What is Curated Deals?
Curated deals are programmatic deals where inventory from one or more sellers is selected and packaged around a theme, such as an audience, context, format or channel, and offered to buyers through a single deal for activation.
Also known as: Curated marketplaces, Curated packages, Curation
How it works
Curation starts with a question: what would a specific type of buyer actually want to reach? The curator then selects inventory that answers it. That might mean sites and apps that cover travel, CTV placements with completed video views in mind, or high-impact web formats on premium news pages. The inventory can come from one seller or from many.
Once the package is defined, it is set up as a deal in the selling technology. The deal carries rules such as which inventory qualifies, the floor price, which buyers can bid and sometimes which data signals apply. The buyer receives a Deal ID (a unique reference for that agreement) and adds it to a line item in their demand-side platform (DSP). From then on, bid requests that match the package carry that Deal ID, and the buyer's DSP knows to bid on them under the agreed terms.
Most curated deals run as private auctions, much like a private marketplace. The difference is the packaging step. A PMP is often one publisher's inventory offered to chosen buyers, while curation can combine supply from several sellers into one product that is easier to buy.
Why it matters
Open exchange buying gives scale, but it also gives buyers a lot of work. They have to filter domains, check placements, watch for low-quality supply and manage dozens of separate deals. Curation moves some of that effort upstream to someone who knows the inventory well.
For sellers, curation can be a way to be found. A mid-size publisher with a strong audience in one niche may never be big enough to win its own direct deal with a large agency. Inside a well-built package alongside similar inventory, it becomes part of something a buyer can plan around. That is why curation sits close to media representation: both are about presenting inventory in the shape buyers already think in.
Curation also supports cleaner supply paths. A buyer who reaches a package through one known route, rather than through many resellers, can see more clearly where their money goes. That links curation to supply path optimization.
Example
Illustrative example. An agency is planning a spring campaign for a generic outdoor gear brand. Rather than build its own list of hundreds of hiking, camping and travel sites, it asks a curator for an outdoor and travel package. The curator selects suitable web and app inventory from several publishers, applies contextual rules so ads appear next to relevant content, sets a floor price, and shares one Deal ID. The agency adds that Deal ID to its DSP and starts bidding the same day.
IncrementX perspective
Curated deals are one of the main ways IncrementX connects represented inventory with advertiser demand. Through its Curated Deals offering, IncrementX works with PMP, PG, curated inventory packages, audience-based, contextual, CTV and video, and rich media deals. Its Curation Packages are organised around themes such as brand awareness, video and CTV, OTT, gaming, travel, finance and custom builds.
For publishers, this means their inventory can be packaged in ways that match how buyers plan. For advertisers, it means access to represented media through a defined product rather than a long list of separate sellers.