Get started with the PDP API for selling parties
Price Discovery and Provisioning (PDP) improves the decisioning process and yield management for agencies and sellers. As a selling party, you can use the Deals and Provisioning endpoints to discover buying parties, propose deals, and begin negotiating financial, inventory, and other terms. You have the option to propose deals as one of two distinct deal types—commitments and endeavors. Commitments are most highly valued by advertisers and therefore prioritized for full delivery, while endeavors offer streamlined access to specific inventory.
This guide outlines prerequisites and key steps for getting started.
Before you begin
To initiate a deal, you must identify a buying party—typically an agency or advertiser on The Trade Desk platform—who can negotiate, accept, and bid on the deal. During onboarding, The Trade Desk assigns each participant a known agent ID (KAID)—used to identify one another in the deal. For details on additional participants, see Terms and definitions.
IMPORTANT: For you to interact with a buying party, they must have an active The Trade Desk account.
Before you can call the PDP API, you must have the following information:
Your account ID assigned during onboarding. (Avoid exposing this ID externally.)
Your API credentials. For details, see PDP authentication.
The URL of your PDP API environment. For details, see Production environments.
Production environments
The following table lists the production URL that hosts the PDP API endpoints.
| Endpoint | URL |
|---|---|
| Deals | https://api.openpath.thetradedesk.com/deals/graphql |
| Provisioning | https://api.openpath.thetradedesk.com/provisioning/graphql |
Workflow
To initiate a deal, complete the following steps.
| Step | Description | Endpoint | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Determine your account classification as a selling party. | /provisioning |
Retrieve your known agent object and confirm your account type. |
| 2 | Search for buying parties. | /provisioning |
Buying party information is stored in their known agent object, which you can access with their permission. |
| 3 | Create a deal. | /deals |
Define your deal terms and send your proposal to buying parties. For details, see Initiate and negotiate deals. |
The following sections outline each step. For full workflow details, see Deals and Provisioning.
Determine your selling party account classification
To determine your account classification, retrieve your known agent information based on the account ID assigned to you during onboarding. For details, see Look up your account known agent. The output of the query will show your selling party classification and KAID.
The following table shows how The Trade Desk classifies selling parties.
| Classification | Description |
|---|---|
| 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. |
For details on how The Trade Desk assigns known agent types, see FAQs.
Search for buying parties
IMPORTANT: To discover participants, you must have permission to view their known agent object.
The following table shows how The Trade Desk classifies buying parties.
| Classification | Description |
|---|---|
| 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. |
You can query for advertisers, agencies, and additional advertisers tied to those agencies. For details, see Known agents. See also FAQs.
FAQs
The following is a list of commonly asked questions about the PDP API.
How do I change my account classification?
The Trade Desk assigns each account a classification in the Provisioning API during the account onboarding process. This classification takes into consideration a variety of account factors and is unlikely to change. To inquire about mislabeled accounts, contact The Trade Desk Inventory Partnerships team.
How long does it take to provision an account?
It might take up to one hour after onboarding for permissions to propagate. If you cannot access the PDP API afterwards, contact The Trade Desk Inventory Partnerships team.
Can the buying party view my known agent information?
No. Buying parties cannot query your known agent information. However, as a selling party, you can view known agent data that they've permissioned for your access.
How do I choose which deal to create?
To select a deal type, refer to the list of deal terms that align with your requirements. For a comparison, see Deal creation differences.