Who and Why Should Use Programmatic Curated Deals

Programmatic advertising is primarily associated with real-time open auctions. Obviously, they offer a wide range of benefits, such as increased reach, scalability, and ease of access. On the other hand, some significant challenges are involved as well, including but not limited to ad fraud risks, limited transparency, and potential brand misalignment. In addition, privacy regulations keep getting stricter.

Using curated deals can help address these issues – that is why this type of programmatic advertising is gaining momentum. But how do curated deals work? Who should use them? Are there any risks to consider? In this detailed guide, we do not simply answer these and other questions – you can also count on expert thoughts from Ihor Bazeliuk, Attekmi’s Head of Business Development. Read on to gain some actionable insights and discover the curated side of programmatic advertising.

What are curated deals, and how are they different from open auctions?

Curated deals are pre-packaged bundles of inventory assembled by an SSP, publisher, or third-party curator and offered via a deal ID. The impressions are selected based on predefined criteria, for instance, context relevance, audience attributes, campaign goals, ad format, and so on. For example, you may find bundles devoted to holidays like Christmas or Halloween. There are packages created specifically for DOOH and CTV environments. You can also reach users who are highly interested in sports or, let’s say, art. These are just a couple of examples.

Open auctions offer scale as you access an impressively wide pool of ad inventory offered by thousands of media owners. However, even if your demand-side platform is equipped with advanced targeting and filtering capabilities, you still have a pretty limited control over where exactly your ads will appear. They may be displayed on low-quality or simply inappropriate websites. You may waste your budget due to fraudulent traffic. The campaign performance itself may be poor and inconsistent. 

That is where curated deals come to the rescue. Instead of all the available ad inventory, you access a pre-selected, filtered supply. This minimizes the risk of fraud and reduces the chances for your ads to appear on low-quality and made-for-advertising sources. Besides, the number of intermediaries is reduced, which enhances transparency. Curated deals aim to improve efficiency before bidding even starts. As for open auctions, everything happens reactively. 

“Open auctions give you access to scale, but curated deals give you access to intention. By filtering and enriching supply before it ever reaches the DSP, curation reduces waste, improves supply path efficiency, and delivers more predictable outcomes. It’s not about buying more impressions. Instead, it’s about buying smarter ones.”

Ihor Bazeliuk

Attekmi’s Head of Business Development

How curated deals work (in simple words)

Sometimes, curated deals are sold via private marketplaces (PMPs). Sometimes, you can access them directly from your AdTech platform. However, if we take a look at the basics, they are as follows:

• First and foremost, an inventory bundle is created. This is done by utilizing first-party data, contextual signals, and so on.

• Low-quality inventory and resellers are filtered out.

• The price is identified.

• The deal ID is created.

• The deal becomes available to advertisers.

Curation offers greater transparency and control, improved efficiency and ROI, and stronger relationships between the participants. In general, it can be beneficial for everyone, including advertisers, media owners, AdTech providers, and agencies.

However, marketers focusing exclusively on the lowest CPMs or striving to ensure maximum reach may still prefer open programmatic auctions, as well as brands only starting to advertise programmatically. Using open auctions is a great way to start. Later, when you understand what works best for your brand, you may want to consider alternative options, including curated deals. 

Who and why should use curated deals?

As you already know, using curated deals can be beneficial for virtually all the participants of the AdTech ecosystem (with some possible exceptions). To explain why curated deals are gaining popularity, let’s review these advantages in greater detail.

Advertisers focused on quality

Actually, brand safety and quality are important for any advertiser (60% of experts consider brand safety and suitability as the top cause for concern with programmatic marketing). However, for some of them, they play a critical role: for instance, for global companies, luxury brands, or businesses operating in highly regulated industries (like finance). Such companies especially prioritize brand safety, fraud prevention, premium inventory, and consistent performance. That is exactly what curated deals can offer to them:

• Preselected inventory of high quality.

• Minimized exposure to low-quality websites.

• Costs related to digital advertising fraud worldwide are expected to increase from $84 billion (2023) to $172 billion (2028). Curated deals help reduce the risks.

• More predictable expenses.

• Stronger alignment with brand standards. 

• The opportunity to maintain programmatic flexibility while reducing reputational risks.

Advertisers focused on performance

E-commerce brands, retail media buyers, and other organizations striving to increase the probability of every impression contributing to conversion can find curated deals effective as well. Such businesses need to reach high-intent audiences and ensure efficient ad spend. Thus, here are the benefits they can count on:

• Data-enriched inventory.

• Better match between audience and context.

• Typically, a higher return on ad spend.

“If you’re optimizing toward ROAS or attention metrics, curated deals can be a strong option. Instead of evaluating large volumes of bid requests, they allow you to focus on pre-filtered inventory that is more likely to align with your campaign goals.”

Ihor Bazeliuk

Attekmi’s Head of Business Development

Agencies managing complex campaigns

Curated deals help media agencies balance control with operational efficiency. They get access to controlled buying frameworks while still having an opportunity to scale. For agencies, the key benefits are as follows:

• Easy deal activation.

• Strong quality filters.

• Simplified reporting and optimization.

Publishers with strong first-party data

Curation enables media owners to offer value, not just impressions. Thus, for instance, premium publishers and vertical content platforms with robust first-party data get an opportunity to differentiate themselves and gain a competitive advantage. Here are the main benefits to consider:

• More effective data monetization.

• Higher profit.

• Stronger relationships with media buyers.

• Access to higher-value demand.

• Reduced dependency on open auction volatility.

“Curation allows publishers and SSPs to differentiate their supply beyond the open auction. By enriching inventory with data and applying clear quality controls, impressions can be packaged and positioned more effectively, rather than competing purely on price.”

Ihor Bazeliuk

Attekmi’s Head of Business Development

Owners of AdTech solutions

Last but not least, owners of AdTech platforms (SSPs, DSPs, etc.) can benefit from curated deals as well. By offering them to their users, they can stand out from the crowd and add greater value to their service. If you own an AdTech solution, here are the key reasons to consider adding curated deals:

• Competitive differentiation.

• Stronger strategic positioning.

• Greater control.

“For AdTech providers, curated deals are a way to increase control over how supply is packaged and monetized. By combining inventory with data, applying quality filters, and aligning supply with specific buyer requirements, SSPs, DSPs, and marketplaces can improve supply path efficiency and better position themselves in a competitive ecosystem.”

Ihor Bazeliuk

Attekmi’s Head of Business Development

Direct deals and other popular alternatives: full comparison

Programmatic advertising comes in numerous forms, and curated deals are not the only option that helps increase transparency and optimize supply paths. Marketers also leverage so-called direct deals and private marketplaces. Thus, more than 91% of total US programmatic display ad spending was expected to be allocated to PMPs and programmatic direct in 2025. 

As for direct deals, they involve direct negotiations with publishers, and there are two subcategories to consider. Guaranteed deals imply guaranteed access to specific inventory at a fixed price. Preferred deals ensure greater flexibility. They enable priority access to ad space, but purchase is not guaranteed. 

In turn, PMPs are invite-only, real-time bidding auctions where top publishers offer their inventory to selected advertisers.

So, all the options seem attractive, but which one to prefer? To find this out, let’s compare curation, guaranteed deals, preferred deals, and PMPs.

“There is no universal best buying model in programmatic. Programmatic guaranteed delivers certainty, preferred deals offer priority access, PMPs introduce competitive efficiency, and curated deals package supply for outcomes. The right choice depends on your objectives.”

Ihor Bazeliuk

Attekmi’s Head of Business Development

Are there any risks?

While curated deals offer loads of benefits, some challenges should also be considered. Here they are, along with potential solutions.

Limited transparency into the curation logic

Even though supply chain transparency is not a leading cause for concern with programmatic advertising (only 9%), it still remains a challenge.

Curated deals offer clearer supply paths and are generally more transparent than programmatic open auctions. However, in comparison with, for instance, direct deals, they still lack transparency. It may not be fully clear how inventory is filtered and enriched. 

To mitigate risks, prefer partners with transparent frameworks and request documentation of filtering and data logic.

The probability of supply duplication

Curated deals may overlap across different SSPs and media owners, so you may unwillingly purchase duplicate impressions. This results in inefficient spend, inflated frequency, and too complex measurement.

As an advertiser, you should implement robust SPO measures and thoroughly monitor deal IDs and inventory sources.

The risk of inconsistent performance

The quality of curated deals highly depends on curation logic, publisher selection, and data. Therefore, when you go for different packages, you may face unpredictable outcomes and varying ROAS. 

Consider testing multiple deals, measuring incrementality, and tracking performance at the deal level. 

Scale limitations for advertisers

Instead of maximizing reach, curated deals usually offer controlled scale. Yes, the packages may be precisely targeted, but this may still lead to limited exposure and incomplete audience coverage.

Depending on your campaign objectives, you may want to combine curated deals with open auctions and other programmatic models.

Privacy and compliance considerations

Last but not least, data sharing can introduce privacy and compliance risks, which are critical to consider in the modern privacy-first environment. 

Apart from being compliant on your own, you should make sure that all the deals follow the privacy-safe approach.

“Curated deals are not a universal solution. They trade some scale for greater control, consistency, and efficiency. The value isn’t in accessing every possible impression, but in focusing on inventory that is more likely to perform.”

Ihor Bazeliuk

Attekmi’s Head of Business Development

Best practices to follow

Basically, we have already provided you with the key tips that will help you make the most of curated deals. Adopting SPO practices, maximizing transparency, monitoring for supply duplication, and combining different strategies are crucial things to do if you want to succeed. However, there are several more recommendations that we would like to highlight. 

Align deal selection with campaign objectives

Do not use curated deals just because everyone around is experimenting with them. Your choice should be data-driven and tailored to your goals. Besides, different deals serve different objectives, and misalignment usually leads to unwanted results. 

Therefore, choose carefully and match deal characteristics with the required KPIs. For instance, if you need to maximize reach, curation may not be the best option. However, if you need to reach a specific audience group and increase ROAS, a curated deal may work best. 

Start small

Trying loads of deals at once may work, but if not, you will simply waste your budget.  To minimize risks, start small and then scale according to the achieved results. Your expansion must be data-driven – this will help you prevent overspending. 

Monitor the performance continuously

Just like in the case of any other campaign, curated deals require continuous monitoring. Make sure to measure the performance at a deal level and compare it to other models that you use. This way, you will be able to optimize your strategy effectively.

“Curated deals work best when used with a clear objective. They should be treated as a complement to other buying strategies, not a full replacement. Their impact depends on how well they’re aligned with specific campaign goals and buying logic.”

Ihor Bazeliuk

Attekmi’s Head of Business Development

The future of programmatic curated deals

Curated deals are gaining traction since they allow for increasing performance, accessing quality inventory, and ensuring precise targeting in the era of cookie deprecation. Even though some challenges are still here, the popularity of curation is not likely to decline. Instead, curated deals are going to evolve. We can expect the growing impact of AI, greater focus on industry verticals, enhanced transparency and standardization, and expansion into emerging formats.

Curated deals are a trend that is here to stay, but you should remember that following it blindly is not the way to go. Keep your decisions data-driven, and monitor the evolution of curation. This way, you will be able to adapt your strategy promptly.

Searching for a trusted AdTech solutions provider? Get in touch with Attekmi.