Deals without bids” or “Buyer not bidding” is a common reason deals do not transact within the Ad
Exchange. This guide will help you better understand what buyers and sellers can do to resolve this issue.
Background
It is important to understand how deals are normally set up and the roles and responsibilities involved.

Roles Deal Related Tasks
Publisher: Owners of inventory Initiate deals
Bidder: DSP or Ad
Network
Execute campaigns
by bidding on
buyer’s behalf
Buyer: Ad Network,
Agency/Trading Desk
(ATD), or Advertiser
Discover and accept
deals

Common Bidder Workflows

Scenario A

DSP provides their clients (ATD: agency / trading desks) with a selfservice console to discover and accept AdX Deals (1). These DSPs integrate directly with the AdX Marketplace (2) to gather all related data included Deal IDs into their console. The DSP’s console then informs their bidder of Deal IDs (3) to identify and bid against on AdX (4, 5).

­

Scenario B

DSP allows their clients (ATD: agency / trading desks) to set up deals directly within the AdX console (1) using the clients’ own accounts (a.k.a.Child Seats). The AdX console generates Deal IDs (2), which are then manually communicated to the DSP (3a) and configured into the DSP’s console (3b). Alternatively, the DSP’s client may configure the Deal IDs directly into the DSP’s console (3c). The DSP’s console then informs their bidder of Deal IDs (4) to identify and bid against on AdX (5, 6).

Why would a deal have “no bids”?

Reason Why it Happens How To Prevent
Intentionally not
bidding on the deal
Buyer has no matched campaign for the deal
e.g. no current demand for an Always ,On
deals, campaign is delayed or cancelled,
campaign budget/terms has been changed
Set clear expectations prior to
striking deals
Establish frequent
communications and checkpoints
Campaign trafficking
issues or limitations
Campaign, line item, or creative not enabled
within the buyer’s system (outside AdX)
Campaign deliver dry is limited by frequency
capping, pacing, or other optimization goals
Insufficient budget (e.g. buyer used up
budget from other inventory source faster
than they expect)
Set clear expectations prior to
striking deals
Ensure publisher has enough
relevant inventory
Establish frequent
communications and checkpoints
Integration issue Bidder is not aware of the deal / deal ID
Bidder not looking at the Block Override
signal in the Bid Request and current
campaign bids are being filtered due to
publisher blocks

Buy side parties ensure deal IDs
are being passed to the bidder
Bidder updates program to inject
block override signal
Publisher enables block override
feature
Publisher / Inventory
issue
Publisher has not verified its URLs, causing
an empty URL field in bid requests
Low inventory volume results in minimal
matched users and related campaigns
require targeting only to known users
Publisher is blocking related campaign and
does not have Block Override enabled

Publisher ensures all URLs are
verified by AdX
Publisher allocates enough
inventory for the deal and sets
the right expectations with
buyers
Publisher enables block override

How to resolve a “Deal with no bids” case

Since AdX has no visibility nor control over campaigns and inventory settings, “Deal with no bids” cases can only
be resolved directly by the bidder and buyer, and in some cases by the publishers. Direct communication
between the bidder, buyer, and publisher are critical in order to run a deal successfully. Below are some useful
guidelines for each party when it comes to resolving these issues.

Guidelines for Buyers

If applicable, confirm the Deal ID with your bidder (DSP/Ad Networks)
● Ensure your campaign is up and running
● Ensure you have enough budget for the deal
● Consult the publisher about the inventory ­
ensure it has enough volume and the
inventory matches with your targeting criteria
● Consider relaxing your frequency cap and/or
pacing restrictions

Guidelines for Publishers

Ensure you are sending ad requests and the buyer is receiving bid requests from you through AdX using Deal Check
● Consider turning block override on to remove
potential blocks. Note: some buyers will not
bid if their ads are part of the publisher blocks
● Ensure all of your domains are verified
● Reach out to your buyer contact and confirm
the following:
○ they have set up this deal on their side
(in their bidder’s UI) and are bidding
with the correct deal ID
○ their campaign is active and has
enough budget
○ flight dates are correct in the buyer and
bidder consoles (outside AdX)
○ their targeting criteria matches with
your inventory for this deal

Guidelines for Bidder

● Confirm the Deal ID with your buyer ­ ensure
the Deal ID is in your bidding console
● Ensure the creative is active in your system
and is approved to serve in AdX
● Pull sample bid request for the deal from your
logs and compare the data with the
restrictions in your bidder (e.g. presence of
URL, publisher exclusions, ec.)

©2024 AdTagMacros - Everything About Advertising

We improve our products and advertising by using Microsoft Clarity to see how you use our website. By using our site, you agree that we and Microsoft can collect and use this data. Our privacy statement has more details.

Log in with your credentials

Forgot your details?