Prebid Sales Agent - Publisher Onboarding

• Overview
• Step 1: Deploy the Sales Agent
• Step 2: Access the Admin UI
  • First Login
  • Super Admin Setup
• Step 3: Configure Your Ad Server
  • Available Adapters
  • Google Ad Manager Setup
  • Kevel, Triton Digital, Broadstreet
• Step 4: Build Your Product Catalog
  • Writing Effective Product Descriptions
• Step 5: Configure Pricing Options
  • Pricing Models
  • Pricing Option Fields
  • Example Pricing Configuration
• Step 6: Create Advertiser Accounts
  • Creating a Principal
  • Token Usage
• Step 7: Configure SSO
  • Supported Providers
  • Setup Steps
• Step 8: Set Advertising Policies
  • Policy Types
  • Policy Enforcement
• Step 9: Configure Workflows
  • Approval Modes
  • Creative Auto-Approve Thresholds
  • Workflow Tasks
• Step 10: Test with Mock Adapter
• Go-Live Checklist
• Further Reading

Overview

This guide walks publishers through the complete process of setting up the Prebid Sales Agent, from initial deployment through go-live. By the end, you will have a fully configured Sales Agent that AI buying agents can use to discover your inventory and purchase advertising.

The onboarding process follows ten steps:

1. Deploy the Sales Agent
2. Access the Admin UI
3. Configure your ad server
4. Build your product catalog
5. Configure pricing options
6. Create advertiser accounts
7. Configure SSO authentication
8. Set advertising policies
9. Configure approval workflows
10. Test with the mock adapter

Step 1: Deploy the Sales Agent

Start by deploying the Sales Agent using Docker. For local development and testing:

git clone https://github.com/prebid/salesagent.git
cd salesagent
docker compose up -d

For production deployments, see the Deployment Overview for Docker, Fly.io, and Google Cloud Run options.

Step 2: Access the Admin UI

Navigate to http://localhost:8000/admin (or your production URL) to access the Admin UI.

First Login

In test mode, log in with:

• Email: test_super_admin@example.com
• Password: test123

Super Admin Setup

Super admins have unrestricted access to all tenants and system settings. Configure super admin access using environment variables:

# Grant super admin to specific email addresses
SUPER_ADMIN_EMAILS=admin@yourcompany.com,ops@yourcompany.com

# Or grant super admin to all users from a domain
SUPER_ADMIN_DOMAINS=yourcompany.com

Once logged in, the Admin UI dashboard provides:

• Activity Stream: Live SSE-powered feed of all agent interactions
• Product Catalog: Manage your advertising products
• Media Buys: View and approve campaign proposals
• Creatives: Review uploaded creative assets
• Settings: Configure ad server, SSO, AI, and policies

Step 3: Configure Your Ad Server

Navigate to Settings > Ad Server in the Admin UI to select and configure your ad server adapter.

Available Adapters

Google Ad Manager Setup

To connect Google Ad Manager:

1. Create a GCP project and enable the Ad Manager API.
2. Set up OAuth 2.0 credentials (client ID and secret).
3. Create a service account with Ad Manager access.
4. In the Admin UI, select Google Ad Manager as the adapter.
5. Enter your GAM network code, OAuth client ID, client secret, and GCP project ID.

Required environment variables for GAM:

GAM_OAUTH_CLIENT_ID=your-client-id
GAM_OAUTH_CLIENT_SECRET=your-client-secret
GCP_PROJECT_ID=your-gcp-project
GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS=/path/to/service-account.json

Kevel, Triton Digital, Broadstreet

For other adapters, select the adapter in the Admin UI and provide the required API credentials in the connection configuration form. Each adapter has a typed configuration class that validates the required fields.

Step 4: Build Your Product Catalog

Products are the advertising offerings that AI agents discover and purchase. Navigate to Products in the Admin UI to create your catalog.

Each product includes:

Writing Effective Product Descriptions

AI agents use product descriptions to match buyer briefs to your inventory. Write descriptions that clearly communicate:

• What: The ad format and placement (e.g., “Full-page interstitial video ad”)
• Where: The property and context (e.g., “displayed between articles on SportsFan.com”)
• Who: The audience (e.g., “reaching 2M monthly unique visitors aged 18-34”)
• Why: The value proposition (e.g., “92% viewability rate, 3.2% average CTR”)

Step 5: Configure Pricing Options

Each product needs at least one pricing option. Pricing options define how advertisers pay for the product.

Pricing Models

Pricing Option Fields

Example Pricing Configuration

A product might have multiple pricing options:

• Standard CPM: $12.50 CPM, minimum budget $5,000, fixed rate
• Performance CPC: $2.00 CPC, minimum budget $1,000, negotiable
• Sponsorship: $50,000 flat rate for a one-month homepage takeover

Step 6: Create Advertiser Accounts

Advertisers (called “principals” in the system) are the entities that buy media through AI agents. Navigate to Principals in the Admin UI to create accounts.

Each principal receives an authentication token that their AI agent uses to identify itself when calling the Sales Agent.

Creating a Principal

1. Click New Principal in the Admin UI.
2. Enter the advertiser’s name and contact information.
3. The system generates an authentication token automatically.
4. Share the token with the advertiser for use in their AI agent’s configuration.

Token Usage

The advertiser’s AI agent includes the token in every request:

# As a custom header
x-adcp-auth: principal-token-here

# Or as a standard Bearer token
Authorization: Bearer principal-token-here

The token identifies both the tenant (your publisher account) and the specific principal (the advertiser), ensuring proper access control and audit logging.

Step 7: Configure SSO

For the Admin UI, you can configure Single Sign-On (SSO) so your team members authenticate with your existing identity provider. Navigate to Settings > Authentication in the Admin UI.

Supported Providers

Setup Steps

1. Register the Sales Agent as an application in your identity provider.
2. Set the redirect URI to https://your-salesagent-domain.com/admin/auth/callback.
3. Copy the Client ID and Client Secret from your identity provider.
4. In the Admin UI, navigate to Settings > Authentication.
5. Select your provider and enter the credentials.
6. Test the SSO flow by logging out and logging back in.

Step 8: Set Advertising Policies

Advertising policies control what types of campaigns and creatives are allowed on your properties. Navigate to Settings > Policies in the Admin UI.

Policy Types

• Blocked Categories: Prevent ads in specific IAB content categories (e.g., alcohol, gambling, political).
• Blocked Brands: Block specific advertisers or brands by name or domain.
• Blocked Tactics: Prohibit specific ad tactics (e.g., auto-play audio, pop-ups, crypto advertising).

Policy Enforcement

Policies are enforced at two points:

1. Campaign Creation: When an AI agent calls create_media_buy, the policy agent checks the proposed campaign against your policies. Non-compliant proposals are rejected with clear error messages.
2. Creative Review: When creatives are uploaded via sync_creatives, the review agent checks them against your policies and returns compliance results.

Step 9: Configure Workflows

Workflows control whether campaigns and creatives require human approval before going live. Navigate to Settings > Workflows in the Admin UI.

Approval Modes

Creative Auto-Approve Thresholds

When using auto-approve mode, the AI review agent evaluates each creative and assigns a confidence score. You can set thresholds to control auto-approval:

• Auto-approve threshold: Creatives scoring above this threshold (e.g., 0.95) are approved automatically.
• Auto-reject threshold: Creatives scoring below this threshold (e.g., 0.30) are rejected automatically.
• Manual review range: Creatives scoring between the two thresholds are queued for human review.

Workflow Tasks

When human approval is required, the system creates workflow tasks that appear in:

• The Admin UI under Workflow Tasks
• Slack notifications via hitl_webhook_url (if configured)

AI agents can poll media buy status via get_media_buys and notify their operators when approval is needed.

Step 10: Test with Mock Adapter

Before connecting your production ad server, validate your entire configuration using the Mock Ad Server adapter.

1. In Settings > Ad Server, select Mock Ad Server.
2. Have a test AI agent call get_products to verify your product catalog appears correctly.
3. Create a test media buy with create_media_buy and verify it flows through your approval workflow.
4. Upload test creatives with sync_creatives and confirm they pass policy checks.
5. Call get_media_buy_delivery to verify mock delivery metrics are returned.
6. Review the audit logs in the Admin UI to confirm all operations are tracked.

Once everything works with the mock adapter, switch to your production ad server adapter.

Go-Live Checklist

Further Reading

• Quick Start — Docker setup and first MCP call
• Buy-Side Integration — Guide for AI agent developers
• Configuration Reference — All environment variables
• Architecture & Protocols — System design deep dive