TL;DR: US buyers evaluating agentic advertising marketplaces should assess deal governance, mandate portability, audit log access, standards support, and human oversight design before committing to a platform.

Why the Evaluation Framework Needs to Change

Evaluating a DSP or SSP follows a familiar pattern. Teams assess reach, data integrations, reporting quality, fee transparency, and account support. Those criteria still matter, but they are not sufficient for evaluating an agentic marketplace.

Agentic marketplaces introduce AI agents as active negotiating parties. They hold deal records on behalf of both buyers and sellers. They define the governance rules under which automated decisions are made. Evaluating them requires a different set of questions.

This checklist is designed for US buyers beginning that evaluation process.

Deal Governance

Does the marketplace hold a shared deal record that both parties can inspect? A governed marketplace should provide a bilateral deal record accessible to both buyer and seller. This record should capture agreed terms, timestamps, and any modifications made during the deal lifecycle. Proprietary records held only by the marketplace itself are a governance risk.

Is there a defined approvals workflow for high-value or high-risk deals? The marketplace should support configurable approval gates. Buyers should be able to specify which deal types route to human review before execution.

What happens when an agent attempts a transaction outside its mandate? The platform should have a defined exception-handling process. Transactions that exceed mandate parameters should be blocked, logged, and escalated, not silently rejected or silently executed.

Mandate and Agent Support

Does the platform support buyer-defined agent mandates? Look for the ability to set per-agent spending limits, price ranges, approved inventory categories, and escalation thresholds. Mandates should be configurable, versionable, and auditable.

Are mandates portable across systems? If your buying agent operates across multiple marketplaces, its mandate should travel with it. Ask whether the platform supports mandate representations that are compatible with emerging standards such as AdCP, published by AgenticAdvertising.org.

Can mandate parameters be updated without restarting a campaign? Mandate updates should take effect without disrupting active deals. Platforms that require full campaign restarts to update mandate parameters create operational friction.

Audit Logs and Transparency

Does the platform provide complete, buyer-accessible audit logs? Every negotiation event, offer, counter-offer, acceptance, and rejection should be logged and accessible to the buyer. Logs should be exportable for reconciliation against internal financial systems.

How long are audit logs retained? For US buyers subject to financial reporting requirements or agency contracts, log retention periods matter. Thirty days is insufficient; twelve months is a reasonable minimum.

Can audit logs be accessed independently of the platform's reporting UI? API access to audit log data is preferable to UI-only reporting. It allows buyers to integrate deal governance data into their own systems and run independent verification.

Standards and Interoperability

Does the platform support AdCP or AAMP? Marketplaces built on open standards are more likely to be interoperable with future tools and less likely to create lock-in. AdCP is published by AgenticAdvertising.org. AAMP is published by IAB Tech Lab. Both are relevant to agentic marketplace infrastructure.

What does the platform do with data from negotiations that do not result in a deal? Negotiation data has commercial value. Understand the platform's data policies, including whether unsuccessful negotiation data is used for any purpose beyond the immediate transaction.

Human Oversight Design

At what points in the deal lifecycle can a human intervene? The platform should support intervention at multiple stages: mandate configuration, deal approval, escalation review, and post-deal audit. Platforms that only allow human involvement at campaign setup are not designed for responsible agentic operation.

How does the platform surface agent behaviour that warrants human review? Look for proactive alerting, not only reactive reporting. If an agent is consistently operating near the edge of its mandate, the platform should surface that pattern before it becomes a problem.

Commercial Terms

How are marketplace fees calculated and disclosed? Fee transparency is a baseline requirement. Understand whether fees apply to negotiation activity, deal commitment, or delivery, and how those fees are disclosed in the deal record.

What are the terms for contested deals or delivery discrepancies? Understand the dispute resolution process before you need it. A marketplace with clear, documented dispute terms is preferable to one that handles disputes on a case-by-case basis.

Final Assessment

No marketplace will meet every criterion on this list today. The agentic advertising market is early-stage, and infrastructure is developing rapidly. The value of the checklist is not to find a perfect platform but to understand the gaps in any platform you are evaluating and to make informed decisions about which gaps you can accept in the near term.