PMP is not dead—but curated deals are winning the game

Curation is virtually the only topic this article discusses. The reason? It's a new market concept that gives power back to the supply side and truly strengthens the digital advertising market. Curated deals offer a new way of targeting users, combining contextual and audience targeting in an entirely cookieless approach.

The background of this article was the misconception that curated deals are the same as PMPs but in a new, shiny wrapper. This may be true somewhere in the AdTech market, but I want to share the actual value of curated deals we create at TeqBlaze. 

The information in the article is my personal opinion, which I built on proven client success since the industry does not yet have a clear definition for curated deals. The curation working group at the IAB is hard at work, kicking names and taking ideas. Our team actively participates in the discussions and provides real-time insights, but finalizing the definition is not quick. And here is why: 

• Curated deals can be handled through PMP, which may give the false impression that it is a single advertising mechanism. Meanwhile, curation is about the value of signals, transparent delivery, and attentive trading management. 

• So-called curation platforms and third-party DMPs complicate the situation by creating curated deals for resold inventory. This means that they supply indirect but signal-enriched traffic to a market at a higher price, which can sometimes result in overpriced and underperforming impressions.

• Occasionally, companies resort to direct manipulation, selling the same inventory as on the Open Market under a “curated deal” title without enrichment or filtering, which sabotages the idea of building trust and transparency between partners.

As you can see, industry players use trading tools and concepts in various ways, including fishing in troubled waters. The only thing that matters behind all these buzzwords is the real benefit and advantage of traffic, which allows reaching the goals of advertising campaigns more efficiently.

PMP deal vs. curated deal: feel the difference

Here’s the gist: PMP deals are about trading premium placements with higher prices and limited participants. Curated deals are a broader concept that includes more placements enriched with predefined targeting signals based on first-party and third-party data. PMP is an old-but-gold trading tool. However, curated deals offer more and eliminate the need for bidders to engage with intermediaries or data providers. In short, buyers know they bid on predefined direct inventory, with all the fees already covered in the impression price.

Another highlight is that you can also sell regular inventory through PMPs, which happens frequently across the market. But it makes no sense without enriching this inventory with targeting signals, at least based on first-party data provided by publishers—it is primarily an attempt to sell overpriced traffic wrapped in a "premium" cover.

Why does the trading shift to curation? To give the power back to publishers! 

Brass tacks, people: publishers of all sizes and types constantly complain about low programmatic advertising revenues in all countries and continents. What's wrong? Okay, sometimes a publisher gets half a dollar per impression while an advertiser pays $15. An exhaustive example. Let's calculate who gets the rest of the money:

1. The publisher's monetization partner—the SSP, which allows the creation of placements and enables ads—makes money from the publisher.

2. Each ad exchange that resells the publisher's inventory also adds its margin. Sometimes, it's a few cents; sometimes, it's a good five bucks at a time.

3. Next, the DSP takes its share, accepts the bid, and passes it on to advertisers for decision-making. This part is significant because the DSP traditionally pays commissions to data providers to determine whether to bid on this specific inventory. So, data providers, such as DMPs, also make money from publishers.

It's not hard to calculate—at least four types of market players make money from one impression. At the same time, dozens of ad exchanges and several data providers may be involved simultaneously. And no one will tell you how much they charge for their services. Of course, with this level of "transparency," publishers complain about low profits—and they are right! 

That’s why curated deals are a game-changer.

Look at this magnificent graphic: publishers and the dedicated SSP work together to shape curated deals. Publishers provide direct inventory and first-party data, while the SSP helps enrich that inventory with additional targeting signals by collaborating with data partners. This joint effort yields a high-quality, signal-enriched inventory, which the SSP then offers to a select group of DSPs for bidding. This eliminates unnecessary intermediaries, ensuring more value remains on the supply side.

The most important conclusions about curated deals:

• Cooperation between publishers and SSPs is evolving and gaining new importance—the more transparent and close relationships they build, the better quality traffic they deliver to the market—and the more profits they obtain! I've already covered the growing role of SSPs in the programmatic landscape recently; you can check this article to find out more.

• On the contrary, DSPs' roles are decreasing: They no longer need to engage third-party data providers to manage bid flow; they only need to connect to a curated deal and estimate the trading results.

This way, the sell side receives more money by controlling the entire margin. Meanwhile, the demand side simply pays the agreed price and enjoys the performance of the advertising campaigns.

Summary

Curated deals are quickly becoming one of the most dynamic and promising trends in programmatic advertising. They bring more transparency, efficiency, and fairness to the ecosystem—especially for the supply side. By enabling closer collaboration between publishers and SSPs plus eliminating unnecessary intermediaries, curated deals help unlock more value from each impression while keeping control over pricing and data where it belongs.

This space is evolving fast, and there's still plenty to explore. We'll be diving deeper into all of that soon. If you've got questions or want to challenge a point, drop us a line. Let's unpack this shift together.