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 as follows, which 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 Rev/Value Share
What is a Minimum Quality Score?
The Min Quality score is the minimum value the Partner expects from an impression. The partner can independently define a Min QS for Position 1 and Position 2+ of any placement. The primary function of Min QS is to ensure a minimum level value is delivered to the Partner. E.G., a minimum level of bidding is achieved. (see scenario 1 and 3 below). The following scenarios demonstrate the effect of minimum QS in three scenarios:
For Position 1, no campaign is above the minimum quality score, the winning campaign of the auction will still show (and be charged its Max bid price). However, for Position 2+, if no campaign is above the minQS, no campaign will be shown.
What Values Should I Use As The Minimum Quality Score?
Min QS won’t change what offer is selected, it simply influences the price paid. Therefore, it will have little effect in high demand markets/placements, where the competition drives up the QS. In these markets/placements we recommend to default to a Min QS of $0.02 in Pos 1 and $0.01 in Pos 2+.
Min QS is effective in new or low demand markets/placements at creating a floor. In these situations it’s best to start the Min QS at $0.02 in Pos 1 and $0.01 in Pos 2+, and increase Pos 1 incrementally, as this position typically drives ~75% of the value. You want to avoid abrupt changes or going too high, as this could blow out campaign efficiencies and smart bidding, which ultimately could drive away brands in the long run.
Remember the Min QS of $0.05 is value to the partner in USD. At this level, the Rokt marketplace Brand is effectively paying $0.11 for the impression (equivalent to $110 ECPM) before the partner value share is applied (Default 50%).
How Do I Configure My Partner's Minimum Quality Score?
The Min QS should be changed by Ops, in consultation with the Smarter team. Requests should go through the Operations Service Desk (Placements).
Once you have agreed on the values (see above), they will be input into the Transactions > Controls tab in One Platform. See the screenshot below:
In the example above you can see that the minimum quality score has been 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. The winning brand pays the equivalent to $0.01 more than the quality score* of their nearest competitor, or the Min QS* if the nearest competitor is below this. The exception to this is if the QS of the winning brand is below the Min QS defined by the partner, in which case they will pay their max bid price.
The formula for the price paid (assuming the winning Brand has a QS higher than Min QS) is as follows:
Paid = min(Max bid price, Max bid price * Quality Score (follower)/ Quality Score (winner) + 0.01)
* Gross, e.g. Pre-Partner Revenue Share