Glossary
Demand-side curation
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Demand-side curation is curation performed by a buyer, its agency or its DSP, which assembles preferred inventory, deals and data into reusable packages on the buying side instead of buying packages that sellers have curated.
The tools are familiar: inclusion lists of domains and apps, a library of PMP deals, data overlays and quality filters inside the DSP. An agency can apply one package across many clients and keep the logic, and the fees, under its own control. Platforms have built for this. Google added curation tools for agencies in Ad Manager in November 2024, letting an agency subscribe to curated auction packages and add data segments through its own seat (PPC Land, 8 June 2025).
The limits come from position. A DSP sees only the bid requests sellers send it, so it curates from a filtered view. Its data is applied after the request arrives, which depends on ID matching. Every request it must evaluate and discard also costs processing. Many buyers therefore combine both: their own rules on the demand side and curated deals from sellers. The IAB Tech Lab's framework of taxonomies, data labels and the SupplyChain object applies to both sides.
Example: An agency builds a "premium news" package from 1,200 vetted domains and 30 PMP deals, with a brand-safety filter and its own audience data. Each client campaign reuses the package, and the agency reviews domain performance monthly.
Related terms: curation, supply-side curation, curated marketplace, supply path optimization, DSP, PMP.