Private Auctions overview

Private Auctions offer publishers a way to control the sale of their non-guaranteed inventory by inviting specific buyers to bid at set minimum floor prices. This auction format allows publishers to prioritize certain buyers or enable them to compete with the Open Auction.

Private Auctions provide more control over how your inventory is sold, and provide buyers with an advantage at auction. When initiating a Private Auction, you invite specific buyers to participate. The winners of impressions are determined using the auction model. #privateauctions

For an expert overview of Private Auction setup and optimization, watch the following video:

How to Set Up & Optimize Private Auctions in Google Ad Manager

On this page: 

• How Private Auctions work
• Set up Private Auctions
• Private Auction settings
• Priority and rules

Learn more about performance measurement and troubleshooting of Private Auctions , and learn how we updated Private Auctions in 2025 .

How Private Auctions work

All Private Auctions are publisher initiated. However, a buyer may contact a publisher to express interest in Private Auctions. 

Once a Private Auction is created and buyers are invited, the Private Auction deal is available in the buyer’s Authorized Buyers "Marketplace" tab. 

When the buyer accepts the Private Auction, the Private Auction deal is created and the buyer can start bidding. 

Private Auctions usually result from external conversations between sellers and buyers and both parties agree to set up a deal. Here's the typical process:

1. You create a Private Auction and configure the deal:
   • Invite buyers and set (minimum CPM) floor prices
   • Enable priority over Open Auction for selected buyers
   • Set targeting 
2. Once saved, the buyer finds the proposal in "Negotiations" under the Authorized Buyers "Marketplace" tab.
3. Once accepted, the buyer can bid on that inventory at the negotiated CPM minimum floor price.
   Note: If the buyer fails to place a valid bid above the negotiated CPM fixed price, it may become available on the Open Auction . This provides your inventory with another possible way to earn revenue.

Set up Private Auctions

Unlike Programmatic Guaranteed or Preferred Deals  proposals , Private Auctions don’t require a negotiation process. Once campaign details are set, you request acceptance of the proposal from the buyer. Once accepted, the proposal is finalized.

Create a Private Auction

1. Sign in to Google Ad Manager.
2. Click Sales, then Private Auctions.
3. Click New Private Auction.
4. Complete " General settings ."
5. Click Save and continue to configure the deal and invite buyers.

Invite a buyer

You can automatically invite buyers to a new Private Auction during the setup process in "Configure deal and invite buyers." You can also invite them to any existing Private Auction by navigating to its "Transacting buyers" tab and clicking "Invite buyers."

1. Sign in to Google Ad Manager.
2. Click Sales, then Private Auctions.
3. Select a Private Auction and click Invite buyers
4. in the "Buyer" or "Curator" section, select the entity responsible for the deal.
   1. When you click Curator, a list of supported third-party  Curation partners  appears.
   2. Under Curators, optionally, select "Google Demand Facilitation."
5. Complete " Delivery settings ," " Additional settings ," and " Targeting ."
6. Click Invite buyers.

Once a buyer is invited, the Private Auction is active and ready to transact.

Private Auction settings

Consider the following details when setting up your Private Auction.

General settings

When you invite a buyer to your Private Auction, they'll be able to find it by its name in their Authorized Buyers Marketplace. 

• Name: Choose a name that's clear, descriptive, and enticing to potential buyers.
• Terms: Provide a concise and informative overview of what you're offering in the auction, or add additional requirements to which you and the buyer agree to adhere. Consider using this field to communicate ad serving restrictions, such as competitive ad filters, content restrictions or blocks which apply to the campaign.
• Seller Contacts: Make sure to include relevant contact information so buyers can easily reach out with any questions they might have.

Delivery settings

In "Delivery settings," you can choose the minimum price for eligible bids, define the types of ad creatives you expect, set an optional end date for the deal, and manage ad content rules that restrict certain ad types. 

• Floor price: Minimum CPM buyers must bid in order to be eligible for the auction. The floor price reflects the minimum earnings potential before revenue share. Revenue share for Private Auction transactions is taken from the floor price or the winning bid.

  Example

  Suppose you set a floor price of $3.00 USD and a single buyer bid for $3.00 USD and won that impression. Revenue share would be taken from the $3.00 USD winning bid price and your realized revenue would be below this price.

  • Net and gross are applied differently for different kinds of transactions. Learn more about gross and net transactions .

• Expected creatives: Define the types of ad creatives you expect. If the buyer bids with a creative size that was not targeted, the bid is filtered. You can see bid responses or impressions that were filtered in Private Auction troubleshooting .

  Note: Expected creatives sizes will be eligible for each selected inventory type or all inventory types if "All inventory types targeted" is selected. If multiple inventory types are eligible, it's not possible to specify that a certain size should only be eligible for a certain inventory type.

• End time: Choose an optional end date for the Private Auction.

• Override blocks: Blocks settings that restrict the types of ads that can serve on your websites or apps. They're set under "Ad content" rules via Protections and apply only to Private Auctions , except for "Advertisers/Brand," "Buyer," "Inventory Exclusions," and "Custom labels." All blocks apply to Open Auction except "Custom labels." Learn more about protections eligibility .

  • Setting up ad content rules can offer some protection to your brand by restricting how, where, or which ads can serve on your websites or apps. By default, these rules apply to each bid response. Bid responses that don't fall within the parameters of the ad content rules set up in your network are automatically filtered.
  • You can opt to override these blocks. Overriding blocks means that ad content rules won't apply to bid responses from the buyer.
• Deal priority: Deal priority allows publishers to favor certain buyers, even if their bids are lower, by assigning a priority level to their non-guaranteed deals (that is, Preferred Deals, Private Auctions, and Marketplace Packages). Select a number to set the priority of this deal against other non-guaranteed deals. One is the highest priority. Open Auction optimized means every deal competes based on CPM alone.

• Day and time: Set time-based ad restrictions to run only during specific hours or days. For example, you might set ad restrictions to run only on Tuesdays, or from 3 to 6 PM daily.

  1. Under "Day-time targeting," select "Set days and times," and set the desired options.

     1. Select "Publisher's time zone" or "User's time zone."
        Publisher time zone is based on the network time zone set when your Ad Manager network was created. Ensure you follow best practices if you're also applying geographic targeting to ad restrictions.
     2. To set an active time range for certain days: Select a "Start time" and "End time" and then select the days when the time range will apply.
     3. To exclude certain days of the week: Select the days and then select "Don’t run on these days."
     4. (Optional) Click Add time periodto include an additional time period. Repeat steps a - c.

Additional settings

Allow Open Auction buyer optimization to allow bids from the Open Auction to compete with bids from this Private Auction, regardless of other potential deals in the auction. This option is enabled by default on new Private Auctions but can be deselected at any time. 

Deal priority allows publishers to favor certain buyers, even if their bids are lower. Set the priority by selecting a number for this deal against other non-guaranteed deals. The number one is the highest priority. "Open Auction optimized" means every deal competes based on CPM.

Change a setting in a Private Auction

To change the general settings of a Private Auction: 

1. Sign in to Google Ad Manager.
2. Click Sales, then Private Auctions.
3. Find and click the name of a Private Auction.
4. Click the Settingstab.
5. Make changes to name, description, or seller contacts and click Save.

To update specific deal settings:

1. Click Sales, then Private Auctions.
2. Choose an option:
   • Click the name of a Private Auction, and then a deal ID.
   • Click Dealsand then a deal ID.
3. Make changes to delivery settings, additional settings, or targeting and click Save.

Targeting

Define the portion of inventory you want to offer to buyers in the Private Auction.  All popular targeting dimensions are available. Click Show moreto expand the list.

Priority and rules

Priority and Private Auctions

Private Auctions compete for inventory based on their assigned priority tier and priority level. Ad Manager evaluates Private Auctions alongside other line item types within the same tier:

• Tiered competition:Set Private Auctions to any priority tier (for example, high, normal, or low). They run after line items in higher-priority tiers (like Sponsorship or Standard items in the "High" tier) and ahead of items in lower-priority tiers.
• Preferred Deals:If a Private Auction and a Preferred Deal are in the same tier, they compete based on their specific priority numbers.
• Open Auction exceptions:Private Auctions generally run before the Open Auction, with two exceptions:
  • If Dynamic Allocation is enabled and when Ad Manager selects the Open Auction, or a remnant line item to serve because it offers a higher price.

If Open Auction optimization is enabled, the Open Auction may run before the Private Auction to maximize yield.

Rules and Programmatic Direct

EU user consent settings

Protections

Pricing rules