Set up Open Bidding Direct Pay (Beta)

Only available in Google Ad Manager 360.

Open Bidding Direct Pay is a transaction type that lets publishers control how they receive payment for inventory sold through third-party SSPs in Open Bidding. With direct payments, the publisher inventory is represented as "PUBLISHER" in the SSP’s sellers.json file, as opposed to the current representation of "INTERMEDIARY" when sold through Open Bidding. 

SSPs that become direct payers will need to update their inventory classification in the sellers.json file to indicate the change to a direct relationship and comply with the IAB and SupplyChainObject specifications.

Open Bidding Direct Pay is available for Ad Manager 360 publishers and participating Open Bidding SSP buyers.

Jump to a section of the article:

• Billing and payment
• Third-party deals with Open Bidding Direct Pay
• How it works
• Step 1: Enable Direct Pay for your network
• Step 2: Enable Direct Pay for an Open Bidding partner
• SSP bidders available for Open Bidding Direct Pay
• FAQ

Billing and payment

With direct payments, publishers are paid directly by the SSP that sold the inventory. Payment terms will be decided between the publisher and the SSP that’s paying them.

Instead of the usual revenue share, Google bills publishers a flat CPM fee for impressions sold through Open Bidding Direct Pay. This change means that bids will be submitted at their gross value, without Google's usual revenue share deduction. 

Third-party deals with Open Bidding Direct Pay

Publishers can allow their Open Bidding partners to submit bids specific to deals. By enabling deals in Open Bidding, bids containing deal IDs automatically compete with higher priority than other Open Auction bids.

Publishers can activate third-party deals through Open Bidding on a per-SSP basis. When a direct payment relationship is established between the publisher and a supported SSP, Google still only bills the publisher the flat CPM fee for impressions sold through Open Bidding Direct Pay, whether or not the bid competes at Open Auction or at Preferred Deal and Private Auction priority.

When you enable deals in Open Bidding for a specific SSP, we recommend you let them know in order to ensure they are set up to send bid responses with the relevant deal IDs from their side.

The currently supported list of SSPs for deals in Open Bidding includes:

• Pubmatic
• IndexExchange
• OpenX
• Magnite DV+ 
• OneTag
• Equativ

To get started, learn more about third-party deals in Open Bidding.

How it works

1. A publisher enables the direct payments option for SSPs.
2. The publisher sends a request to the SSP, asking to change the payment relationship to direct payments.
   It is strongly advised that publishers coordinate directly with the SSPs before requesting a direct pay relationship.
3. The SSP receives the request and either approves or denies it. 
   • If the SSP approves the request, the relationship immediately switches to direct payments, which includes billing changes.
   • If the SSP denies the request, the existing relationship continues uninterrupted.
4. Google indicates to the SSP (via dedicated bit in oRTB and change in the SupplyChainObject) on the bid request the nature of the relationship. Since the publisher is paid directly by the SSP, Google does not collect or disburse the bid amount. The publisher assumes full responsibility for collecting payment directly from the SSP for any impressions served under the arrangement.
5. The publisher pays Google for impressions sold via Open Bidding (including ad serving fees for impressions won and served via Open Bidding).

Note that either party can revert to Google payment at any time with immediate effect. 

Step 1: Enable Direct Pay for your network

You only need to perform this step once. Enabling Open Bidding Direct Pay at the network level requires the Administrator or Legal manager user role, or the "Sign and accept contracts" permission.

1. Sign in to Google Ad Manager.
2. Click Admin and then Advanced features.
3. Under "Feature," locate "Open Bidding direct pay."
   You can review associated costs for the feature under "Costs."
4. Under "Status," turn the switch on . 
5. Review and accept the terms.  

Step 2: Enable Direct Pay for an Open Bidding partner

After enabling Direct Pay in Advanced features, you can begin enabling Direct Pay for individual Open Bidding partners. When you enable Direct Pay for a partner, a request is sent to change to a direct payment relationship, which they can accept or reject. Direct Pay is only enabled for partners that accept your request. 

To enable direct payments for an Open Bidding partner:

1. Sign in to Google Ad Manager.
2. Click Delivery, then Bidders, and then Go to Open Bidding.
3. Click a bidder’s name.
4. Under "Payment options":
   1. If Direct Pay terms have not yet been signed, click View terms to review and accept the terms. 
   2. Next to "Enable Direct Pay," turn on the switch .

Until the partner takes action, the status shows as "Pending." If your partner accepts the request, the status switches to "Enabled." If your partner rejects the request, the status shows "Rejected."

To revert to Google payments for your relationship with the partner, turn off the switch for Direct Pay. 

SSP bidders available for Open Bidding Direct Pay

To ensure smooth payments and reporting, publishers should consult their paying SSP about any preferred switching timeframe to direct payments before making the change. This allows both parties to coordinate a mutually agreeable schedule and understand payment terms and arrangements.

FAQ