Curation (sell-side curation)

Curation is, in Digiday's words, "a term used to describe how ad tech vendors curate audience and programmatic supply chain data against ad inventory to sell overlooked, but valuable, ad impressions." Index Exchange describes a curated marketplace as "a bespoke marketplace that combines data or unique business value with tailored, premium media inventory."

Targeting moves to the sell side. Digiday notes that curation "essentially functions as sell-side targeting — a twist, since programmatic targeting has traditionally been the DSP's domain."

Who curates. Microsoft's documentation for its Curate product lists retailers, data companies, independent trading desks and other media companies as curators. They can bring audience data, preferred inventory access, specially negotiated rates with sellers and optimization capabilities. Index Exchange also names commerce media networks, media agencies and data activation platforms among curators.

How a buyer gets it. The package is tied to a deal ID. Index Exchange: "All of the value and complexity of curated marketplaces is encapsulated into a deal ID, which is then signaled to the DSP by the SSP." Microsoft says its curated deals can be bought via Microsoft Invest and all major DSPs. According to Digiday, curated impressions lack preferential access and are still sold in the open auction.

How it differs from a classic private marketplace. Roku explains that with a standard deal ID or PMP, the publisher sends inventory while targeting and decisioning happen at the DSP; with Roku Curate, Roku packages the data and media supply itself, combining its own insights and inventory with data from partners such as Best Buy Ads, Criteo, Instacart and Kroger.

Fees and seller controls. On Microsoft Curate, a platform tech fee and the curator's margin apply only if the curated bid wins the impression. Curated transactions are not guaranteed deals, do not override a seller's settings such as floor prices, and sellers can block individual curators.

Momentum. Magnite's CEO said in late 2024 that its revenue from curating publisher audiences had grown over 100% year on year, Digiday reported.