TL;DR: A deal sheet in programmatic advertising is a shared, structured record of the terms agreed between a buyer and a publisher before a campaign runs. It is not a deal ID. It is a bilateral document that both parties hold and can audit independently.

Deal Sheet vs Deal ID

These two terms are often confused. They are not the same thing.

A deal ID is a technical identifier used in programmatic auctions. It tells a DSP which deal a bid request belongs to. Deal IDs are created by the seller, held by the seller, and refer to auction parameters set by the seller. The buyer receives the deal ID so their DSP can bid into the right inventory, but the buyer does not hold the underlying deal terms.

A deal sheet is a document that records what buyer and seller actually agreed. It contains the negotiated terms: price, inventory categories, targeting conditions, brand safety requirements, volume commitments, and the identity of the agents or humans who agreed those terms. Crucially, both the buyer and the seller hold a copy.

In most of today's programmatic market, deal sheets do not exist in any structured form. The deal ID identifies the deal; the actual terms sit in the seller's system and may not be independently verifiable by the buyer.

Why the Distinction Matters

The ANA's 2023 programmatic transparency study found that a significant portion of programmatic spend cannot be accounted for across the supply chain. One reason is that buyers frequently do not have a clear record of what they agreed to buy, from whom, and on what terms.

A deal sheet addresses this directly. If a buyer holds a copy of the agreed deal terms, they can compare those terms against what was delivered. Discrepancies become visible and auditable.

This is not a new idea. In direct media buying, insertion orders serve a similar function. Both the buyer and the publisher hold a signed record of the deal. The problem is that programmatic trading, particularly open-market auction buying, evolved without this accountability layer.

What a Deal Sheet Should Contain

A well-structured deal sheet includes:

Agreed price. The floor price or fixed CPM negotiated between buyer and publisher agent.

Inventory definition. The specific inventory categories, placements, or publisher properties covered by the deal.

Targeting parameters. Any audience, contextual, or geographic conditions that apply.

Brand safety requirements. The content exclusions and brand safety standards agreed by both parties.

Volume commitment. If applicable, the impression volume or spend commitment associated with the deal.

Governance information. The identity of the agents or humans who agreed the terms, the timestamp of the agreement, and the version history of any amendments.

Audit trail. A log of any changes made after the initial agreement, with timestamps and authorisation records.

How the DealSheet Works in Alkimi

Alkimi's implementation of the deal sheet concept is called the DealSheet. When a buy-side agent and a sell-side agent negotiate a deal through Alkimi, the agreed terms are recorded in a DealSheet that both parties hold independently. The marketplace holds the audit trail.

Neither party can alter the agreed terms after the fact without the change being logged. Both parties can view the full deal history at any time.

This is the structural difference between an agentic marketplace and a conventional programmatic exchange. The exchange holds the auction logic. The marketplace holds the deal record.

What US Buyers Should Ask Their Supply Partners

If you are working with supply partners in the US programmatic market, these are the questions worth asking:

- Do we hold a copy of the agreed deal terms, or only a deal ID? - Can we independently verify that the terms of the deal match what was delivered? - What is the dispute resolution process if there is a discrepancy between what was agreed and what ran? - Is the deal record held by the seller, the marketplace, or shared between buyer and seller?

The answers will tell you whether your current supply relationships are built on bilateral accountability or on a seller-held record you cannot independently verify.