What is Deal ID?

A Deal ID is a unique identifier attached to a programmatic deal. It travels in bid requests so a buyer's DSP can recognise inventory covered by an agreement and bid on it under the agreed price, access and targeting terms.

Also known as: Deal identifier, Deal code

How it works

A deal is an agreement between a seller and a buyer about a set of inventory: which impressions qualify, the price or floor, which buyers can take part and whether volume is guaranteed. The Deal ID is how machines keep track of that agreement.

When a matching impression becomes available, the seller's platform sends a bid request that includes the deal details. In the OpenRTB 2.6 specification from IAB Tech Lab, these sit in a private marketplace (Pmp) object that holds one or more Deal objects. Each Deal object carries an id described as "a unique identifier for the direct deal", along with fields such as a minimum bid (bidfloor), an allowed list of buyer seats (wseat) and a flag showing whether the deal is guaranteed (guar). When the buyer bids, it references the same Deal ID so the seller can apply the right terms.

How buyers activate a deal in a DSP

Activation follows a similar path in most demand-side platforms, though screen names differ:

  1. The seller shares the Deal ID, plus the agreed price, dates, formats and the buyer seat it is set up for.
  2. The buyer adds the Deal ID to their DSP's deal library or inventory section, sometimes alongside the name of the selling platform.
  3. The buyer creates or edits a line item (or ad group) and targets it to that deal.
  4. The buyer sets a bid at or above the floor, adds creatives that fit the agreed formats and checks that other targeting does not exclude the deal's inventory.
  5. Once live, the buyer watches bid requests, bids and wins on the deal, and contacts the seller if numbers look wrong.

Why it matters

Without a Deal ID, a negotiated agreement has no way to show up inside an automated auction. The ID turns a commercial conversation into something a DSP can act on in milliseconds. It also gives both sides a shared reference for reporting and troubleshooting, so when a buyer says "the deal is not delivering", everyone knows exactly which setup to check.

Example

Illustrative example. A mid-size news publisher agrees a private marketplace deal with an agency for homepage video placements. The publisher's selling platform creates a Deal ID and sends it to the agency's trader, who adds it to a new line item in the agency's DSP, sets a bid above the floor and uploads video creatives. The next morning, the trader sees bid requests arriving with that Deal ID and the campaign begins to spend.

IncrementX perspective

Deal IDs are the handover point between IncrementX's representation work and a buyer's own tools. Whether a deal comes from a curated package, a PMP or a PG agreement, the buyer activates it in their own platform using the Deal ID.

The same applies to agentic workflows. IncrementX's Seller Agent lets authorized AI buying agents discover represented inventory and initiate deal creation, and it returns Deal IDs that are then activated through supported buying platforms. The Deal ID stays the familiar link between an agreement and the auction.