Effective Date: January 23, 2024
Last Modified: May 20, 2025
PURPOSE
The purpose of the Marketplaces Policy (“Policy”) is to clarify certain rights and responsibilities of Index Exchange (“Index”), Marketplace Owners Also known as a Marketplace Partner. This term is used in reporting metrics to represent the owner of an Index Marketplace that curates their media solutions within the Index Marketplace and packages these offerings to bring incremental demand to publishers. For example, a media agency, a data provider, or retail media network., Publishers, Supply Partners, Buyers, Data Vendors and any other parties engaging within Index Marketplaces (“Marketplace Participants”). These rights and responsibilities help to ensure that Marketplaces function efficiently and fairly for Marketplace Participants.
SCOPE
This Policy applies to Marketplace Participants engaging within Index Marketplaces.
POLICY
Section 1: Rights and Responsibilities for Marketplace Deals
Marketplace Participants are bound to the following parameters for appropriate use of Index Marketplaces as a condition of participation in Marketplaces.
1.1 Marketplace Minimum Floors
Index allows Publishers to establish net floor A pricing control used by publishers and exchanges to set a minimum sale price on inventory. prices for Marketplace Deals transacted through Index Marketplaces on an individual Marketplace basis or for all Marketplaces.
Generally, Ad Inventory transacted through Index Marketplaces is required to meet or exceed a minimum price established by Marketplace Owners or Publishers, or by Index. To protect effective monetization on Marketplaces and optimize Publisher The owner of a website or app where advertisements are served. performance, Index reserves the right to apply a minimum floor price for any or all Deals. The current minimum floor price is $0.10 USD; Index may adjust this minimum floor price from time to time.
When practical, Index will inform Publishers prior to enforcing any changes to established Global Floor prices.
Index may establish custom floors with one or more Marketplaces that are lower than the minimum price on a case-by-case basis. With Index’s consent, certain Marketplace Participants may allow floors lower than $0.10 USD; however, doing so may affect the remittances due to rounding. If remittances are affected, the parties agree that Index is only responsible for remitting the amounts accounted for in the Platform.
1.2 Marketplace Fees
Marketplace Owners and Data Vendors may set the amount taken from a Marketplace Deal A private auction that allows publishers to offer specific inventory directly to selected buyers identified by a deal ID. Terms are negotiated and are agreed upon before the auction occurs. in exchange for their services and/or data (“Marketplace Fee”). This amount may be a percentage of the value of Marketplace Media Spend or a flat CPM Cost Per Thousand (CPM). A pricing structure for buying impressions and is the cost of serving an advertisement 1,000 times. Also known as Cost Per Mille (where M represents 1,000 in Roman numerals) or Cents Per Mille. fee.
In order to ensure the efficient operations of Marketplaces, Index may establish a maximum limit on Marketplace Fees. This maximum limit may be applied by Index across all Marketplaces or on an individual Marketplace basis. Index may adjust the maximum Marketplace Fees from time to time.
Discounts or incentives may not apply to certain creative A digital ad made available in various creative types, defined by their size in pixels such as 300x250px. or transaction types (e.g., impressions transacted at a fixed rate) or to specific transactions if other down-stream fees, discounts or incentives apply. Index applies discounts or incentives in the following order of priority: discounts/incentives for (i) brands; (ii) agencies; (iii) Marketplace Owners; and (iv) DSPs.
The currency of Marketplaces is United States Dollars. If a Marketplace Participant wishes to send or receive payments related to Marketplaces in a currency other than United States Dollars, there may be slight deviations in values due to rounding and exchange rates. The UI may contain estimates regarding conversion values, however, unless otherwise provided, the final report Index provides to the Marketplace Participant in question will be determinative regarding the final value of payments. For clarity, Index converts all payments from United States Dollars to other requested currencies on or after the end of the month in which the related transaction occurred using the exchange rate of a reputable bank.
Depending on the construction of Deals in Marketplaces, Index’s open market revenue share or Index’s private market revenue share as negotiated between Index and the applicable Publisher may apply.
1.3 Deal Throttling and Auto-Pausing
Index will ensure that both Publisher and Marketplace Deals remain efficient and produce sufficient win rates to justify the impact of bidding activity on Index and Buyer systems.
Index may prevent, disable or reduce the activation of Marketplace Deals on Supply Properties that are inefficient or do not meet applicable win rates, at Index’s sole discretion and at any time.
Index may implement processes to automatically limit Deals in cases where there is no activity on the Deal for a period of time as defined by Index.
Index will monitor Deal performance and may reactivate or increase Deal activation rates based on efficiency and performance.
1.4 DSP Eligibility in Marketplaces
Index will aim to ensure that Ad Inventory is monetized efficiently and will take action to ensure that DSP Demand-Side Platform (DSP). A software platform that automates bidding decisions in real-time and efficiently connects buyers and audiences through an ad exchange or SSP. Also known as a buy-side platform. bidding behaviors introduced by Marketplaces (e.g., new Deal IDs, Marketplace or Data Vendor A type of Marketplace Partner that owns data segments that can be used by Index customers for a fee.-set margins, etc.) provide sufficient revenue to justify the burden on Index infrastructure and that DSP supply paths are optimized to increase the rate of winning bids.
To ensure that DSP bidding behaviors are optimized, Index reserves the right to block the activation of Marketplace Deals, or disable live Deals, associated with any DSP at Index’s sole discretion and at any time.
1.5 Run of Network Marketplace Deals
It is important that Marketplace Deals generate incremental value for Publishers and Index, and that Marketplace Deals do not impede revenue from other areas of the Index Platform.
Index reserves the right, at its sole discretion and at any time, to establish minimum targeting criteria for Deals and/or restrict Deal IDs to predefined Buyer seats to prevent over-solicitation of Deals to DSPs and Buyers.
1.6 Deal Creation Limitations
To ensure efficiency and appropriate allocation of computing resources, Index reserves the right, at its sole discretion and at any time, to adjust, pause or cancel the creation of Deals by Marketplace Owners and/or the activation of Deals by Index. This includes but is not limited to:
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The maximum number of concurrent active Deals;
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The number of Deals that Marketplace Owners can create in a period of time (e.g., business-sensitive periods such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday); and
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Queuing or implementing time-delays for the activation of new Deals (e.g., during peak times or when high-volumes of new Deals are created) to protect Index’s technical and monitoring systems.
Index will determine the maximum number of concurrent active Deals on a case-by-case basis upon Marketplace Owner onboarding. Marketplace Owners may request that Index Exchange increase the maximum number of concurrent active Deals on an as-needed basis.
Incorrect signaling (i.e. of creative type A classification of ads based on behavior. Describes the properties of the advertisement creative. Available formats include: standard, expandable, overlay/voken, in-banner video, survey, audio, and video. by a Publisher) of a Deal may result in clawbacks. Clawbacks may apply to all Marketplaces Participants including, for example, as a result of incorrect signaling of creative types. Certain creative or transaction types may not be available through Marketplaces.
1.7 Data Vendor Billing Methodology
Segment Fees may be charged by Data Vendors for the use of the Data Vendor’s data segments by other Marketplaces Participants including but not limited to Publishers using segments. Segment Fees may be applied by the Data Vendor or on behalf of the Data Vendor by Index. The total value of fees applied will depend on the data segments and Data Vendors activated within a Deal; if multiple segments and/or multiple Data Vendors have activated within a Deal, the highest Segment Fee for each Data Vendor will be applied to the Deal.
Index may change or modify the application of Segment Fees to Marketplace Participants as required as required to facilitate additional fee attribution logic.
1.8 Data Segment Pricing Changes
Data Vendors may change the Segment Fees applied to their data segments at their discretion. Index will make commercially reasonable efforts to ensure requested Segment Fee changes are implemented in a timely manner.
Index is not responsible for any results related to changes to Segment Fees made by or at the request of Data Vendors.
To ensure that segments function efficiently, Index reserves the right to adjust, pause or cancel the creation of segments and/or the activation of segments on Deals at Index's sole discretion and at any time. Index may also adjust, pause or cancel Deals if Data Vendor data segments change or become unavailable.
For more information on adjusting Segment Fees, please refer to this page or contact your Index representative.
1.9 Data Vendor Reporting
Index will provide Data Vendors with impression data related to revenue the Data Vendor has earned, and/or other financial data required for reconciliation (e.g., media spend data if the Percentage of Media billing model is used for a Data Vendor’s segment).
Section 2: Marketplace Participant Standards
2.1 Applicable Laws & Standards
Marketplace Participants must comply with all applicable laws including, but not limited to, privacy and data protection laws (e.g., the General Data Protection Regulation, the California Consumer Privacy Act, etc.).
Marketplace Participants must have a policy that governs the collection, provision, disclosure, export, posting, uploading, sharing and overall use (collectively, “Processing”) of personal data, personal information, or the equivalent term in applicable laws that Marketplace Participants make available within Marketplaces. Index reserves the right to request evidence of such policy.
As applicable, Marketplace Participants are expected to implement appropriate measures to obtain proper authorization, such as through relevant notices, informed consent, and ensuring opt-out mechanisms as applicable, prior to the Processing of data. Marketplace Participants may not export data obtained through Index Marketplaces for use outside Index Marketplaces.
Index reserves the right to require an additional privacy related review of Marketplace Participants who Process any data or information that contains personally identifiable information, sensitive personal data, or confidential information and wish to use that information in Marketplaces. Marketplace Participants must receive written approval from Index prior to making any such data available on Index Marketplaces.
2.2 Data, Segment, Deal, Addressability Information Quality Standards & Requirements
By this reference, Index policies governing supply and demand quality are incorporated into this policy and apply to Marketplace Participants including but not limited to, their data, creatives, segments, Deal packages, addressability and/or targeting practices or information. Applicable Index policies include but are not limited to our Demand Quality Policy and Inventory Quality Policy.
2.3 Segment Names and Descriptions
Data Vendors are expected to give Marketplace segments names that are detailed and self-explanatory. Further, Data Vendors are encouraged to create descriptions for all Marketplace segments they create, which should also be detailed and self-explanatory. Marketplaces segment names and descriptions are prohibited from containing any content that violates Index content standards as described in Index policies, including but not limited to our Demand Quality Policy and Inventory Quality Policy.
Section 3: Rights Reserved
Index reserves the right to pause or suspend Marketplace Participants’ activities for non-compliance with this or any other applicable policy at Index’s sole discretion. Index has the right but not the obligation to monitor or investigate behaviors and practices on Index Marketplaces for compliance with this Policy. Any determination made by Index and any recourse selected is final and in Index’s sole discretion.
Any information regarding supply or demand that Index provides to Marketplaces Owners (e.g., a report on CTV Connected TV (CTV). A TV set that receives video content from the internet through a smart TV operating system, streaming device, or game console. Supply Partners active on the Platform) should be treated as guidance. Index does not guarantee (i) the accuracy of, or (ii) outcomes based on such data. As the parties owning the Deal configuration process, Marketplace Owners are ultimately responsible for Supply Property A point of presence such as a website, social media account, or blog on the web that is an asset of an entity such as an individual or corporation and used for the purpose of representing a brand, person or other identity. Ad Inventory included in a given Deal.
Index expressly reserves the right to change, modify, or delete the provisions of this Policy with or without notice at any time. A current copy of this Policy will be available online in Index's Knowledge Base. By continuing to use the Index Marketplaces after a revised version of this Policy has been posted, you acknowledge and agree that you are bound by and must comply with the latest version of the Policy.
DEFINITIONS
Ad Inventory: Digital media inventory, across one or more Supply Properties, made available by you for sale through Index Marketplaces.
Buyer(s): Any party (including clients, agencies, advertisers, groups of advertisers and/or demand-side platforms) that submits bids to purchase Ad Inventory through Index Marketplaces.
Data Vendor(s): A third-party who provides data to the Platform, including without limitation Index Marketplaces.
Deal(s): An agreement made between Publishers(s), Vendor(s), Buyer(s) and/or Marketplace Owner(s) for the purchase of Ad Inventory.
Index Marketplaces: Index’s marketplaces platform including all related technology, software, tools, and infrastructure.
Marketplace: A business a Marketplace Owner may create atop Index’s Ad Inventory supply footprint in order to bring incremental, customized demand to Index’s Publishers.
Marketplace Media Spend: The amount a Buyer spends for Ad Inventory purchased through the Index Marketplace platform.
Marketplace Owner: A third-party entity who, through an executed Marketplaces & Data Agreement, establishes a Marketplace on Index’s Exchange. For clarity, the use of Marketplace Owner in this Policy shall include Vendors.
Platform: Index’s programmatic advertising exchange platform, including all related technology, like Index Marketplaces, software, tools, and infrastructure that allows Buyers to purchase Ad inventory.
Supply Partner(s): The owner and operator of a platform to whom the individual or entity using the Index Marketplace platform has granted all necessary rights and authority to sell Ad Inventory to DSPs through a connection between Index’s Platform and the Supply Partner’s platform (e.g., Google Open Bidding or Amazon TAM).
Publisher(s): The owner or operator of Supply Properties.
Segment Fee: A fee charged by Data Vendors and applied by a Data Vendor, or on behalf of a Data Vendor by Index, for the use of the Data Vendor’s data segments by entities participating on the Platform or for Data Vendor services. For the avoidance of doubt, a Segment Fee is a type of Marketplace Fee.
Supply Properties: Websites, mobile sites, applications, or other digital advertising inventory owned and/or operated by Publishers, or for which Publishers have authority to sell Ad Inventory or otherwise use Marketplace services (e.g., the Index Marketplace, Marketplace reporting, Marketplace UI tools, etc.).
UI: The user interface provided by Index.
