Skip to main content

ATS Direct for Publishers

ATS Direct enables direct media buys between publishers using ATS and marketers distributing their segments via LiveRamp Connect. The stack is deployed within the publisher’s cloud with full protection and control of the data - ensuring publishers never see the marketer's audience and the marketer never sees the publisher's data.

Caution

ATS Direct is currently in closed beta and is only available for selected publishers.

How it Works

ATS Direct uses tried and tested infrastructure from LiveRamp Connect, a LiveRamp product which enables marketers to manage and segment their data. The segment data from Connect can be transferred as RampIDs directly to the ATS Direct appliance in the publisher’s own cloud environment. 

ATS Direct can look for a matching segment for any given ATS envelope and return it as a key-value pair to the publisher's ad server for targeting.

See the complete ATS Direct flow below:

  1. Marketers and publishers negotiate the terms of the deal outside of Console.

  2. Once a deal has been settled, the marketer activates the publisher's destination account in Connect and uses that destination account to distribute their segments to Console.

  3. Publisher gets notified when a marketer sends a new audience from Connect.

  4. Publisher activates the deal in the ATS Direct section of Console.

  5. An email notification will be sent from Console to the marketer notifying them that the deal has been approved.

  6. Publisher creates a line item in Google Ad Manager with custom targeting set up using the value of the Deal ID (Segment ID for the marketer).

ATS Direct and ATS

ATS Direct uses envelopes from ATS to find matching segments. Matched users will be associated with a Deal ID which will be returned with the ATS envelope back to the user’s browser. Deal IDs for matched users will be used by the Google Publisher Tag (GPT) to communicate with Google Ad Manager (GAM) to present the user with the predefined ad creative.

ATS Direct and LiveRamp Connect

ATS Direct provides means of facilitating safe transfer of segment data, enabling marketers who are using LiveRamp Connect to activate their data in direct deals with publishers using ATS.

LiveRamp Connect is a software application marketers use to upload, manage, and distribute their segment data for targeting, measurement, or personalization. In LiveRamp Connect, each ATS Direct publisher is represented as a destination under “ATS Direct” where the marketer can distribute their segment data directly.

Connect.png

Methods for Implementing ATS Direct

There are a couple of ways you can implement ATS Direct: in Console through ATS for Web, or by calling the API directly.

Via ATS for Web

For a hassle-free implementation without dependence on third-party cookies on any website, we recommend implementing ATS Direct via ATS for Web. ATS for Web implementation allows you to easily set up and update your ATS Direct configurations fully in Console without having to code.

Via API Implementation

If you integrate ATS and ATS Direct into properties outside the web or you need to limit added JavaScript on your website, you may prefer to call the ATS Direct API directly.

Direct interaction will let you cut down the weight of the page and potentially make fewer client-side network requests but does add to the implementation complexity. We only recommend this method if you know what you're doing.