Publisher best practices for The Trade Desk

Important

For additional details, see The Trade Desk Inventory Policies which are subject to change as The Trade Desk makes updates to their policies.

This page details best practices for Xandr sellers to maximize revenue and optimize their monetization strategies based on The Trade Desk’s inventory policies.

Guideline	Details
Support and pass a Global Placement Identifier (GPID)	- Support GPID for all integration types. - See The Trade Desk GPID documentation. - See Prebid GPID documentation     - Xandr adapter supports GPT Pre-Auction module as of Prebid 4.38.0 Release, which is the module responsible for generating GPID -> The module tries to populate the pbadslot and gpid fields on its own (by default) reading the data from the GAM slots that are present on the page.   - The GPT Pre-Auction module is typically enabled by default in the Prebid.js Code download screen   - If the publisher is using Prebid code handled by a managed service provider, they should consult with this provider to check whether they are already using the above module, or to check if the provider can implement the above module in order to begin passing GPID. - AST Guidelines (see globalPlacementId) - Publishers need to ensure they are using AST version 0.49.0+ in order to use the globalPlacementId for AST - OpenRTB (server-side integrations) Guidelines   - Publisher Clients using server-side/OpenRTB based integrations will need to use imp.ext.gpid field to pass Global Placement ID in their OpenRTB request - whereby the GPID value should be a string - Video Tags (PTV, SSPTV) Guidelines Xandr video tags support GPID as a querystring parameter – example: https://ib.adnxs.com/ptv?id=123456789&size=994x250&referrer=msn.com&gpid=GPID123456780
sellers.json	- All direct integrations must have a non-confidential sellers.json file. - Intermediary sellers must have their own non-confidential sellers.json files. - All sellers.json files must be listed on a secure link (HTTPS). - Seller IDs, names, seller types, and business domains must be listed in the sellers.json file. - A seller must use a consistent business domain everywhere they are represented, particularly across all exchanges’ sellers.json files. For details about owner domain, see app-ads.txt or ads.txt. - Sellers must have the correct seller_type value, that can be one of the following three values listed in the sellers.json spec: - PUBLISHER - INTERMEDIARY - BOTH The decisive criterion for the determination of the seller_type is if the seller is the final payee of the auction or handing payment to another entity. Note: Consult the above linked sellers.json spec by IAB for further clarification.
Clear visibility profiles	- Ensure visibility profiles allow for sending of site.page url with the full-page URL including query string, key-value pairs, and UTM parameters.
Single source of inventory	Only one source of inventory for a particular media type per seller is allowed. Therefore do not send one media type inventory via multiple integration types or header bidding solutions like (Google) Open Bidding (OB), (Amazon) Transparent Ad Marketplace (TAM), Prebid, etc. Choose one out of them that suits your purpose. However, it is allowed to send one media type via one solution and other media types via different solutions. For example, a selling publisher, Publisher-Company123, cannot send display inventory via Exchange-ABC, on two different seller IDs. Publisher-123 can send video inventory through Exchange-ABC on seller_id=1 and display on the same exchange via seller_id=2. If the publisher prefers, sellers 1 and 2 can represent different header solutions.
CTV Quality Content	To transact CTV inventory on The Trade Desk platform, be sure to meet the following policies and requirements: - The Trade Desk prohibits resold CTV. To ensure the direct traffic continues to transact, any CTV sellers that are sending both direct and resold CTV with the same seller ID must separate the direct and resold supply into separate seller IDs. - There may be more than one entity with direct sales rights to CTV supply (carriage rights agreements). If the inventory is exclusive to the seller, and payment terminates with the seller, this is allowed. In this case, use the Inventory Partner Domain. For more details, see IAB Tech Lab Guidance for Inventory Sharing.
IAB Tech Lab Video Definitions	- The video.placement field value must be accurate according to the March 2023 Update to the Definition of the Instream Video. Instream videos must also meet the following requirements. - Instream video (placement=1) must be set to "sound on" by default at player start, or have explicitly clear user intent to watch the video content. - While there may be other accompanying content, the video content must be the focus of the user's visit. It should remain the primary content on the page and the only video player in-view when playing. If the player converts to floating/sticky subsequent ad calls should accurately convey the updated player size. - Any video content that accompanies an article must have a video.placement value of 2, 3, 4, or 5.