Best practices for setting up deals

Use the deal troubleshooter in the combined view to quickly investigate spend issues.

Navigate to combined view  at the top left side to list all insertion orders and line items under it. Select the line item you'd like to investigate with the check-box on the left. Impression loss widget at the top will populate reasons. Click the 'targeting filtering' link under the amount of impressions lost or navigate to the line item you selected and click the wrench icon. You'll be taken to the deal troubleshooter for further investigation.

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Follow this best practices guide for setting up deals to see what you need to be on the look out for before setting up deals.

 

Step 1: Discuss the details of your targeting and settings with the publisher

1. Geography
   1. Make sure the publisher is sending country codes in the bid requests.
      1.  After the deal is live and you have a line item targeting it, you can check the data for incoming bid requests on the Troubleshooter tab under Targeting > Geography.
      2. Additionally when targeting anything other than country, it's also necessary for the publisher to send data such as city region, etc.
   2. Make sure the publisher is including additional geographic information if you are targeting regions or cities.
      1. After the deal is live, you can check the inventory for geo targeting by pulling an Inventory availability report.*
2. Keyword, category, apps, URLs, channels (including exclusions and blacklists)
   1. Make sure the publisher is sending domain name information.
      1. After the deal is live and you have a line item targeting it, you can check the data for incoming bid requests on the Deals Troubleshooter tab under Targeting > Channels.
         Note: Deals that have domain names passed through are called "branded deals"
3. Audience lists (included and excluded), demography, and frequency cap
   1. Make sure the publisher is sending user IDs for bid requests.
      1. To check if user IDs are being sent, reach out to your support representative.
      2.  If the publisher did not send user IDs (or only sent a few), remove all demographic targeting, audience targeting, and frequency caps on the insertion order and line item levels.
4. Environment
   1. Make sure the publisher is sending environment information.
      1. After the deal is live and you have a line item targeting it, you can check the data for incoming bid requests on the Deals Troubleshooter tab under Targeting > Environment. 
5. Viewability
   1. Active view targeting:
      1. Make sure the publisher is sending predicted viewability rate information.
      2. You can check for this by pulling an Inventory availability report for the deal. *
6. Position 
   1. Make sure the publisher is sending position information.
   2. You can check for this by pulling an Inventory availability report for the deal.*
7. Brand safety
   1. ​Make sure the publisher is sending content labels and sensitive categories information.
   2. Make sure the domain sent by the publisher can be verified by Integral Ad Science or Doubleverify (if you uses these services)
   3. After the deal is live and you have a line item targeting it, you can check the data for incoming bid requests on the Deals Troubleshooter tab under Targeting > Brand Safety (for General Content Labels).
8. Other: Language, browser, device, connection speed, carrier/ISP
   1. ​Make sure the publisher is sending information on these parameters (if you are using them).
   2. You can check for this by pulling an Inventory availability report for the deal.* 

* Inventory availability data can be delayed for a few days and will not have any inventory for newly created deals.

Step 2: Discuss the details of your creatives

1. Make sure the discuss the creative sizes for display deals.
   1. After the deal is live and you have a line item targeting it, you can check the data for incoming bid requests on the Deals Troubleshooter tab under Targeting > Creatives. 
2. Make sure to discuss other creative attributes too.
   1. Video:
      1. Provide your VAST tags to the publisher for testing.
      2. Make sure that video duration is supported by the publisher.
      3. Make sure VPAID/Flash formats are supported by the publisher.
      4. Make sure skippable creatives are supported by the deal (if selected in Display & Video 360).
   2. Expandability: 
      1. Make sure expandable creatives are supported by the deal.
3. It's best to upload creatives beforehand to make sure they are synced and get reviewed before the start date of the deal.
   In order for creatives to be reviewed, they must be assigned to a line item that is active or has a future start date

Step 3: Make sure your targeting is not too restrictive

Settings like demographics and audiences (with deals) do not work well together and usually end up being too restrictive, preventing deals from working.