{"page":"/blog/programmatic-agency-audit","modified":"2026-11-10","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/","columns":["Clause","What good looks like","Red flag"],"rows":[["Audit rights","Advertiser may appoint an independent auditor, covering contract compliance and media value, at least annually","Audit limited to the agency's own reports, or to a single year"],["Auditor NDA","A standard NDA attached to the contract as an exhibit","NDA negotiated only when the audit starts; the ANA calls it \"a major battleground\""],["Agent or principal","Each buy is labelled agent or principal; principal buys need written opt-in","No mention of principal buying, or blanket consent in the master agreement"],["Rebates and incentives","All rebates, including \"value pots\" of free or discounted media, belong to the advertiser in proportion to its spend","Rebates defined narrowly, or barter excluded without a separate agreement"],["Transaction data","Advertiser has access to transaction data, even if a vendor claims rights over it","Data access depends on each vendor's terms"],["Platform seats","Advertiser owns the DSP seat, or has read access and log-level exports","Agency-owned seat with no export rights"],["Fee schedule","Agency fees stated separately from media; platform and data fees passed through at cost","A single \"media\" line that bundles fees"]],"sourceUrls":[[],[],[],[],[],[],[]]}