Learn Guide 9
Programmatic guaranteed or an agentic deal?
Both fix the price and the volume before the campaign runs. The difference is how the deal is agreed, and who has to be involved.
Programmatic guaranteed
The buyer and the seller agree a price and a volume, usually by email or call. Someone then sets up a deal ID in the supply-side platform, someone else targets it in the buying platform, and the impressions flow through the programmatic pipes. It needs both sides to have the platforms, the integration and the people to set each deal up.
An agentic deal
The buyer’s agent sends a brief to the selling agents that match it. Each selling agent answers with a plan from its publisher’s packages and prices, then negotiates. The buyer compares the plans line by line and confirms; the publisher’s team confirms too. The plan is booked in the publisher’s ad server, and delivery is reported against it.
Step by step
| Step | Programmatic guaranteed | Agentic deal |
|---|---|---|
| Finding the seller | The buyer already knows the publisher | One brief reaches every selling agent that matches |
| Agreeing terms | Email and calls | Plans proposed and negotiated by the agents, confirmed by people |
| Setting it up | Deal ID created and targeted by hand | Booked in the ad server from the confirmed plan |
| What the seller needs | An SSP and a programmatic set-up | A catalogue, rules and an ad server |
| Reporting | Each side reads its own platform | One record of the plan and its delivery, read by both sides |
When to use which
Programmatic guaranteed suits buyers and publishers who already trade together and both run the platforms. An agentic deal suits the rest: publishers with no programmatic set-up, buyers looking for new premium supply, and every deal too small to be worth setting up by hand.