What is a Criteo CTV Deal ID?

Short answer: A Criteo CTV Deal ID is a curated private marketplace deal that bundles commerce audiences + CTV supply + guardrails (geo, brand safety, pricing) into a single ID you activate in your DSP.

What’s inside a typical Deal ID:

Audience spine: Criteo Commerce Audiences (e.g., inmarket, retailer, SKUbased or AI segments) mapped to CTV households.

CTV supply package: inventory groups (e.g., premium entertainment, news, sports, FAST channels) across selected publishers and platforms.

Controls & pricing: geo, pricing floors and brand safety requirements agreed with Criteo and the supply partner.

You receive this as a deal string (Deal ID) plus a short setup guide.

2. Which DSPs can we use to activate Criteo CTV Deal IDs?

Short answer: Criteo’s curated CTV deals are designed to work across most DSPs, including major platforms such as DV360 and The Trade Desk.

Practically:

If your DSP supports PMP / Preferred Deals / Programmatic Guaranteed via Deal IDs, you can almost certainly traffic Criteo’s CTV deals.

As of Q1 2026, Amazon DSP is not enabled for CTV and Criteo Commerce Grid, our SSP.

On activation, please confirm with your Criteo contact that our CTV deals are enabled to work on your DSP of choice.

3. What do you need to plan a CTV deal?

Short answer: A concise brief: objectives, audiences, KPIs, inventory preferences, budget, and any measurement requirements.

Useful inputs:

Campaign goal & KPIs: e.g., awareness (reach, VCR), mid-funnel (DPVR, qualified visits), performance (sales, ROAS).

Audience intent: target segments (categories, brands, price tiers, competitive sets, 1P data if in scope).

Geos & markets: countries/regions, any inclusion or exclusion lists.

CTV preferences: app types or categories (premium entertainment, news, sports, FAST), brand safety guidelines.

Budget & flight: total budget, dates, pacing expectations.

Measurement plan: DSP tracking in place, brand lift vendors, any offline / retail measurement needs.

Criteo uses this to recommend audience + supply packages and Deal ID structures that can realistically deliver.

4. How do we receive CTV Deal IDs from Criteo?

Short answer: Criteo builds the deal in Commerce Grid (SSP), then shares the Deal ID string + setup notes with your team to traffic in your DSP.

Standard flow:

Planning: you share a brief; Criteo designs recommended audience + CTV supply packages.

Deal creation: Criteo creates curated Deal IDs (and names them clearly by audience / geo / inventory).

Handoff: you receive:

Deal ID(s) and human readable names.

Recommended line item structure and targeting notes.

Any special instructions (e.g., floor price, pacing, brandsafety tags).

5. How do we traffic a Criteo CTV Deal ID in our DSP?

Short answer: Use your DSP’s “Private Deals / My Deals” area, attach the Deal ID to a line item, and make sure other targeting doesn’t conflict with what’s already baked into the deal.

Before you start, make sure the Criteo Deal ID has synced and been accepted in your DSP’s Deals / Negotiated Deals / My Inventory area. It must be accepted there before it can be targeted in a campaign.

Typical activation steps:

Create a new CTV line item

Choose the relevant campaign / insertion order.

Set objective, pacing, frequency caps, and basic geo if not already constrained in the deal.

Attach the Criteo Deal ID

Go to your DSP’s Deals / Private Auctions / My Deals section.

Search by Deal ID string or deal name provided by Criteo.

Link that deal to your line item (often via a “Use this deal” or “Target this deal” toggle).

Align targeting with the deal

Avoid refiltering supply in ways that contradict the deal (e.g., including brand safety and viewability since these are already applied to the Deal IDs, or excluding apps that are part of the curated package).

Keep additional targeting to campaign level needs only (e.g., adding your own 1P audience, dayparting), and confirm with Criteo if unsure.

Set bids and budgets

Use the bid / CPM guidance shared by Criteo so you clear floors and win enough impressions.

Ensure budget and pacing are consistent with Criteo’s feasibility check.

QA and launch

Confirm creatives meet CTV specs (durations, formats, brand safety).

Check that your DSP shows the deal as active and biddable before flight.

6. How should we structure line items when using multiple Criteo CTV deals?

Short answer: Keep one deal per line item when you’re testing performance, and group by like-for-like characteristics when you just need operational simplicity.

Common patterns:

Testing / optimisation focus

Separate line items per audience or supply cluster (e.g., “Inmarket Auto + Premium Entertainment CTV”, “Loyalty Shoppers + FAST CTV”).
This gives clean readouts for CPM, CPV, DPVR, CPA/ROAS per deal.

Always-on / scaled buying

Group multiple similar Criteo CTV deals under one line item (e.g., all “premium entertainment US CTV” deals) to simplify management, while tracking an aggregate performance view.

Ask your Criteo contact for recommended grouping logic for a given brief.

7. What are best practices for CTV campaign setup and launch in your DSP (incl. The Trade Desk)?

Short answer: Start broad: let the Criteo Deal ID do the heavy lifting on audience + supply and only add the minimum DSP controls needed. In The Trade Desk, pay special attention to bids, caps, and pacing so you clear CTV floors.

Detailed guidance:

DSP‑agnostic setup

Target all CTV ad positions (pre‑roll, mid‑roll, and post‑roll) to maximize scale.

Make sure any content or genre targeting you apply in the DSP matches what’s supported by the publishers in the deal.

Remove extra DSP targeting layers that can conflict with the curated deal, including viewability filters, additional audience overlays and extra brand safety layers (beyond what’s already baked into the deal)

The Trade Desk specifics

Set your Max Bid to ~2× the minimum bid to consistently clear CTV publisher thresholds.

Remove frequency caps at launch so you don’t choke delivery; tighten later once scale is confirmed.

Review and adjust daily spend caps so they align with total budget, flight dates, and expected CTV CPMs, avoiding artificial under‑delivery.

8. How do Criteo audiences interact with our own targeting?

Short answer: Criteo’s commerce audiences are already baked into the deal; treat them as the spine and be sparing with additional DSP-side filters.

Best practices:

Don’t rebuild the same audience in the DSP. The Criteo deal is already scoped to shoppers you care about (intent, SKU, retailer etc.).

Use your DSP for complementary filters only, e.g.:

Frequency caps across your CTV portfolio.

Cross-channel exclusions (e.g., users saturated in other video lines).

Brand-specific constraints (dayparting, device preferences).

Avoid stacking so many extra conditions (e.g., strict app lists + small geo + tight 1P audience) that delivery becomes impossible; lean on Criteo for feasibility checks.

9. How do we manage frequency and incremental reach across channels?

Short answer: Manage baseline frequency across channels in your DSP, and use Criteo CTV deals to extend reach and, where relevant, as an incremental reach layer once display / OLV / social hit their desired caps.

Typical pattern:

Set perchannel caps at a minimum (CTV vs display vs OLV).

Where your DSP and planning setup allow, use cross-channel frequency controls to avoid over-exposing the same users.

Ask Criteo to model incremental CTV reach for niche audiences that are saturated elsewhere, and recommend CTV budgets and packages accordingly.

10. How is CTV performance measured when we use Criteo deals in our DSP?

Short answer: CTV on Commerce Grid uses your DSP-side measurement setup; Criteo works within whatever view-through, click-through, and conversion tracking you define.

What you should ensure:

Pixels / tags / server side events are correctly implemented for your KPIs.

Attribution windows and models (last-touch, data driven, etc.) are aligned with how you want to read CTV’s role.

If applicable, align brand-lift or attention studies (thirdparty vendors) with the Criteo deals you’re running.

For advertisers using Criteo Commerce Growth (Criteo DSP) alongside client side DSPs, Criteo’s OneTag can add full funnel and cross channel views on top of DSP side reporting.

10. Can we measure offline / retail outcomes from CTV activated via Criteo deals?

Short answer: Yes, when your buyer uses Criteo OneTag and shares offline sales data that can be linked to Criteo’s identity graph, we can analyse uplift tied to CTV exposure.

To enable this, your advertiser typically needs:

Offline feeds: CRM, POS, or retailer data share.

Criteo OneTag: All Criteo DSP clients use OneTag as a prerequisite

Agreement on reporting cadence and KPIs (e.g., visit uplift, instore ROAS, incremental sales).

11. What should we check if a Criteo CTV deal is underdelivering?

Short answer: Start with the basics, bid vs floor, targeting conflicts, pacing settings, then loop Criteo in to review supply, win rates, and audience constraints.

A quick troubleshooting checklist:

Bids vs floors: is your bid high enough to clear the suggested floor?

Lineitem targeting: are you overrestricting geo, devices, or app lists on top of the curated package?

Flighting & pacing: is the flight too short or the daily budget too aggressive for available scale?

Creative approvals: are any creatives rejected or limited on CTV inventory?

If issues persist, share your DSP reporting view with your Criteo contact so we can jointly:

Inspect bid density and win rates.

Adjust floors, inventory groups, or audiences.

Suggest alternative deals or structures (e.g., broader audience, wider app cluster).

Share our DSP Troubleshooter Tool

12. Who at Criteo should agencies work with on CTV deals?

Short answer: Your usual Criteo agency lead is the first port of call; they’ll pull in CTV/Commerce Grid specialists and curation/CS teams as needed.

In practice:

Agency development / account teams: own the relationship and commercial strategy.

Commerce Grid / CTV specialists: design and manage curated deals, troubleshooting and optimisation.

Measurement / analytics teams: support incrementality design, offline sales analysis, and cross-channel performance reporting.

When in doubt, route questions via your existing Criteo agency contact, referencing the campaign and Deal ID(s) you’re asking about.

Introduction