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Bid request - FAQ

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Aborted bids

What does an aborted bid look like?

The following shows an example of an aborted bid on a given connection, since only one bid request can be out on a given connection at a time:

  • Time 0 ms: bid request 1 sent to your bidder
  • Time 1 ms: bid request 2 queued
  • Time 1.5 ms: bid request 3 queued
  • Time 99: bid response 1 received
  • Time 100: bid request 2 sent
  • Time 102: bid request 3 aborted because it timed out before the request was sent.

Ad quality

How does the bid request specify which brands, buying members, technical attributes etc. are not allowed in the bid response?

Blocked categories are sent in the bid request in the bcat field. (Note that the list in this field will contain only IAB categories, not Xandr categories.) Blocked domains are sent in the bid request badv field. (See Outgoing Bid Request to Bidders for more details on bcat and badv.) These two fields are the only fields supported by OpenRTB for blocked content. Other eligibility requirements will be determined based on the hierarchy of rules and auction mechanics. (This often involves multiple rules conditioned on a number of distinct factors, so we do not expect a bidder to be able to replicate this complexity in determining the eligible creatives.) We allow for multiple bid responses (see Bid Response - FAQ), in which you can submit your top bid responses. Xandr will automatically determine the creative with the highest eligible CPM.

Data format

What is the format of the country in the bid_request?

The country is based on the ISO 3166-1 Alpha-3 code. The mappings can be found in the Alpha-3 code column in the ISO Online Browsing Platform.

Where can I find the DMA in the bid_request?

The designated market area (DMA) is sent in the geo.metro field and is determined based on the user's IP address.

Where can I find the postal code in the bid_request?

The postal code is sent in the geo.zip field.

Multi-tag auctions

How are multi-tag auctions handled in the bid request?

The Bid Request will generally be for a single tag. We sometimes send "multi-tag bid requests" where one bid request may include multiple tag IDs with potentially different sizes, ad quality standards, reserve prices, etc. These requests should be handled with individual responses for each tag as if they were independent requests.

Each individual tag in a multi-tag request has a unique auction ID. Your bid response may include responses for as many of the tags as you would like, but you must specify the corresponding auction IDs. See Bid Response for more details.

Legacy protocol information

The following FAQs apply only to Xandr's legacy bidding protocol and OpenRTB 2.0 Bidding Protocol. Xandr currently supports the OpenRTB 2.4 Bidding Protocol.

Important

These protocols have been deprecated.

Why are there two "inventory_audits" objects in the bid request, one in the "bid_info" and another in the "tag_info"?

There are two types of inventory audits that can be applied to an impression: 1) Xandr's platform audit and 2) seller self-classification. The "inventory_audits" under the "bid_info" section contains Xandr's platform audit. The "inventory_audits" under the "tag_info" section contains the seller self-classification. The reason they are in different locations is because the platform audit is determined by the site domain of the referrer URL that comes through on the bid request and is assigned dynamically to each impression, whereas the seller self-classification is applied on a tag-by-tag basis and is entered into our backend.

What is the format of the country in the bid_request?

The country is the two-letter country code. The mappings can be found under the Alpha-2 code in the ISO Online Browsing Platform.

What is the format of the DMA in the bid_request?

The DMA is a number. You'll need to email The Nielsen Company for DMA information.

What is the format of the postal code in the bid_request?

The postal code is a Xandr ID corresponding to a postal code in a specific country.

How do I determine the creative attributes the seller does not allow?

To check the creative attributes that the seller will not allow on an impression, use the following fields in the Bid Request:

  • excluded_adservers
  • excluded_brands
  • excluded_languages
  • excluded_categories
  • excluded_creatives
  • excluded_technical_attributes