and performance of programmatic investments: Major programmatic commitments benefit from more accurate, high-performing deals.