IAB Tech Lab, a non-profit consortium which creates technologies and standards for the digital media ecosystem, today announced the release of new API which it says will streamline and automate programmatic deal synchronisation between supply-side platforms (SSP) and demand-side platforms (DSPs). The Deals API, whose first version is now open for public comment, should help tackle some of the key inefficiencies which tend to arise with programmatic deals, which can cost revenue and dent advertisers confidence in using programmatic deals. The public comment period will remain open until January 31st next year.
The importance of deals in the programmatic ecosystem has grown of the past few years. They’re typically used to enable curation, where a third party packages up inventory using specific signals and datapoints, and they’re commonly used to trade CTV inventory as well. But there’s still a lot of manual work involved when it comes to executing programmatic deals, which can end up causing significant problems. For example, when a deal is entered incorrectly, this creates a mismatch between the buy-side and the sell-side, hindering delivery of the campaign. A lack of standardisation around how deals are communicated between the buy-side and the sell-side can lead to a lack of transparency around deal ownership, while broader miscommunication can lead to misalignment on how exactly the deal will work.
Nick Allen, VP of product management at sell-side ad tech business Magnite, says these sorts of issues can lead to deals being pretty ineffective. “Two-thirds of deals are configured with the desired supply, yet deliver no or very little revenue,” he said.
Bringing more transparency to curation
By standardising and automating the process, Tech Lab hopes to help solve these issues. “The ability to prove transparency to all parties involved in packaging and selling the deal, including curators, will improve accuracy and grow confidence in deal-based media transactions, which are a vital opportunity for publisher growth in a time of reduced traffic,” said Anthony Katsur, CEO of IAB Tech Lab.
Deal API v1.0 will require the business entities involved in the packaging of a deal to be explicitly identified, including the seller, the packager, and the curator where one exists. Future versions will support discoverability for all companies involved in a deal, letting all parties involved see how they are included, and by whom. The idea is that with more transparency, trust in deals will grow, helping encourage more advertisers to use them.
“While much of the Deal Sync capability in this API formalises long-standing needs around deal management between various parties, it sets the foundation the industry needs for innovation in deal management going forward, given the growing dominance and importance of deals,” said Anna-Maria Nalepa, senior technical product manager at Basis Technologies. “Beyond enabling better collaboration and allowing for cleaner data as deal volumes grow, the API novelly addresses curation by bringing transparency to deals including information about who is involved and in what capacity. It paves the way for a more transparent, deal-driven programmatic marketplace in an ecosystem historically challenged by complexity and intermediaries.”
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