Delegate Strategy Guide

Delegate is Praevis’s co-located bidding engine. Instead of receiving bid requests at your endpoint, your bidding logic runs inside Praevis infrastructure — evaluated in <1ms, with no network round-trip, no timeout risk, and no bidder to maintain.

Campaign API v2.0 Available: For easier campaign management, use the Campaign API instead of manually editing strategy JSON. The Campaign API provides full CRUD operations (Create, Update, Delete, Activate) with creative upload support.

	Traditional RTB	Delegate
Latency	50–150ms round-trip	<1ms (in-process)
Network dependency	Your datacenter	None
Timeout risk	Yes	None
Strategy format	Your code	JSON rules
Budget pacing	Your system	Integrated with Guide
Update time	Redeploy	30 seconds

Strategy JSON structure

{
  "version": "1.0",
  "dsp_id": "your-dsp-uuid",
  "campaigns": [ ... ],
  "rules": [ ... ],
  "default_bid": 1.00
}

Field	Required	Description
`version`	✓	Strategy format version — always `"1.0"`
`dsp_id`	✓	Your demand source (DSP) UUID
`campaigns`	✓	Array of campaign objects (budget and scheduling)
`rules`	✓	Array of bidding rules (conditions and bid config)
`default_bid`	✓	Fallback bid CPM if no rule matches, in USD

Campaign object

{
  "id": "campaign-001",
  "name": "CTV MENA",
  "active": true,
  "priority": 1,
  "daily_budget": 500.00,
  "start_date": "2026-02-17",
  "end_date": "2026-03-31"
}

Field	Required	Description
`id`	✓	Unique campaign identifier
`name`	✓	Display name
`active`	✓	`true` / `false` — toggle without deleting
`priority`	✓	Lower number = higher priority (1 wins over 2)
`daily_budget`	—	Daily spend cap in cents. Even pacing reduces bid rate as budget is consumed
`total_budget`	—	Total lifetime spend cap in cents
`start_date`	—	ISO date — campaign starts bidding on this date
`end_date`	—	ISO date — campaign stops bidding after this date
`frequency_cap`	—	Object: `{ "max_impressions": 3, "period_hours": 24 }` — limits impressions per device

Budget Pacing

Budget enforcement runs on every bid evaluation. When daily_budget is set:

Spend vs Budget	Bid Probability
Under 70%	100% (bid normally)
70-80%	70%
80-90%	40%
90-95%	15%
95%+	0% (stops bidding)

This ensures even delivery throughout the day instead of burning budget in the first hours.

Frequency Capping

Limits how many times the same device sees a campaign’s ad within a time window. Uses device IFA (or UA+IP fingerprint) as the identifier.

{
  "id": "campaign-001",
  "frequency_cap": {
    "max_impressions": 3,
    "period_hours": 24
  }
}

When a device reaches max_impressions for this campaign, the campaign stops bidding for that device until the counter expires.

Rule object

{
  "name": "CTV UAE Prime Time",
  "campaign_id": "campaign-001",
  "conditions": {
    "device.devicetype": "3",
    "geo.country": ["AE", "SA"],
    "hour": ["18", "19", "20", "21", "22", "23"]
  },
  "bid": {
    "base_cpm": 5.00,
    "multipliers": {
      "prime_time": 1.4
    },
    "max_cpm": 10.00,
    "min_cpm": 3.00
  },
  "priority": 1
}

Field	Required	Description
`name`	✓	Rule display name
`campaign_id`	—	Link to a campaign (for budget tracking)
`conditions`	✓	Conditions that must all match (`{}` = always match)
`bid`	✓	Bid configuration object
`priority`	✓	Lower = higher priority when multiple rules match

Conditions

All conditions use AND logic — every condition must match.

Condition key	Value type	Example
`device.devicetype`	string	`"3"` (CTV), `"1"` (mobile), `"2"` (desktop)
`geo.country`	string or array	`"AE"` or `["AE", "SA", "KW"]`
`geo.region`	string or array	`"AE-DU"`
`geo.city`	string or array	`"Dubai"`
`hour`	string or array	`"18"` or `["18","19","20"]` (UTC, 0–23)
`weekday`	string or array	`"1"` (Mon) … `"6"` (Sat), `"0"` (Sun)
`content.genre`	string or array	`"drama"` or `["drama","thriller"]`
`site.cat`	string or array	`"IAB1"`
`publisher_id`	string	Publisher-specific bidding
`deal_id`	string	Private marketplace deal targeting

⚠️

All condition values must be strings, not numbers. "hour": "8" is correct; "hour": 8 will not match.

Bid configuration

Field	Description
`base_cpm`	Base bid in USD CPM
`multipliers`	Named multipliers applied on top of `base_cpm` (multiplicative)
`max_cpm`	Hard ceiling — bid never exceeds this
`min_cpm`	Hard floor — bid never goes below this

Effective bid = base_cpm × product(all multipliers), clamped to [min_cpm, max_cpm].

Built-in multiplier keys (applied automatically when conditions match):

Key	When applied
`prime_time`	Hours 18–23 UTC (if `hour` condition matches)
`weekend`	Saturday + Sunday (if `weekday` condition matches)

You can also define custom multiplier keys and apply them manually.

Example strategies

1. CTV-only, MENA geo-fenced

{
  "version": "1.0",
  "dsp_id": "your-dsp-uuid",
  "campaigns": [
    { "id": "c1", "name": "MENA CTV", "active": true, "priority": 1, "daily_budget": 500.00 }
  ],
  "rules": [
    {
      "name": "CTV MENA",
      "campaign_id": "c1",
      "conditions": {
        "device.devicetype": "3",
        "geo.country": ["AE", "SA", "KW", "QA", "BH", "OM"]
      },
      "bid": { "base_cpm": 6.00, "max_cpm": 12.00, "min_cpm": 3.00 },
      "priority": 1
    }
  ],
  "default_bid": 0
}

Setting default_bid: 0 means the demand source only bids on matched rules — no fallback bids on unmatched inventory.

2. Prime time bid multiplier

{
  "version": "1.0",
  "dsp_id": "your-dsp-uuid",
  "campaigns": [{ "id": "c1", "name": "Prime Time", "active": true, "priority": 1 }],
  "rules": [
    {
      "name": "Prime Time Boost",
      "campaign_id": "c1",
      "conditions": {
        "hour": ["18", "19", "20", "21", "22", "23"]
      },
      "bid": {
        "base_cpm": 3.00,
        "multipliers": { "prime_time": 1.5 },
        "max_cpm": 8.00,
        "min_cpm": 1.00
      },
      "priority": 1
    }
  ],
  "default_bid": 2.00
}

Effective bid 18–23 UTC: 3.00 × 1.5 = $4.50 CPM. Off-peak: $2.00 default.

3. Genre-targeted campaigns

{
  "version": "1.0",
  "dsp_id": "your-dsp-uuid",
  "campaigns": [
    { "id": "drama", "name": "Drama", "active": true, "priority": 1, "daily_budget": 200.00 },
    { "id": "sport", "name": "Sport", "active": true, "priority": 2, "daily_budget": 150.00 }
  ],
  "rules": [
    {
      "name": "Drama content",
      "campaign_id": "drama",
      "conditions": { "content.genre": "drama" },
      "bid": { "base_cpm": 4.50, "max_cpm": 9.00, "min_cpm": 2.00 },
      "priority": 1
    },
    {
      "name": "Sport content",
      "campaign_id": "sport",
      "conditions": { "content.genre": ["sport", "sports"] },
      "bid": { "base_cpm": 5.00, "max_cpm": 10.00, "min_cpm": 2.50 },
      "priority": 2
    }
  ],
  "default_bid": 1.50
}

4. Multi-campaign with budgets and scheduling

{
  "version": "1.0",
  "dsp_id": "your-dsp-uuid",
  "campaigns": [
    { "id": "q1", "name": "Q1 Brand", "active": true, "priority": 1, "daily_budget": 1000.00, "start_date": "2026-01-01", "end_date": "2026-03-31" },
    { "id": "always", "name": "Always On", "active": true, "priority": 99 }
  ],
  "rules": [
    {
      "name": "Q1 Premium",
      "campaign_id": "q1",
      "conditions": { "device.devicetype": "3" },
      "bid": { "base_cpm": 7.00, "max_cpm": 15.00, "min_cpm": 4.00 },
      "priority": 1
    },
    {
      "name": "Always On Fallback",
      "campaign_id": "always",
      "conditions": {},
      "bid": { "base_cpm": 1.50, "max_cpm": 3.00, "min_cpm": 0.50 },
      "priority": 99
    }
  ],
  "default_bid": 0.50
}

5. Publisher-specific deal

{
  "version": "1.0",
  "dsp_id": "your-dsp-uuid",
  "campaigns": [{ "id": "deal", "name": "Premium Publisher Deal", "active": true, "priority": 1 }],
  "rules": [
    {
      "name": "Publisher Direct",
      "campaign_id": "deal",
      "conditions": { "publisher_id": "pub-specific-uuid" },
      "bid": { "base_cpm": 10.00, "max_cpm": 20.00, "min_cpm": 8.00 },
      "priority": 1
    }
  ],
  "default_bid": 1.00
}

Updating your strategy

Dashboard: Demand → your demand source → Strategy tab → edit JSON → Save. Takes effect within 30 seconds.

API:

PUT /api/demand/sources/{DSP_ID}/strategy
Content-Type: application/json
X-API-Key: {YOUR_KEY}
 
{ ...strategy JSON... }

Testing before going live

Go to Demand → your demand source → Test in Sandbox
Adjust the test auction parameters (geo, device type, genre, hour)
Verify your rules match and the expected bid is returned
Check that daily_budget pacing works by setting a small budget and firing many test requests

→ Sandbox Delegate testing guide

Bid Request Reference Targeting Dimensions