Priority Value
When creating a flight in TAP, the flight priority type and priority level combine to create a priority value, which is the starting point to determine how a flight competes with other flights and with Yield-Op. The lower the priority value number, the higher the priority.
Listener Information
As indicated above, the priority value is just the starting point (after ruling out ad separation). When an ad request comes in to the advertising platform, the ad server uses the listener's information to select the most eligible ad based on the factors listed below.
Factors for Selection
Ad separation: advertiser and industry separation.
Flight priority type and priority level: combine to create a priority value, the lower the number, the higher the priority.
Pacing: even/as fast as possible.
Position: pre/mid/post.
Position in break: first/last.
Frequency capping.
Daily goal: updated in real-time; has flight goal been reached?
Targeting criteria:
Content targeting (station, podcast, market, genre, station tag, podcast episode ID, podcast published date and age).
Listener targeting (geo location, device, audience targeting, TTags, distributor, custom parameters).
Time/Daypart targeting.
If two flights compete for the selection (i.e., have the exact same eligibility), the server randomly picks one.
Tip: Future releases will include CPM as a selection factor.
Priority Level Flow Diagram
The diagram below shows how priority levels currently work in various contexts. New features and improvements will be added in an upcoming release.
Ad Request Priorities
Flight Priority and Delivery
Regardless of the flight priority settings you choose, TAP has two delivery priorities.
Deliver to 100% goal (this is top priority).
Pace evenly on a daily basis (this is the second priority).
That said, a number of factors can affect flight priority, as described below.
Impression goal
Flight priority is assessed based on the various flights’ progress to delivering their goals. All other things being equal, a flight with a larger impression goal will have priority over one with a smaller impression goal.
Flight end date
A flight that ends soon will have priority over a flight that ends later, as the one that ends later has more room to “catch up” on impressions.
Flight priority level
All the above is evaluated in each TAP priority bucket. So if you want a flight to take priority over one that is pacing behind and has a lower OTI, you would need to move it to a higher priority in TAP than the one pacing behind. (For example, if both are Standard/Normal, moving one to Standard/High will have it evaluated first.
Priority levels are the single most powerful thing you can use to affect delivery in TAP. Everything outlined in this document is evaluated at each priority level before moving on to the next one. So it’s like having a bunch of mini ad servers assessing delivery and pacing one after another, with Sponsorship/High always getting first consideration.
How to assess if a flight is getting prioritized
A very good ballpark of assessment is the OTI (On-Track Indicator). A flight with a lower OTI will take priority over one with a higher OTI because the lower-OTI flight’s delivery is more at risk. If you watch the OTIs of competing flights you will see them bounce up and down, going between roughly 90-105. One will deliver, get over 100, then the other will deliver, get over 100. The first one will fall behind, and then it will deliver. This happens on an ongoing basis, and the goal is always to have a daily delivery right around 100% if there are no other issues with delivery (such as being oversold, etc.).
Factors that do not affect delivery
Some things seem like they would affect delivery, but they don’t, as they have no relationship to TAP’s number one priority: delivering to goal.
CPM
CPM has no bearing on delivery or priority in TAP.
First-in or other position targeting
Any kind of ad slot or position targeting does not prioritize the flight in that slot. It simply guarantees that the flight will play only there. For example, if you have a first-in pre-roll flight scheduled, and you have 20 other pre-roll flights scheduled without first-in as a target, any of those 20 other flights will push aside the first-in flight if they have a higher delivery priority as outlined above. Remember: First-in and any kind of slot target does not prioritize a flight in that position. It limits it to that position.
As fast as possible
As fast as possible pacing doesn’t prioritize delivery at all. What it does is fill in the remainder of available inventory with that flight so it can deliver faster (after everything else has paced to its desired 100% for the day).
Bulk Priority and Programmatic
Bulk flight priority type is generally used for "remnant" type of buys, where reaching an impression goal is not as important as the CPM contracted. CPM is usually lower than the regular rate card. The behavior is slightly different for different delivery types, as described below.
The following does not apply to programmatic guaranteed flights.
Bulk priority flights for all delivery methods:
When no flight with a priority greater than or equal to 9 is eligible to be selected, then programmatic is called.
In other words, any of the following:
Sponsorship (high, normal, low)
Standard (high, normal, low)
…will have priority over programmatic (unless there is capping or separation preventing those flights from delivering).