Get started with Buyer Direct (Beta)

Buyers (ad agencies and direct brands) can use Buyer Direct to buy inventory directly from the Google Ad Manager ad server on a guaranteed basis.

Buyer Direct combines concepts from both traditional reservation buying and Programmatic Guaranteed for a streamlined, direct partnership between buyers and publishers. 

Buyers operate in the Agency interface. Publishers can select your agency seat for their proposals.

On this page

• Create a campaign
• Manage your campaigns
• Manage negotiations
• Manage deals in a proposal
• Assign a deal to a Buyer Direct campaign
• Review a campaign’s budget

• How do I contact support?

Create a campaign

You can use campaigns to group Buyer Direct deals that are part of a single campaign. You can add deals from different publishers into a single campaign. The campaign entity allows you to:

• Get insights such as the total budget assigned to all deals that are part of a single campaign.
• Track in real time total spend across these deals to better understand how you’re tracking towards meeting the campaign's budget.
• Enable frequency optimization across all deals under a single campaign. Google will optimize towards reaching as many users as possible, but prioritize delivering on the per deal guaranteed number of impressions. Note that per-deal frequency caps are still respected and will continue to be set up by the publisher.

To create a campaign: 

1. Sign in to your Agency account.

2. Click Marketplace, and then Campaigns.
3. Click Create campaign.
4. In "General settings," add the following details:
   • Enter a name for your campaign. 
   • Select your flight dates and times.
   • Enter a budget. 
   • (Optional) Enter an external campaign ID.  
     You can use this field to store an ID you defined. 
   • (Optional) Add a description for your reference.
5. Click Save.

Manage your campaigns

You can manage your campaigns, such as by updating or removing their deals.

1. Sign in to your Agency account.
2. Click Marketplace, and then Campaigns.
3. Under "Name," click the name of a campaign.
4. To edit the campaign, in the top-right corner, click Edit campaign, and then:
   1. Update the settings.
   2. Click Save.
5. To remove a deal from the campaign:
   1. Under "Deal name," check the box next to the deal you want to remove. 
   2. Click Remove from campaign. 

Manage negotiations

You can review and update negotiations for Buyer Direct.

1. Sign in to your Agency account.
2. Click Marketplace, and then Negotiations. 
3. To filter for Buyer Direct negotiations:
   1. Click Add filter, and select Supply path.
   2. Select Buyer Direct and click Apply.
4.  On the table, in the "Status" column, review the status of a proposal:
   • Review requested
   • Seller review requested
   • Acceptance requested
   • Terminated
   • Finalized
5. To manage negotiation for a proposal, click the proposal’s name, then review the details of the deal and select an option: 
   • Accept
   • Propose changes
   • Terminate negotiation

Manage deals in a proposal

In Buyer Direct proposals, you can pause deals or assign them to campaigns. 

1. Sign in to your Agency account.
2. Click Marketplace, and then Negotiations. 
3. To filter for Buyer Direct negotiations:
   1. Click Add filter, and select Supply path.
   2. Select Buyer Direct and click Apply.
4. Click a proposal’s name.
5. To manage a deal in the proposal, next to the deal name, check the box, and then choose an option:
   • To pause the deal, click Pause.
   • To assign the deal to a campaign, click Assign to campaign, then select a campaign in the search box and click Assign. After you assign a deal to a campaign, it shows under the "Campaign" column on the table.

Assign a deal to a campaign

You can assign Buyer Direct deals to campaigns.

1. Sign in to your Agency account.
2. Click Marketplace and then Deals.
3. Under "Supply path," review deals labeled "Buyer Direct."
4. To assign a Buyer Direct deal to a campaign, under "Campaign," click Assign, and then:
   1. Select a campaign in the search menu.
   2. Click Assign. 

Review a campaign’s budget

1. Sign in to your Agency account.
2. Click Marketplace and then Campaigns. 
3. Click the name of a campaign.
4. Review the budget overview:
   • Total budget: The amount you want to spend on the campaign over its flight time. Note that this metric is intended for reporting, and it doesn’t impact your per deal delivery.
   • Projected spend: The amount you’ve spent on the campaign to date and the future spend that has been committed through finalized deals.
   • Remaining budget: This amount is total budget minus projected spend.
     The amount doesn’t include spend that may happen from unfinalized deals. A negative red number means you’re over budget by that amount. 
   • Pending negotiations: The sum of all proposed deals that have not yet been finalized. This amount is not included in "Remaining budget," so any portion that is subsequently finalized will move you closer to being over budget.
5. Review the chart, and hover over a bar for details:
   • Spend: The top bar shows:
     • Committed spend (light blue): The summed value of all currently finalized deals pending budget.
     • Spend-to-date (blue): The current spend for all deals.
   • Budget: The bottom bar shows:
     • Total budget (blue): The budget you defined for the campaign.
     • Over budget (orange): The amount of spend (committed spend and spend-to-date) that's over total budget. This value only shows if spending is over budget. 

How do I contact support?

Contact Agency support through the contact form.