Glossary
What is Preferred deal?
Also called: preferred deals, first look deal
A preferred deal gives one buyer first look at impressions at a fixed price, with no volume promised. Passed impressions go to auction.
हिंदी में पढ़ेंIn a preferred deal, the publisher and a buyer negotiate a fixed CPM. The buyer gets a first opportunity to buy matching impressions at that price, ahead of private auctions and the open auction. It is not obliged to buy any of them.
When the buyer passes, the impression falls back to the auctions, so nothing is lost. That makes preferred deals a middle step between the open auction and programmatic guaranteed: the price is fixed, but no volume is reserved. In Google Ad Manager, preferred deal inventory is not reserved for the buyer.
Google groups preferred deals and private auctions together as private marketplace (PMP) deals, though much of the industry uses PMP for private auctions alone. Each deal travels in the bid request with a deal ID, and in Prebid setups it needs a deal line item with higher priority than the open-market line items.
Example
A travel brand gets a preferred deal at a $6.00 CPM on a news homepage. Of 100,000 impressions it buys 30,000, earning 30,000 × $6.00 ÷ 1,000 = $180. The other 70,000 go to the auctions.
Why it matters to publishers
Preferred deals let you charge a set premium price to a buyer who values your audience, without promising volume you might not have.