Add proposal line items

Programmatic Direct allows you negotiate both Programmatic Guaranteed and Preferred Deal (non-guaranteed) proposal line items. Select either "Standard" or "Sponsorship" for the line item type to negotiate a guaranteed campaign. Select "Preferred deal" for non-guaranteed campaigns. Learn more about these campaign types in Guaranteed versus non-guaranteed programmatic campaigns.

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Get started

1. Sign in to Google Ad Manager.
2. Navigate to Sales, and then Proposals.
3. From the table, click a proposal in the "Name" column.
4. Click New proposal line item.
5. Select the type of ad you want to serve (this can't be changed after you save the proposal line item):
   • Display
     • Standard: Create a variety of rich ad experiences from standard image ads and Campaign Manager 360 URLs to native forms and custom solutions.
     • Master/companion (for publisher-managed creatives only): Add multiple creatives that serve together—often desired by advertisers to show more than one ad creative on a page at the same time.
   • Video or audio: Create engaging video ad experiences that appear during streaming content, both in video players and on set-top boxes, video ads that play outside a video player, and overlay ads that complement streaming video ads. You can also create audio ads that play during streaming audio content.

Basic details

6. Enter a "Name." Buyers see this name during negotiation. Use something descriptive and follow naming conventions for your organization.
7. Next to "Line item type," select the "Type", "Priority", and "Priority value" of the proposal line item:

   Proposals can contain Programmatic Guaranteed proposal line items (Standard or Sponsorship) or Preferred Deal (non-guaranteed) proposal line items, but not both.

   • Sponsorship: guaranteed campaigns
   • Standard: guaranteed campaigns
   • Preferred deal: non-guaranteed campaigns
8. (Sponsorship and Standard only) You can optionally update the "Priority value," which serves as a guide for ad selection.

   A Preferred Deal line item has a fixed priority value that ensures it wins ahead of the Open Auction and all other line item types except Sponsorship and Standard line items.

Creative details

9. (Sponsorship and Standard only) Next to "Expected creatives," select the "Creative source."

   This determines who hosts the creative. The default Advertiser provided is recommended as creative management is easier for both you and the buyer. Learn more about Publisher managed creatives.

10. In the "Add sizes or native formats" field, enter the inventory sizes for the creatives you want to use. Sizes selected should align with ad units targeted. For audio ads, choose "Audio" as the creative size.
     
    Proposal line items can target either audio or video sizes, but not both. If a Programmatic Guaranteed or Preferred Deal requires both audio and video sizes, we recommend that you split the deal into two proposal line items.

    Creative details and roadblocks
    Some campaigns might need to target inventory of the same sizes on a single page—for example, roadblock campaigns. If so, click Show creative details under the selected sizes and specify a count for each size. Specifying a count ensures that Ad Manager requests the correct number of creatives from buyers. Learn more about creatives for Programmatic Direct.

    Creative-level targeting
    Creative-level targeting is only available when more than one size is included in a Sponsorship or Standard proposal line item and the "Creative source" is set to  "Publisher managed". Click Show creative details to configure additional sizes. Creative-level targeting is configured in the corresponding line item after the proposal has been accepted by the buyer and the line item is visible in the order view.

Additional settings

11. In the "Additional settings" section, you can:
    • Add labels, which can be used for a variety of purposes, including controlling which line items can serve together. Learn more about labels.
    • Activate the Same advertiser exception option to allow line items from the advertiser to show on the same page despite competitive exclusion labels.
    • (Video and audio only) Exclude from the same pod or stream is configured in the corresponding line item after the proposal has been accepted by the buyer and the line item is visible in the order view.
    • Add internal notes—only people in your network can see these notes, not buyers.
    • Include additional terms—buyers do see additional terms, which represent additional conditions to which you and the buyer must adhere.
    • Configure custom fields to organize objects in reports.
    • Select a viewability partner.
    • (Video only) Select YouTube measurement partners, which are third-party measurement partners for YouTube content. You can add alphanumeric client and reporting IDs for any selected partner. Client IDs can be up to 64 characters. Reporting IDs can be up to 120 characters, and can include "_" and "-".
    • (Video and audio only) Change the Skippable setting to allow the user to skip the video ad after 5 seconds. The possible values are:
      • Disabled : Allows only non-skippable creatives.
      • Enabled: Allows only skippable creatives.
      • Any: Allows both skippable and non-skippable creatives.

For all Programmatic Guaranteed and Preferred Deals, the "Skippable" setting doesn't affect what creatives can be bid with, however if a buyer bids with a creative whose skippability setting conflicts with the negotiated deal settings, the bid is filtered.

Delivery options and cost

12. Next to "Delivery settings," indicate start and end times.
13. Enable "Set blackouts" to specify periods when ad requests aren't sent to line items or shared with assignment partners.
14. Enter the value against which the rate is to be calculated. Varies depending on line item type.
    • Sponsorship -- "Goal": The ad serving goal in percentage of total impressions. In other words, this is the percentage of matching requests where the resulting line item will serve.
    • Standard -- "Contracted quantity": The scheduled quantity of impressions.
    • Preferred deal --  "Estimated quantity": Number of impressions that reflects the estimated delivery for the lifetime of a Preferred Deal. Value does not affect ad serving.
15. (Sponsorship CPD only) In "Billing threshold per day," enter the minimum impressions that must be exceeded each calendar date.
16. Enter the "Rate" negotiated with the buyer:
    • CPD: The amount you want  to charge the buyer per day.
    • CPM: The amount you want to charge the buyer per thousand impressions.
17. (Sponsorship CPM only) Under "Impression limit," enter the maximum lifetime number of impressions on the sponsorship that the buyer is willing to pay for.

18. (Video and audio only) "Max duration (seconds)" is a required setting for video and audio ads. It enforces the maximum duration of video and audio that buyers can upload, regardless of request type. If buyers upload video or audio that exceed this maximum, ad serving could fail.

    Line item creative forecasting is based on the duration of any creatives assigned to that line item. If no creatives are assigned, the value set here is used. The default value for this field is the "Ad opportunity duration" set in your network video settings.

19. Adjust delivery (optional):
    "Day and time" is the only available setting for Preferred Deals.
    • Deliver impressions: Change the speed at which impressions should be delivered.
    • Display creatives: Control how creatives are displayed on a single webpage when there are multiple active creatives in a line item.You can use this setting to help set up roadblocks.
    • Creative pre-approval: Indicate if your network needs to approve creatives for this proposal line item before they can deliver.
    • Day and time: Specify days or parts of days when ads can show for this line item.
    • Frequency: Limit the number of times a user can be shown ads in a line item within a given time period.
20. Add targeting.
    • Demographic targeting can be used only with Sponsorship or Standard line item types in programmatic proposals.
    • The buyer can only see geo-targeting. Other targeting remains viewable only to you and other people in your network that have access to the proposal.
    • The "Targeting set by buyer" section indicates if the buyer has added any targeting for audience lists, affinity lists, InMarket profiles, and demographics.
    • Content category targeting enhances the value of ad placements, increases brand safety, while maintaining inventory control. Content category targeting is now available in the programmatic deals environment and is available for proposal line items targeting web, app and video inventory.
    • Brand safety category targeting improves campaign safety for advertisers. Brand safety category filters help to secure campaigns and minimize the risk of ads appearing alongside undesirable content. This approach reduces the need for advertisers to intervene due to brand-inappropriate placements. Note: Brand Safety categories can only be excluded.
    • To update the inventory where you want to serve ads, expand the “Inventory type” dropdown and make the desired selections.
      • If no checkboxes are selected for “Inventory type,” ads may serve to all of the listed options. If specific checkboxes are selected, ads will serve only to the selected options.
      • Inventory type can be changed at any time.
      • This value should align with the creatives that your buyer wants to run for this campaign. Learn more about creatives for Programmatic Direct.
21. Click Save.
    The new proposal line item appears in the table of all proposal line items. You can click the proposal line item’s name to open its settings. From the settings page, click the Forecast tab to see predicted inventory availability.

Learn how to troubleshoot Programmatic Guaranteed line items that aren't delivering.

You can continue to add additional proposal line items and make changes to your draft. Once you're satisfied with the details in the proposal and its proposal line items, you can send it to the buyer to start negotiation. Learn more about the negotiation process and what happens when a proposal is finalized in Negotiate proposals.

Creatives are usually hosted in a demand-side platform (DSP) by the buyer, though there is an option to have publisher-managed creatives for Programmatic Guaranteed.