What are PMP and programmatic guaranteed deals, and why do they matter for CTV?
Most of the conversation about programmatic advertising centres on open-auction buying: the DSP bids in real time against every other eligible buyer for each impression, and the highest bid wins. Open auction is how most display inventory is transacted. For connected TV, it is not how most premium inventory is sold.
The two deal types that dominate premium CTV are private marketplace deals and programmatic guaranteed deals. They sit at opposite ends of a commitment spectrum, and the difference between them shapes setup effort, pricing, and what you can actually buy.
- Open auction (open exchange, RTB): No prior relationship required. Your DSP competes in real time against all buyers for every impression. CPM is determined by the auction. Inventory quality is variable; brand safety controls are applied by the buyer after the fact.
- Private marketplace (PMP): An invitation-only auction run by a publisher or SSP. The publisher pre-negotiates a price floor with selected buyers and issues a unique deal ID. Your DSP bids only against other invited buyers, at or above that floor. You get access to inventory you cannot reach in the open auction, but winning is not guaranteed: if another invited buyer bids higher, they win.
- Programmatic guaranteed (PG): A fixed-price, fixed-volume commitment. You and the publisher agree upfront on CPM, total impressions, and flight dates. The publisher reserves that inventory for you. There is no auction: you get the agreed impressions at the agreed price, subject to delivering compliant creatives on time. Setup requires the most direct negotiation and the most operational coordination, but the outcome is the most predictable of the three.
For CTV specifically, open-exchange inventory exists but is concentrated in lower-tier or user-generated-content streaming environments. Named streaming publishers, broadcast network apps, and premium SVOD platforms with advertising tiers almost universally require a PMP or PG arrangement. If your campaign objective requires a specific publisher environment (by name, or by content category like live sport or premium drama), a PMP or PG deal is not optional. It is the only mechanism that delivers it.
Why this matters for brand safety
Open-exchange CTV carries real inventory-quality risk. Domain spoofing (inventory misrepresented as premium) is harder to detect on CTV than on display because app-level verification is more complex than URL-level verification. PMP and PG deals anchor impressions to a specific, named supply source from the start.
How the CTV supply path runs: publisher to SSP to deal ID to DSP
Understanding what a deal ID actually is makes setup decisions clearer. The deal ID is a short string, typically alphanumeric, that travels inside every OpenRTB bid request for inventory covered by a private deal. It links the publisher's negotiated package to the buyer's DSP so the DSP knows this impression is available under the terms of that specific deal rather than the open auction.
The supply path for a CTV PMP deal runs as follows:
- Publisher packages inventory. A streaming publisher, a broadcast network app, or a FAST channel operator decides which inventory to make available via deal: genre verticals, dayparts, show-level adjacencies, or audience segments tied to their first-party logged-in data. This is the inventory definition that makes a PMP valuable or not.
- SSP issues the deal ID. The publisher's SSP (supply-side platform) creates a deal object in its system and generates a unique deal ID string. Major CTV SSPs include Magnite (which acquired SpotX), FreeWheel, and PubMatic, among others. The SSP sends the deal ID to the buyer's DSP team, along with the agreed floor price and any targeting parameters attached to the deal.
- DSP activates the deal ID. The buyer's DSP team enters the deal ID into the platform's deal management interface and attaches it to the relevant line item or campaign. From this point, every time an impression matching the deal's criteria comes to auction via that SSP, the DSP knows to bid using the deal parameters rather than competing in the open auction.
- Impression flows and auction runs. When a viewer loads a streaming app and an ad slot opens, the publisher's ad server calls the SSP. The SSP checks for active deals and includes the deal ID in the bid request it sends to eligible DSPs. For a PMP, other invited buyers may also receive the bid request. For a PG deal, the impression is reserved and no competitive auction runs.
- Creative serves via VAST. The winning DSP returns a VAST (Video Ad Serving Template) URL. The streaming app's player fetches the creative from that URL and renders it. CTV players require VAST 4.x or later for complete tracking; older VAST versions work but with reduced event-level measurement.
The operational implication: every deal ID is a live data object that must be active in the DSP before the campaign flight begins. Deal IDs that are entered but inactive produce no delivery. IDs that are entered with a wrong floor price in the DSP produce bids that lose every auction. Checking deal ID status (active/inactive, bid rate, win rate) in the first 24 hours of a flight is standard practice for any experienced programmatic operator, and it is the first diagnostic step when a CTV PMP campaign shows zero or near-zero delivery.
Deal-type comparison: open auction, PMP, and programmatic guaranteed for CTV
The table below is the reference most buyers need before they talk to a publisher or DSP. Each row reflects how the deal type actually operates, not how it is marketed.
| Dimension | Open auction | Private marketplace (PMP) | Programmatic guaranteed (PG) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Inventory access | Broad but variable quality; premium CTV publishers rarely participate in open exchange | Named publisher environments; invitation-only access to specific content or audience packages | Reserved inventory at a specific publisher; guaranteed impressions, specific placement |
| Pricing model | Auction-based CPM; floor prices vary by publisher via SSP | Negotiated floor CPM; buyer bids at or above floor; price is competitive within invited set | Fixed CPM agreed upfront; no price competition; volume and flight committed in advance |
| Setup effort | Low; standard DSP line item and targeting, no deal ID required | Medium; requires publisher/SSP negotiation, deal ID activation in DSP, pacing check at launch | High; IO-style negotiation on volume, flight, creative specs; legal/finance approvals often required; creative deadlines are hard |
| Delivery certainty | None guaranteed; budget depletes, impressions do not | Partial; access to preferred inventory but not guaranteed volume | High; publisher commits to impression volume; make-goods apply if shortfall |
| Brand safety control | Buyer-side controls only; domain/bundle allowlist, third-party verification | Publisher-side context plus buyer-side controls; named supply source limits exposure | Maximum control; specific placement, known context, publisher-committed environment |
| Best use case | Audience targeting at scale; performance campaigns; retargeting; situations where inventory source matters less than audience | Brand campaigns requiring named publisher context; CTV reach extension beyond open exchange; frequency management by publisher | Premium launches, tentpole events, brand-safety-critical categories; situations where certainty of placement outweighs price premium |
| Minimum commitment | None; campaign-level budget floor only | Publisher-dependent; floor CPM applies but volume commitment usually not required | Volume and spend commitment required; publisher sets minimums that vary by market and publisher scale |
A note on the PG minimum commitment: publishers in the US and Australia have a deeper inventory pool and more negotiating flexibility on PG minimums than publishers in Singapore and Malaysia, where the CTV supply market is smaller and publisher negotiating positions are less flexible. What constitutes a viable PG deal in the US market may be a higher proportional commitment in Southeast Asian markets.
Which DSPs support PMP and programmatic guaranteed for CTV, and how hard is each to set up?
The major DSPs all support deal-based CTV buying. The differences are in DSP-to-SSP connectivity, deal management interface depth, and the level of support available to buyers navigating their first PMP or PG transaction.
Google Display and Video 360 (DV360)
DV360 is Google's enterprise DSP, integrated with Campaign Manager 360 and the Google Marketing Platform. It supports open auction, PMP via deal ID, and programmatic guaranteed buying across CTV and other formats. For buyers already running Google Ads or Campaign Manager, DV360 offers measurement continuity: audience data, conversion tracking, and reporting flow through the same infrastructure. Deal management in DV360 allows buyers to enter publisher-provided deal IDs directly, set bid parameters, and attach deals to relevant line items. Buyers without prior DV360 experience typically need onboarding support to configure the first deal correctly. For current feature specifics and access requirements, refer to the DV360 support centre.
The Trade Desk
The Trade Desk is the largest independent DSP by revenue. "Independent" means it is not owned by a major publisher or ad network, which matters because it removes structural conflicts in how the platform routes spend to supply. Its CTV buying infrastructure covers PMP and PG deal types, with deal management tooling inside the Kokai platform.
The Trade Desk's identity infrastructure, Unified ID 2.0, enables household-level audience matching in CTV environments where cookie-based targeting does not apply. The distinction between its Control and Performance trading modes (covered in the programmatic CTV partner guide) affects how bid parameters for deal-based buying are managed. PMP and PG activation follows the standard deal ID flow.
Amazon DSP
Amazon DSP supports real-time bidding, private marketplace, private auction, and programmatic guaranteed buying across its inventory catalogue. The Inventory Hub centralises deal management across Amazon-owned and third-party inventory, described by Amazon as enabling advertisers to "discover, manage, and analyze" deals against campaign objectives.
For CTV specifically, Amazon's streaming inventory (FAST channels and ad-supported streaming tiers within Amazon's own properties) is accessible through deal structures that may not be available through third-party DSPs. For advertisers where Amazon commerce data is central to audience strategy, this supply access is a structural advantage. Verify current deal types, minimums, and streaming inventory availability directly with Amazon Advertising.
Yahoo DSP and other platforms
Yahoo DSP supports programmatic deal structures including PMPs, with particular relevance for buyers targeting Yahoo's owned content network or its identity graph. For most advertisers across Singapore, the US, Canada, Australia, and Malaysia, the primary choice is between DV360, The Trade Desk, and Amazon DSP, with Yahoo and similar platforms as secondary or market-specific considerations depending on audience strategy and local supply availability.
Buying brand-safe CTV plus online video and display through one workflow
The practical question for most advertisers is not which deal type to use in isolation. It is how to combine CTV, online video, and display within a single campaign workflow without the different deal structures creating operational chaos and measurement gaps.
The standard approach is a tiered buying architecture within the DSP, with separate line items for each deal type and format, unified at the campaign level for budget management and reporting:
- CTV PMP or PG line item: Deal ID activated, floor CPM set, targeting limited to the publisher package terms. Creative in VAST format, CTV-spec length (typically 15s or 30s, non-skippable in premium environments). Frequency cap applied at the household level.
- Online video line item: Can run open exchange or deal-based depending on publisher relationships. VAST creative, browser-based or in-app delivery. Separate frequency cap from CTV; without cross-device suppression, the same household may see CTV and online video ads independently.
- Display line item: Open exchange or PMP. Standard display creative (HTML5 or static). Audience targeting may overlap with video if using the same audience segment, or display may function as a retargeting layer for CTV and video exposed households.
The cross-format brand safety framework applies at the campaign level:
- Allowlists over blocklists for CTV: In open-exchange CTV, a domain/bundle allowlist (restricting delivery to known, named apps) is more reliable than a blocklist. Blocklists are reactive; CTV inventory quality issues in open exchange are better addressed by limiting supply sources than by trying to exclude bad ones after the fact.
- Third-party verification where available: DoubleVerify and IAS both offer CTV measurement, though publisher adoption of their SDKs is not universal. Know which publishers in your PMP or PG deal are covered before committing to a verification-based reporting metric.
- Creative consistency across formats: Brand safety in CTV is partly a function of creative. Consistent brand standards applied across CTV, online video, and display reduce the risk of an ad serving in a contextually inappropriate environment creating outsized brand damage because the audience recognises it as a major campaign.
Frequency management is the hardest operational challenge in unified CTV plus video plus display buying. Without a household graph or cross-device identity solution (UID2, Amazon's own identity, or equivalent), frequency caps set at the line item level do not communicate with each other. A household can see the CTV ad five times and the online video ad four times before anyone notices. Before committing to a cross-format programme, establish the identity solution your DSP uses, confirm how household-level frequency capping works across formats, and decide what the acceptable total exposure limit is by format type.
For Singapore and Malaysia campaigns, PDPA-compliant data handling applies to any audience signals used in targeting. For US campaigns, state-level privacy laws (CPRA in California, equivalent laws now active in multiple additional states) govern the use of sensitive audience categories in programmatic targeting. Canada's PIPEDA applies across all provinces, with Quebec having additional requirements. Australia's Privacy Act is under ongoing reform. These are not CTV-specific issues, but they affect the audience segments that can be applied to deal-based buying, which is where campaign-specific audience data tends to be used most aggressively.
Which deal type is right for your CTV campaign? A decision guide
Work through the questions below in order. The first question where you hit a clear constraint typically determines the deal structure.
CTV deal-type decision guide
Answer each step to find the deal structure that fits your campaign situation.
-
Do you need placement in a specific, named publishing environment (a particular broadcast network app, a named streaming service, a specific content genre or show adjacency)?
If yes: open auction cannot guarantee that. Move to PMP or PG. Continue to step 2.
If no: open auction is viable. Audience targeting in open exchange can deliver reach at lower CPMs. Consider open auction as your primary or a supplementary layer. -
Is delivery volume guaranteed a requirement? Do you have fixed campaign commitments (a product launch date, a sponsorship, a board-level visibility target) where underdelivery is not acceptable?
If yes: PMP does not guarantee volume. Move to programmatic guaranteed.
If no: PMP provides preferred access without volume commitment. PMP is likely the right structure. -
Can you commit to volume and spend upfront and have the legal and finance approvals to do so before the campaign flight begins?
If yes: programmatic guaranteed is viable. Verify the publisher's minimum commitment requirements, creative deadlines, and make-good policy before signing.
If no: PMP retains optionality. You get preferred access without a hard volume commitment. -
What is your measurement approach for this flight? PG deals, because they guarantee impressions at a fixed price, are easier to use as the basis for controlled reach studies. PMP and open auction buying produces variable delivery patterns that complicate clean measurement design.
For incrementality testing or brand lift studies: PG provides the most controlled exposure base.
For performance-oriented campaigns: audience-targeted PMP or open auction gives the DSP more flexibility to optimise toward outcome signals. -
Do you have an existing publisher or SSP relationship, or does your DSP operator have pre-established deal access with the publishers you need?
If yes: PMP or PG negotiation can begin quickly. Deal activation timelines are typically shorter when the relationship already exists.
If no: factor 4-8 weeks for a first PMP or PG relationship to be established, deal IDs to be issued, and DSP activation to be tested before go-live.
This guide reflects industry-standard deal structures. Specific publisher requirements, minimum commitments, and DSP deal management interfaces vary. Verify directly with your DSP or publisher before committing to a deal structure.
CTV PMP and programmatic guaranteed across five markets: what differs
The mechanics of PMP and PG deals are consistent across markets. The supply environment, publisher relationships, and minimum commitment structures are not.
United States: The US has the deepest CTV programmatic supply globally. AVOD and FAST inventory is available at scale through open exchange, with established PMP and PG deals from major broadcast networks, streaming services, and news publishers. Publisher competition for deal budgets is higher, which gives buyers more negotiating flexibility on minimums and creative requirements. Brand safety tools have the widest publisher adoption in the US market.
Canada: Canada's CTV ecosystem closely tracks the US. Major broadcast networks have catch-up and streaming apps with programmatic deal access. French-language inventory for Quebec campaigns requires separate creative and may require separate publisher relationships. Privacy law (PIPEDA, Quebec Law 25) affects how audience data is used in deal targeting.
Australia: Broadcast network catch-up apps are the primary CTV supply source for PMP and PG deals. The Australian CTV market has grown quickly; major broadcasters have built programmatic access into their inventory strategy. Supply is more concentrated than the US, which means fewer publisher options but often cleaner inventory quality in deal structures.
Singapore: CTV supply is growing but concentrated in a smaller number of regional OTT platforms and broadcast streaming apps. PMP floors tend to be higher on a relative basis than comparable US or Australian deals because supply is thinner and publisher willingness to negotiate minimum commitments is lower. Singaporean campaigns often extend PMP reach regionally (into the broader APAC OTT ecosystem) rather than limiting deals to Singapore-domiciled supply alone. PDPA applies to all audience data used in Singapore-targeted campaigns.
Malaysia: Malaysia is an earlier-stage CTV market. Open-exchange CTV inventory is limited; PMP deal access is concentrated in regional OTT platforms with multi-language content (Bahasa Malaysia, English, Chinese) rather than market-specific broadcast apps. Programmatic guaranteed structures are available for some regional publishers. PDPA Malaysia applies to consumer data handling in programmatic buying targeting Malaysian audiences.