Minimum Quality Score setup
A Quality Score is Rokt’s rating of the relevance and expected value of a campaign to the partner. Quality Score dictates which campaign wins the marketplace auction, in what position the campaigns appear, and how much a brand pays per referral.
How do we calculate Quality Score?
The calculation is essentially the value of the impression (VPI) to the partner, assuming expected engagement rate and max bid price is paid:
Quality Score = expected engagement rate x max bid price (USD) x partner revenue
What is a Minimum Quality Score?
The Minimum Quality Score is the minimum value the partner expects from an impression. The partner can independently define Minimum Quality Scores for both position one and positions two plus on any placement. The primary function of Minimum Quality Score is to ensure a baseline value is delivered to the partner (e.g., a minimum level of bidding is achieved). The following scenarios demonstrate the effect of Minimum Quality Score in three scenarios:
For the first position, no campaign is above the Minimum Quality Score, so the winning campaign of the auction still shows is charged its maximum bid price. However, for position two and onward, if no campaign is above the Minimum Quality Score, no campaign is shown.
What values should I use as the Minimum Quality Score?
Minimum Quality Score won’t change what offer is selected; it influences the price paid. Therefore, Minimum Quality Score has little effect in high demand markets and placements, where the competition drives up the Quality Score. In high-demand placements we recommend a default Minimum Quality Score of $0.02 in Position 1 and $0.01 in Position 2+.
Minimum Quality Score is effective in creating a floor for new or low demand placements. In these situations, it’s best to start the Minimum Quality Score at $0.02 in Position 1 and $0.01 in Position 2+, and increase Position 1 incrementally, as this position typically drives ~75% of the value. You want to avoid abrupt changes or going too high, as this could distort campaign efficiencies and Smart Bidding.
Remember the Minimum Quality Score of $0.05 is the value to the partner in USD. At this level, the advertiser is effectively paying $0.11 for the impression (equivalent to $110 effective cost per million impressions) before the partner value share is applied (default 50%).
How do I configure my Minimum Quality Score?
The Minimum Quality Score should be changed by the Rokt operations teams. Reach out to your account manager for more information.
Once you have agreed on the values, they are input into the Transactions > Controls tab in One Platform.
In the example above you can see that the Minimum Quality Score is set to $0.02 USD for Position 1 and $0.01 USD for Position 2+.
What does a brand pay?
At Rokt, we use a second-price auction. This means that the winning brand pays the equivalent to $0.01 more than the Quality Score* of their nearest competitor, or the Minimum Quality Score* if the nearest competitor falls below below that threshold. The exception is if the Quality Score of the winning brand falls below the Minimum Quality Score defined by the partner, in which case the brand pays their maximum bid price.
The formula for the price paid (assuming the winning brand has a Quality Score higher than Minimum Quality Score) is as follows:
Paid = min(Max bid price, Max bid price * Quality Score (follower)/ Quality Score (winner) + 0.01)
* Gross, i.e., pre-partner revenue share.