DOOH Marketing

PMP vs. Managed Service: How to Activate DOOH

Two activation models, two operating philosophies. One gives you the keys; the other hands you the keys-and-driver.

The Short Version

A Private Marketplace (PMP) is a self-serve activation: your team — or your agency's trading desk — buys DOOH impressions through a DSP using a negotiated deal ID against curated inventory. A managed service activation hands the plan, the buy, the optimization, and the reporting to Goldfish Ads' skilled traders who run the campaign on your behalf. Both can target the same screens. The difference is who is sitting at the console.

Side-by-Side

Dimension	PMP (Self-Serve)	Managed Service
Who operates the buy	Your traders in a DSP	Goldfish Ads' skilled traders
Pricing model	Negotiated CPM via deal ID, plus DSP fee	All-in CPM or flat fee with service margin baked in
Setup time	Hours once deal ID is live	0 — we handle everything for you
Optimization cadence	Your team handles	Our team optimizes daily
Reporting	Native DSP reporting — options vary by DSP	Curated decks and screenshots
Data portability	Yours — sits in your DSP	Custom whitelabeled dashboard, live view, custom heatmaps, location reports, and more
Creative ops	You handle trafficking and QA	Included — Goldfish Ads handles specs, sub-formats, takedowns
Minimum spend	Often low — set by DSP and deal	No minimums — flat rate CPM, scale up or down as needed
Best for	Always-on programs, in-house teams, performance brands	One-off launches, brands without a trading desk, complex multi-publisher direct deals

When PMP Wins

You already trade in a DSP. If The Trade Desk, DV360, Yahoo, or a specialized DOOH DSP is already part of your stack, adding DOOH as another channel inside the same UI is the lowest-friction path. Your audience segments, frequency caps, and pacing logic carry over.

You want full transparency. Bid logs, win rates, screen-level delivery, and CPM by venue are all visible. Nothing is abstracted by a vendor deck.

You're running always-on. A live deal ID lets you flight, pause, and re-weight without re-papering an IO every time.

You're measuring downstream. Foot traffic lift, sales lift, and brand studies are easier to wire up when impression logs live in your DSP next to your other channels.

When Managed Service Wins

You don't have a trading desk. Standing one up for a single DOOH flight is not a sensible investment. A managed buy gets you to market this week.

The plan blends direct and programmatic. Premium spectaculars, transit takeovers, and exclusive venue networks often require direct negotiation. Goldfish Ads traders will package the direct buys alongside programmatic impressions and report against one plan.

Creative is complex. Multiple aspect ratios, motion vs. static, market-specific cut-downs — Goldfish Ads will spec, traffic, QA, and replace creative without burning your producer's week.

It's a one-off. Product launches, sponsorship activations, and tentpole moments rarely justify the operational overhead of self-serve.

What's Included in Managed Service

No minimums, flat-rate CPM. Budgets scale up or down as needed. You're not locked into a floor commitment.

Multiple visualization tools. See your campaign before and during flight with mockups, live shots, real-time views, AR 360 visualizations, and heatmaps.

[Live shot from a past Techint campaign — image placeholder]

Custom reporting dashboard. Updated daily with delivery, pacing, and venue-level detail. Data can be pushed directly into your existing reporting software.

[Reporting dashboard example — image placeholder]

Hands-on optimization & publisher relationships. Goldfish Ads traders handle campaign optimizations and have direct publisher contacts to resolve issues fast — no ticket queues.

Proof-of-play photography. For spends over $20K per month, a dedicated photographer captures high-quality POP shots. Webcam shots from billboards are also available depending on publisher access.

The Hybrid Most Mature Buyers Run

The cleanest setup we see at scale: an always-on PMP for retargeting, geo-coverage, and audience extension — paired with managed-service flights for tentpole launches and premium direct placements that don't sit in any open exchange. Both feed into the same measurement framework, so the brand sees one DOOH performance picture rather than two.

What to Ask Before You Pick

Do we already have a DSP seat with DOOH inventory access?
Is this a single flight or an ongoing program?
Who owns creative trafficking and QA — us or a partner?
What measurement are we attaching, and where does the impression log need to live?
How much margin are we willing to trade for speed and operational lift?

Related reading: Programmatic DOOH · What Is DOOH · For Agencies

Activate DOOH Your Way

PMP deal IDs for in-house teams. Managed flights when you need the bench. Request platform access.