Accountability

How buyers and sellers negotiate, enforce, and resolve performance standards, measurement terms, and cancellation policies in AdCP guaranteed buys.

Overview

Guaranteed media buys in AdCP have three accountability surfaces:

• Performance standards — rate thresholds for viewability, IVT, completion, brand safety, and attention (IAB T&Cs Section XI)
• Measurement terms — who counts the billing metric and what remedies (makegoods) apply when thresholds are breached (IAB T&Cs Sections V, VII, IX)
• Cancellation policy — notice period and cancellation fee for early termination (IAB T&Cs Section XII)

These are structured, machine-readable fields — not free text. Buyer and seller agents negotiate them programmatically through the standard product discovery and buy creation workflow.

Lifecycle

1. Discovery: Buyer States Requirements

At get_products, the buyer filters for products that meet their performance requirements:

{
  "buying_mode": "brief",
  "brief": "Premium video for CPG brand, Q3 flight",
  "filters": {
    "delivery_type": "guaranteed",
    "required_performance_standards": [
      {
        "metric": "viewability",
        "threshold": 0.70,
        "standard": "mrc",
        "vendor": { "domain": "doubleverify.com" }
      },
      {
        "metric": "ivt",
        "threshold": 0.05,
        "vendor": { "domain": "doubleverify.com" }
      }
    ]
  }
}

Products that cannot meet these thresholds or do not support the specified vendors are excluded from results. The buyer is saying: “I need DoubleVerify for viewability at 70% MRC and IVT under 5%.“

2. Product Response: Seller Declares Defaults

Returned products include the seller’s default performance_standards, measurement_terms, and cancellation_policy:

{
  "product_id": "premium_video_q3",
  "delivery_type": "guaranteed",
  "performance_standards": [
    { "metric": "viewability", "threshold": 0.70, "standard": "mrc", "vendor": { "domain": "doubleverify.com" } },
    { "metric": "ivt", "threshold": 0.05, "vendor": { "domain": "doubleverify.com" } },
    { "metric": "completion_rate", "threshold": 0.75, "vendor": { "domain": "doubleverify.com" } }
  ],
  "measurement_terms": {
    "billing_measurement": {
      "vendor": { "domain": "admanager.google.com" },
      "max_variance_percent": 10
    },
    "makegood_policy": {
      "available_remedies": ["additional_delivery", "credit", "invoice_adjustment"]
    }
  },
  "cancellation_policy": {
    "notice_period": { "interval": 30, "unit": "days" },
    "cancellation_fee": { "type": "percent_remaining", "rate": 0.5 }
  }
}

The buyer can see all terms before committing budget.

3. Refinement: Negotiate Before Committing

Using buying_mode: "refine", the buyer can propose changes to performance standards or measurement terms. This uses the same required_performance_standards filter — the seller responds with updated products reflecting what they can offer. Refinement is iterative and non-binding.

4. Buy Creation: Buyer Proposes, Seller Accepts

At create_media_buy, the buyer can propose different terms on the package request:

{
  "product_id": "premium_video_q3",
  "budget": 50000,
  "pricing_option_id": "cpm_usd_fixed",
  "performance_standards": [
    { "metric": "viewability", "threshold": 0.75, "standard": "mrc", "vendor": { "domain": "doubleverify.com" } },
    { "metric": "ivt", "threshold": 0.03, "vendor": { "domain": "doubleverify.com" } }
  ],
  "measurement_terms": {
    "billing_measurement": {
      "vendor": { "domain": "campaignmanager.google.com" },
      "max_variance_percent": 5
    }
  }
}

The seller has three responses:

• Accept — echo the buyer’s terms on the confirmed package
• Reject — return TERMS_REJECTED with details about which term failed and acceptable range
• Adjust — return modified terms on the confirmed package (the buyer agent inspects the response to see what changed)

When the buyer omits performance_standards or measurement_terms, the product’s defaults apply.

Measurement terms for phased-maturation channels

Some channels produce billing-grade data in phases rather than delivering final numbers on day one — broadcast TV, DOOH, digital with IVT filtering, podcast downloads, and others. For these, the buyer proposes a measurement_window alongside the vendor, specifying which maturation stage the guarantee is reconciled against:

{
  "product_id": "primetime_30s_q4",
  "budget": 250000,
  "pricing_option_id": "unit_rate_30s",
  "agency_estimate_number": "EST-2026-04821",
  "measurement_terms": {
    "billing_measurement": {
      "vendor": { "domain": "videoamp.com" },
      "measurement_window": "c7",
      "max_variance_percent": 10
    }
  }
}

The measurement_window references a window_id from the product’s reporting_capabilities.measurement_windows. This tells both sides: “VideoAmp’s C7 numbers are what we reconcile against.” For a DOOH product it would be "final" (post-IVT/fraud-check); for digital it might be "post_sivt". The same mechanism declares both which data is authoritative for billing and when it becomes available — reconciliation and invoicing clocks follow that declared availability. The agency_estimate_number is the financial reference that links the order to the agency’s media plan — it travels with the order through the transaction lifecycle.

5. Confirmed Package: The Contract

The confirmed package reflects the agreed terms — the binding contract:

{
  "package_id": "pkg_001",
  "product_id": "premium_video_q3",
  "performance_standards": [
    { "metric": "viewability", "threshold": 0.75, "standard": "mrc", "vendor": { "domain": "doubleverify.com" } },
    { "metric": "ivt", "threshold": 0.03, "vendor": { "domain": "doubleverify.com" } }
  ],
  "measurement_terms": {
    "billing_measurement": {
      "vendor": { "domain": "campaignmanager.google.com" },
      "max_variance_percent": 5
    },
    "makegood_policy": {
      "available_remedies": ["additional_delivery", "credit", "invoice_adjustment"]
    }
  }
}

6. Creative Enforcement

When agreed performance_standards specify a vendor, creatives assigned to that package MUST include tracker_script or tracker_pixel URL assets from that vendor. Sales agents SHOULD reject creative assignments that lack required verification tags with CREATIVE_REJECTED.

For example, if the agreed terms include DoubleVerify for viewability, every creative on the package must carry DV tags so viewability can be measured.

Formats without tracker support: Not all formats accept third-party tracking assets. Broadcast TV spots, for instance, have no tracker slot — there is no pixel to fire on a television. Buyer agents should check the format’s assets array for tracker slots before proposing performance standards that require creative-level verification. When a format does not support trackers, measurement comes from the vendor declared in billing_measurement (panel data, set-top box telemetry) rather than creative-embedded pixels. See Format definitions for details.

7. Breach and Resolution

When a performance standard or billing measurement variance is breached, the seller proposes a remedy from the agreed makegood_policy:

• additional_delivery — extend or add impressions (like-for-like, same or later campaign)
• credit — credit toward future buys on the same account
• invoice_adjustment — reduce the invoice for the current buy

The buyer accepts or disputes.

Cancellation Policy

Cancellation policy is not a negotiation surface. The seller declares it on the product; the buyer accepts it by creating a media buy. A guaranteed buy canceled without sufficient notice incurs the declared cancellation fee.

Cancellation fee types:

• percent_remaining — percentage of remaining committed spend (e.g., 50%)
• full_commitment — buyer owes the full committed budget
• fixed_fee — flat monetary amount
• none — no cancellation fee

Insertion Orders

The insertion order is a signing wrapper around a committed proposal. It does not introduce new deal terms. All negotiated terms live on products and packages. The IO’s terms object provides summary fields (advertiser, publisher, budget, dates, payment terms) so buyer agents can verify the IO matches the proposal before a human signs via DocuSign or similar.

Vendor Identity and Measurement Agents

All measurement and verification vendors are identified by domain using the standard brand reference — the same system used for brands, operators, and accounts. Examples:

• { "domain": "doubleverify.com" } — DoubleVerify
• { "domain": "integralads.com" } — IAS
• { "domain": "oracle.com", "brand_id": "moat" } — MOAT
• { "domain": "campaignmanager.google.com" } — Google Campaign Manager
• { "domain": "admanager.google.com" } — Google Ad Manager
• { "domain": "videoamp.com" } — VideoAmp (broadcast/CTV measurement)
• { "domain": "comscore.com" } — Comscore (cross-platform measurement)

The vendor’s brand.json at their domain is the discovery point for their agent capabilities. Vendors declare agents in the agents array with type: "measurement":

{
  "house": {
    "domain": "doubleverify.com",
    "name": "DoubleVerify",
    "agents": [
      {
        "type": "measurement",
        "url": "https://api.doubleverify.com/adcp/measurement",
        "id": "dv_measurement"
      }
    ]
  }
}

This follows the same pattern used for all agent types in brand.json — brand, rights, governance, creative, buying, and signals agents are all discovered the same way.

The buyer or seller queries the measurement agent for current rates against agreed performance standards, rather than waiting for post-campaign reporting. The measurement vendor participates as an agent, not a black box.

Relationship to Content Standards

Content standards agents validate WHAT was delivered (brand safety, content categorization). Performance standards measure HOW WELL it was delivered (viewability rates, IVT rates, completion rates). The vendor may be the same company — DoubleVerify provides both brand safety scoring and viewability measurement — but the concerns are distinct:

• Content standards: validate_content_delivery — “was this ad placed next to safe content?”
• Performance standards: measurement agent — “what percentage of impressions were viewable?”

Both use agent-to-agent workflows. Content standards are already fully specified. Measurement agent interfaces are a follow-up to this specification.