Preferred Deals overview

Preferred Deals is a feature that allows Ad Exchange sellers to offer inventory to buyers at a fixed, pre-negotiated price before the inventory is made available to other buyers in the general auction. Some publishers may also only make specific inventory available by Preferred Deals.

A buyer that participates in a Preferred Deal gets a “first look” at inventory that the seller predefines, by ad unit. The relevant buyer gains access to the inventory by bidding at or above the fixed price.

Deals are pre-auction, meaning that fixed price deals will transact if the buyer accepts the inventory, even if the price is below that of the auction. Publishers can offer a Preferred Deal to more than one buyer.

Preferred Deals Serving Logic:

If two buyers are offered a Preferred Deal at $3 on the same ad unit, and if both buyers bid on the impression with the same targeting, who wins?

The winner is decided randomly if both buyers bid at least the fixed deal price.

If two buyers are offered a Preferred Deal at $5 on the same ad unit, and Buyer A bids $6 and Buyer B bids $5, what will the price be?

The two bids are treated equally because both buyers bid over or at the minimum. The winner is then randomly decided between the two and the higher price does not have an impact. The winner stills pay $5.

How does a buyer know that inventory is being offered to them as a fixed price deal?

The seller would have to let the buyer know directly.

If Buyer A is offered a Preferred Deal at $2 and Buyer B is offered a Preferred Deal on the same ad unit at $3, how are bids handled?

The higher Preferred Deal takes priority.

• If Buyer B bids $3 or more, it automatically wins the bid. If Buyer A bids more than Buyer B, Buyer B still wins.
• If Buyer A bids $2 or more and Buyer B bids less than $3, then Buyer A wins because Buyer B didn’t meet its Preferred Deal negotiated price.

If Buyer B ($3 Preferred Deal) chooses not to bid, does Buyer A ($2 Preferred Deal) have a shot at winning the impression?

Yes, Buyer A can win the impression it bids $2 or more.

Can the predetermined pre-auction CPM for a Preferred Deal be overbid by the buyer? Example: Preferred Deal between a publisher and a buyer at $5. The buyer bids $10. Does the buyer pay $5 or $10?

To transact a Preferred Deal, the bid must be higher or equal to the agreed fixed CPM. In this example, despite over bidding, the buyer wins the impression and pays the fixed CPM of $5. Bidding above the fixed price simply signals to the auction that the buyer accepts the fixed price; the value of the bid is not used in any other way. If you believe a case can be made for a different behavior, please contact us.

Source: Google Support