Last updated: 16 October 2026

AdCP, the Ad Context Protocol, is designed to coordinate buying well beyond programmatic, but its depth is uneven. According to the AdCP documentation, the protocol works across direct deals, sponsorships, broadcast and out-of-home, not only programmatic exchange. The same documentation states that one architecture does not mean every channel or commercial function has equal implementation depth today. AdCP carries the brief, the offer, the terms and the delivery data; payment, settlement and disputes still sit largely with the parties and their contract.

TL;DR. AdCP, published by AgenticAdvertising.org, sits above the auction and defines 20 media channels, including linear TV, radio, out-of-home, print and cinema. A buyer agent can send one brief to sellers in different channels and receive offers in a common shape, with pricing models for sponsorships, rating points and digital out-of-home share of voice. The documentation says payments, legal agreements, settlement, disputes, credits and makegoods remain account or platform integrations unless the relevant AdCP contract is explicitly present. An agency should check, seller by seller, which tasks and terms are supported before relying on AdCP for a non-programmatic buy.

What does AdCP say about buying beyond programmatic?

AdCP's documentation treats programmatic as the narrow case. Its "Why AdCP" page argues that the auction's question, what is this impression worth right now, embeds CPM-based assumptions that do not hold for most global ad spend. Direct deals, sponsorships, broadcast, out-of-home and retail media run on different pricing models, timelines and success metrics, and "they are not edge cases; they are the majority."

According to the AdCP documentation, the protocol does not replace OpenRTB; it coordinates the planning, negotiation, proposal and deal-creation steps around it. The protocol is asynchronous, with operations that may take minutes to days, and publishers can require manual sign-off.

AdCP's Media Channel Taxonomy defines 20 channels, from display and CTV to linear_tv, radio, ooh, print, cinema, influencer and product_placement. It describes channels as "how buyers plan and allocate budget", not where an ad technically renders.

How does one brief reach sellers in different channels?

The AdCP introduction describes get_products sending the same structured request and brief to every connected seller, with exact constraints such as channel and currency in fields every seller can process. Each seller answers in the same format: products with pricing, forecasts, targeting support and creative requirements. Buyer agents find sellers through adagents.json files on publisher domains and through the AgenticAdvertising.org registry, which can search agents by channel, market and property type.

AdCP 3.2 changes the entry point. The documentation marks get_products as deprecated for new integrations in 3.2 while keeping it fully supported throughout 3.x. New integrations use list_products to read published offers or request_proposals to ask a seller to plan against a brief, then commit with buy_products or accept_proposal. Sellers choose which surfaces to offer, so a buyer agent should read each seller's advertised lifecycle tools first.

How does AdCP describe a sponsorship, a TV spot or a billboard?

According to the AdCP pricing documentation, flat_rate covers sponsorships, takeovers, branded content and fixed digital out-of-home slots. A time model prices homepage takeovers and section sponsorships by duration. Cost per point (cpp) serves linear TV, radio and CTV, with a target demographic, a minimum points commitment and certified demographic measurement. Digital out-of-home offers can carry a share-of-voice percentage, which is always duration-weighted. A sole sponsorship is a guaranteed product, marked exclusive, attached to a collection of content, such as a podcast title or a CTV collection.

For example, a hypothetical agency planning a regional launch sends one brief covering CTV, a podcast sponsorship and a roadside billboard. The CTV seller might return a CPM product with third-party verification, the podcast seller a guaranteed, exclusive flat-rate sponsorship, and the billboard owner a flat-rate posting period. One brief produces three offers in one format, with three very different ways of proving delivery.

Is AdCP equally mature in every channel?

No, and the documentation says so. AdCP's public roadmap lists "cross-channel maturity and offline depth" as a 3.3 workstream aimed at the highest-value print, broadcast, out-of-home and audio gaps, and asks for real examples from those channels carried through to delivery evidence and reconciliation.

Static out-of-home creative is marked experimental in AdCP 3.2. Static billboards have no play event and cannot fire trackers, so delivery is a modelled audience estimate and posting records serve as the settlement evidence. Broadcast systems generally do not fire web trackers either, so reconciliation relies on traffic logs, affidavits and audience currencies. AdCP's known-limitations page adds that expanded out-of-home and audio measurement has schema and contract-test coverage, but not yet one complete discovery-to-delivery journey per metric family.

Timing differs too. Broadcast ratings settle over days and podcast downloads are counted over 30 days, so an AdCP buy can name the measurement window that is final for billing.

What stays outside the AdCP protocol?

According to AdCP's known-limitations page, there is no in-protocol payment or settlement. The report_usage task supplies consumption data that feeds invoicing, but invoicing and settlement happen out of band. There is no protocol-level delivery-dispute flow: when buyer and seller numbers disagree, reconciliation happens through the commercial relationship. The page puts it plainly: "AdCP is the wire and the contract, not the ledger."

Makegoods sit on the boundary. Guaranteed products can carry a structured makegood policy with three remedies: additional delivery, a credit toward future buys, or an invoice adjustment. The seller proposes a remedy and the buyer accepts or disputes; what happens after a dispute is not specified. The insertion order is a signing wrapper around a committed proposal, signed by a human. The roadmap lists payment terms, fees, settlement, disputes, credits and makegoods as a 3.3 workstream still in exploration.

What should an agency check before relying on AdCP for a non-programmatic buy?

An agency can work through this checklist with each seller:

Lifecycle tools. Does the seller advertise request_proposals for negotiated plans, or only published offers, and which AdCP version is it pinned to?
Pricing and measurement. Is the product flat-rate, time-based or priced per rating point, and which demographic and measurement provider apply?
Billing authority. Whose count governs the invoice, what variance triggers a remedy, and which measurement window is final?
Proof of delivery. Where trackers cannot fire, which affidavits, traffic logs or posting records will the seller supply, and when?
Accountability terms. Which performance standards, makegood remedies and cancellation policy apply? The documentation treats cancellation policy as seller-declared, not negotiated.
Off-protocol paperwork. Which contract covers payment terms and disputes?
The shared record. Where are the agreed terms recorded, and does the counterparty hold the same version?

The last question applies whichever standard an agent uses. IAB Tech Lab's AAMP framework, developed separately, covers deal types including linear GRPs, and like any protocol it does not by itself give both parties one record of what was bought. Alkimi runs a neutral marketplace that works within the AAMP framework today and is being built to be AdCP compatible; agreed deals are written to a shared DealSheet both parties hold, with humans keeping approval rights at the deal level.

Frequently asked questions

Can AdCP buy linear TV and out-of-home?

AdCP's channel taxonomy includes linear TV, radio, out-of-home, print and cinema, with cost-per-point and flat-rate pricing. Depth varies by channel; static out-of-home creative is experimental in AdCP 3.2.

Does AdCP handle payment and settlement?

No. According to the AdCP documentation, report_usage feeds invoicing, but invoicing and settlement happen out of band through the commercial relationship between buyer and seller.

Does AdCP support makegoods?

Partly. Guaranteed products can carry a makegood policy offering additional delivery, credit or invoice adjustment, and the buyer accepts or disputes the seller's proposed remedy. AdCP defines no protocol-level dispute flow.

Is get_products still the way to send a brief?

It remains fully supported throughout AdCP 3.x but is deprecated for new integrations in 3.2, which use list_products and request_proposals instead.

Can AdCP Buy Beyond Programmatic? Direct Deals, Sponsorships, Broadcast and Out-of-Home