Media Buy

Overview

A Media Buy represents one AdCP transaction with one sales agent. For platform-managed campaigns, Interchange spawns media buys when a Campaign executes. During the tracked-campaign alpha, Interchange can also project one storefront-managed media buy into one read-only tracked campaign. Campaigns managed by Interchange use the canonical buyer product and media-buy lifecycle instead of a separate tracked-campaign write path.

For platform-managed campaigns (management: "managed"), media buys are spawned at execution, not before. A DRAFT platform-managed campaign has no media buys. After POST /campaigns/:id/execute, the campaign holds a mediaBuys[] array — one entry per sales agent. A directed campaign instead always projects exactly one mirrored media buy and has no execute step. Manual product staging via create_media_buys is available on campaigns with autonomy.inventorySelection: "manual" or "propose" (the default). Campaigns with autonomy.inventorySelection: "automatic" reserve composition for auto_select_products and reject manual staging calls.

Where a media buy sits in the hierarchy

A campaign fans out into media buys, each of which fans out into packages, each of which delivers:

Campaign
└── Media Buy        (one per sales agent)
    └── Package      (one per product per pacing period)
        └── Delivery (impressions, spend, clicks)

See Package for the per-product, per-pacing-period unit beneath each media buy.

Product format identity

Products embedded in a media-buy read expose their URL-free canonical formatOptions declarations. For a composed product, these declarations are the only format identity returned; Interchange does not manufacture a legacy creativeFormats value or an agent URL from the canonical kind. A directly connected older seller may still return creativeFormats while its catalog is migrating, but new integrations should read formatOptions and use the stable format_option_id to select the exact option during media-buy creation. For a wholesale product, Interchange captures formatOptions from the exact discovery result you selected and carries that snapshot onto the media-buy line item. It does not re-read a later public or account-private seller cache when serving the buy. Historical wholesale buys created before snapshots were stored may omit the optional field; re-run discovery to create a buy with current requirements. Media buys created from an older composed-product row can temporarily retain the exact legacy creativeFormats readback until that row is refreshed. This compatibility path does not affect newly composed products.

Budget

A media buy’s budgets — its per-product budgets and the package budgets beneath it — are gross: fee-inclusive, in the buyer’s currency, the same denomination as the campaign’s budget.total. The media/fee split is derived at the fee terms locked when the buy was created, and media buy reads return it read-only:

{
  "mediaBuyId": "mb_abc123",
  "budget_denomination": "gross",
  "budget_breakdown": {
    "media_budget": 23000,
    "fee_amount": 2000,
    "fee_rate_percent": 8,
    "effective_gross_cpm": 20.11
  }
}

budget_denomination — always "gross".
budget_breakdown.media_budget — the portion of the gross budget that buys media.
budget_breakdown.fee_amount — the Scope3 fee inside the gross budget.
budget_breakdown.fee_rate_percent — the fee rate locked when the buy was created. Budget updates on a live buy re-split at this rate; later contract changes affect new buys only.
budget_breakdown.effective_gross_cpm — the buy’s gross budget ÷ impression goal × 1000: the all-in price per thousand impressions, so “budget ÷ CPM = impressions” holds on the numbers you operate on (for a buy priced at a single fixed seller CPM, it works out to seller CPM ÷ (1 − fee rate)). null when the buy has no positive impression goal or no gross budget.

budget_breakdown is informational — you set and update gross budgets only. Legacy buys created before fee terms were locked carry neither budget_denomination nor budget_breakdown, and report delivered spend net, as the seller reported it. On all other buys, delivered spend on buyer surfaces is gross too, so delivery compares directly against these budgets. Sellers receive and report the media amount with the fee already carved out, and never see your fee rate. See Budgets and fees.

Status

A media buy’s status is one of:

Status	Meaning
`DRAFT`	Created but not yet submitted
`PENDING_APPROVAL`	Submitted; awaiting seller approval
`INPUT_REQUIRED`	Seller needs additional information before approval can proceed
`ACTIVE`	Live and delivering
`PAUSED`	Spend halted; resumable
`COMPLETED`	Flight finished or fully delivered
`CANCELED`	Stopped before completion
`FAILED`	Submission or execution error
`REJECTED`	Seller declined the buy
`ARCHIVED`	Soft-deleted

This is the Interchange buyer rollup status — a coarser, derived view of the per-buy AdCP wire status (pending_creatives, pending_start, active, …) the sales agent returns, surfaced here as adcp_status on Get media buy status. pending_creatives and pending_start both collapse to PENDING_APPROVAL here; active → ACTIVE, and so on. See Media buy lifecycle for the full mapping.

Most-restrictive rule

For a multi-agent campaign, the surfaced status is the most restrictive across all agents. For example, if one media buy is ACTIVE and another is PENDING_APPROVAL, the campaign reports PENDING_APPROVAL. INPUT_REQUIRED signals that a seller is blocked waiting on more information.

How status flows

Status updates reach you two ways:

Webhooks from sales agents — preferred, near-real-time. No polling needed.
Polling via GET /api/v2/buyer/campaigns/:id/media-buy-status, which queries each agent directly and persists any changes.

curl https://api.interchange.io/api/v2/buyer/campaigns/cmp_987654321/media-buy-status \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SCOPE3_API_KEY"

Polling is most useful right after execution, while you wait on publisher approvals. Once webhooks are flowing, prefer them — see Get media buy status.

If you attach a creative while a seller is reviewing the media buy, Interchange automatically retries delivery after approval. You do not need to detach, reattach, or resubmit it. Retry can continue for up to 24 hours; if delivery still has not completed, contact the seller or Interchange support. Some sellers return their own creative ID after delivery. Interchange displays it when available, but a missing seller ID alone does not mean delivery failed.

Why a storefront held or rejected your buy

A PENDING_APPROVAL status means the storefront’s operator is reviewing your buy before it reaches inventory; a rejection carries a buyer-safe reason. Sellers judge buys against Brief Acceptance (the categories, advertisers, and rules they will and won’t carry). A deterministic hard finding supplies a strong operator-facing rejection signal, while an ambiguous or AI-judged conflict escalates or fails closed. Clearly on-policy buys auto-forward; ambiguous results, evaluator errors, and deterministic hard findings enter human review. Understanding the seller-side model helps your agent interpret a hold or rejection and adjust — see AI Business Rules. For an exact own-supply campaign managed by the Media Company that owns the Storefront, revision-fenced launch confirmation and authenticated non-cancellation updates are Storefront media-buy decisions. They do not create a second operator approval task. The source can still return a pending or rejected status, and every validation, readiness, financial, and safety gate remains in force.

Why isn’t my buy live?

For storefront-routed buys, the platform derives a why-visibility annotation from its forwarding records and exposes it in three places: the single-buy lookup below, the nested mediaBuys[] in GET /campaigns/:id (camelCase fields), and the media-buy status poll (snake_case fields). The fields are present only when forwarding state exists; a buy transacted directly with a sales agent carries none.

One-call lookup

curl https://api.interchange.io/api/v2/buyer/media-buys/mb_abc123 \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SCOPE3_API_KEY"

{
  "mediaBuy": {
    "mediaBuyId": "mb_abc123",
    "name": "CTV — Premium News",
    "status": "PENDING_APPROVAL",
    "pendingAt": "salesagent",
    "pendingReason": "awaiting_source_moderation",
    "pendingSince": "2026-07-03T09:12:00Z",
    "sourceMessage": "Awaiting manual moderation",
    "forwardedAt": "2026-07-03T09:11:58Z",
    "buyerReference": "sf:42:sf_mb_1783031864469_8pbc8mmr",
    "startTime": "asap",
    "endTime": "2026-07-31T23:59:59Z",
    "createdAt": "2026-07-03T09:10:00Z",
    "updatedAt": "2026-07-03T09:12:01Z"
  }
}

`pendingReason` — what the buy is waiting on

pendingReason is a derived annotation, never a status — it explains a wait; the buy’s status is unchanged. It is derived per source leg and rolled up to the most-blocking wait. See Media buy lifecycle for the full vocabulary and whose side owns each wait.

`errorCode` — structured failure codes

When forwarding failed or the buy was rejected, errorCode carries one of a small buyer-safe set, and errorOwner says who owns the fix:

`errorCode`	`errorOwner`	Meaning	What to do
`product_no_longer_available`	`platform`	A selected product no longer resolves on the storefront (catalog drift)	Re-run discovery and rebuild the buy with current products
`source_rejected`	`seller`	The inventory source declined the buy on its merits	Read `sourceMessage`, address the reason, resubmit
`storefront_rejected`	`seller`	The storefront operator rejected the buy in review	Read `sourceMessage` (the reviewer’s note), adjust, resubmit
`source_unavailable`	`seller`	The source could not be reached or went silent — not a refusal	Retry later; escalate with your `buyerReference` if it persists
`invalid_request`	`buyer_input`	The request needs a correction from you	Fix the flagged input and resubmit
`quote_expired`	`platform`	The held cross-currency rate expired before the buy forwarded	Re-discover and submit a new buy at the current rate
`platform_error`	`platform`	A platform-side fault	Contact support with your `buyerReference`

sourceMessage — when present — is the source’s or reviewer’s own (sanitized) explanation; it is the first thing to read on a rejection.

`buyerReference` — the handle to quote

buyerReference (sf:<storefrontId>:<mediaBuyId>) identifies this buy’s exchange with the seller. Quote it, together with forwardedAt, when contacting the seller or Scope3 support about a stuck buy — it is the reference both sides can look up.

Media-buy identifiers and source references

A storefront-routed buy can have a second identifier minted by the inventory source that executes it. Successful create_media_buy and update_media_buy responses may include buyer-safe pointers in ext.source_references:

{
  "ext": {
    "source_references": [
      {
        "source_name": "Example Sales Agent",
        "media_buy_id": "mb_upstream_123"
      }
    ]
  }
}

A sales-agent source leg includes its source name when available and upstream media_buy_id.
An ad server source leg includes the upstream media_buy_id without naming the internal source.
Linked and modular source legs are omitted. Their underlying source topology is intentionally private.

Use a returned source reference when the counterparty asks for the identifier in its own system. Continue to use mediaBuyId with Interchange APIs and buyerReference when asking Interchange or the storefront to trace the full exchange. The field is absent when no eligible upstream reference is available.

Transition notifications

The same facts push to your notification stream as media_buy.* events, fired once per transition (never per retry):

Event	Fired when
`media_buy.forward_failed`	The first forward attempt failed (payload carries `errorCode`, and `pendingReason` when the platform is retrying or a correction is needed)
`media_buy.awaiting_source_moderation`	The source accepted the buy asynchronously and is moderating it
`media_buy.source_rejected`	The source declined the buy (payload carries the sanitized reason)
`media_buy.stuck`	The buy never resolved at the source (timeout or task failure) and needs attention

Each payload includes mediaBuyId, buyerReference, and the applicable pendingReason / errorCode / errorOwner / sourceMessage, so a reacting agent does not need a second call to learn why.

Optimization goals

Optimization goals are applied at the media-buy level — they propagate to every package in the media buy at execution time. Each goal is either event-based (optimize against tracked conversions) or metric-based (optimize against seller-native delivery metrics).

{
  "kind": "event",
  "event_sources": [
    { "event_source_id": "website_pixel", "event_type": "purchase", "value_field": "value" }
  ],
  "target": { "kind": "cost_per", "value": 25.0 }
}

{
  "kind": "metric",
  "metric": "completed_views",
  "target": { "kind": "cost_per", "value": 0.08 }
}

Target kinds

Target kind	Meaning
`cost_per`	Target CPA (events) or CPM-like rate (metrics)
`per_ad_spend`	Target ROAS — value per dollar spent (events only)
`maximize_value`	No target — maximize total event value within budget
`threshold_rate`	Maintain a minimum rate of the metric (metrics only)

Supported metrics

clicks, views, completed_views, viewed_seconds, attention_seconds, attention_score, engagements, follows, saves, profile_visits, reach. impressions is a delivery rollup — something a package reports, not a metric you can target (see Delivery metrics). For a reach or CPM-style goal, target metric: "reach":

Reach goal — target unique reach at a minimum frequency

{
  "kind": "metric",
  "metric": "reach",
  "reach_unit": "individuals",
  "target_frequency": { "min": 3, "window": { "interval": 7, "unit": "days" } }
}

reach_unit is required when metric is reach — one of individuals, households, devices, accounts, cookies, custom, and must be a unit the product declares support for. target_frequency is optional — omit it to let the seller maximize unique reach without a frequency constraint.

This is the mediaBuys[].optimization_goals field on an executed media buy (snake_case, the AdCP wire format — reach_unit/target_frequency included). It is distinct from performanceConfig.optimizationGoals (camelCase), which sets goals when creating a performance campaign and does not yet support reach_unit/target_frequency.

Reading and tuning media buys

GET /api/v2/buyer/media-buys/:mediaBuyId returns the selected media buy’s optimizationGoals alongside its status and diagnostic fields. Use the campaign read when you also need packages, products, or delivery details. Because media buys aren’t created directly, you act on them through PUT /api/v2/buyer/campaigns/:id using the mediaBuys[] array. Each entry targets one media buy by mediaBuyId and carries an action. When lowering a campaign’s budget.total below what live media buys have already allocated, include explicit mediaBuys[].packages[].budget reductions in the same request — the update is validated against the projected post-update allocation and applied atomically. A budget decrease that leaves live buys allocating more than the new total is rejected with INSUFFICIENT_MEDIA_BUDGET. See Reducing campaign budgets.

Action	Effect
`update`	Default — modify budget, pacing, optimization goals, or creatives
`cancel`	Cancel a running media buy
`delete`	Archive the media buy

Update budget and optimization goals

{
  "mediaBuys": [
    {
      "action": "update",
      "mediaBuyId": "mb_abc123",
      "packages": [
        { "packageId": "pkg_1", "budget": 15000, "pacing": "even" }
      ],
      "optimization_goals": [
        { "kind": "metric", "metric": "completed_views", "target": { "kind": "cost_per", "value": 0.08 } }
      ],
      "updated_reason": "Mid-flight optimization based on early performance"
    }
  ]
}

{
  "mediaBuys": [
    { "action": "cancel", "mediaBuyId": "mb_abc123", "reason": "underperforming vs threshold" }
  ]
}

Always confirm optimization_goals with the buyer before changing them — silent goal changes break optimization continuity.

Cancel a single package

To cancel one package without touching the rest of the media buy, pass packageIds on the mediaBuys[] entry:

{
  "mediaBuys": [
    {
      "action": "cancel",
      "mediaBuyId": "mb_abc123",
      "packageIds": ["pkg_2"],
      "reason": "format not supported on this device mix"
    }
  ]
}

See Package for what each package represents.

Override creative attachment

Omitting creative_ids preserves the buy’s existing creative assignments without revalidating, resyncing, or forwarding any creative data. Include creative_ids only when you intend to change which creatives are attached.

{
  "mediaBuys": [
    {
      "action": "update",
      "mediaBuyId": "mb_abc123",
      "creative_ids": ["cr_video_15s", "cr_video_30s"]
    }
  ]
}

Omit creative_ids to leave existing assignments unchanged. The platform does not fetch, validate, sync, or forward creative data for the buy in this case.
Explicit creative_ids replaces the buy’s current assignments with exactly the provided list. Each ID must already be linked to the campaign and match a format accepted by the media buy’s products. A validation error is returned if any ID fails this check — the field is not silently filtered.
"creative_ids": [] explicitly clears all creatives from the media buy.
creative_ids is only valid with action: "update". It is rejected with cancel or delete.

Package flight-date changes

Updating a package’s startTime or endTime is rejected with CAPABILITY_NOT_SUPPORTED when both of the following are true: the target package has no persisted flight dates, and the seller has not yet returned action metadata (valid_actions or available_actions) for this buy. Otherwise, the date change proceeds. This guard prevents forwarding a date change to a seller that has not declared what mutations it supports. It typically means the buy has not yet received a complete seller response — wait for the seller to confirm the buy is active and has returned its capabilities before adjusting package dates.

Updating a paused media buy

A PAUSED media buy accepts the same updates as an ACTIVE one — budget, flight dates, name, packages, and creatives. Pausing halts delivery; it does not lock the buy against edits.

Budget changes still require seller approval, exactly as they would on an ACTIVE buy. The materiality classification that decides whether a change needs approval does not special-case PAUSED — any budget change is material regardless of the buy’s current status.
Approving an update never resumes the buy. Once a queued change is accepted, the newly-activated values (budget, dates, etc.) go live, but the buy’s status is preserved as PAUSED — approval changes what the buy is worth, not whether it’s running. The only way to move a buy from PAUSED to ACTIVE is reactivate media buy (or a campaign-level reactivate).
Updates on a paused buy still propagate to the seller. Submitting a change against a PAUSED buy is not a local-only edit — it queues exactly the same way it would for an ACTIVE buy. See Pending changes: what is live vs what you asked for for how to read pendingChange while an update on a paused buy is in flight.

Cascade behavior

Actions on the parent campaign cascade down to its media buys and packages:

Campaign pause halts every media buy and package.
Campaign reactivate brings them back to ACTIVE (post-flight if dates allow).
Creative manifest update re-syncs to every media buy that uses the format.
Property list update propagates to packages without a full re-execute.
Frequency caps on the campaign or advertiser are enforced across all media buys.
Per-buy pause/reactivate — pause a single media buy and reactivate a single media buy are the non-cascading counterparts: each touches exactly the targeted media buy, never the parent campaign row and never a sibling media buy. Use these when only one buy on a multi-agent campaign needs to stop or resume; use the campaign-level pause/reactivate above when the whole campaign should move together.

Failures and debug

When a media buy fails to execute — a publisher rejection or an ADCP error — POST /api/v2/buyer/campaigns/:id/execute returns structured errors[]:

{
  "campaignId": "cmp_987654321",
  "previousStatus": "DRAFT",
  "newStatus": "ACTIVE",
  "success": false,
  "errors": [
    {
      "mediaBuyId": "mb_abc123",
      "salesAgentId": "agent_xyz",
      "message": "Sales agent returned 422: invalid format for product"
    }
  ]
}

Pass debug: true on execute to include the full ADCP request, response, and A2A debug logs in each error entry.

Campaign

The parent media plan that spawns media buys at execution

Package

One per product per pacing period, beneath each media buy

Get media buy status

Poll live ADCP status across sales agents

Update campaign

The endpoint that reads and tunes media buys

Start here

Buy media

Sell media

Help and updates

Overview

Where a media buy sits in the hierarchy

Product format identity

Budget

Status

Most-restrictive rule

How status flows

Why a storefront held or rejected your buy

Why isn’t my buy live?

One-call lookup

`pendingReason` — what the buy is waiting on

`errorCode` — structured failure codes

`buyerReference` — the handle to quote

Media-buy identifiers and source references

Transition notifications

Optimization goals

Target kinds

Supported metrics

Reading and tuning media buys

Update budget and optimization goals

Cancel a single package

Override creative attachment

Package flight-date changes

Updating a paused media buy

Cascade behavior

Failures and debug

Campaign

Package

Get media buy status

Update campaign

​Overview

​Where a media buy sits in the hierarchy

​Product format identity

​Budget

​Status

​Most-restrictive rule

​How status flows

​Why a storefront held or rejected your buy

​Why isn’t my buy live?

​One-call lookup

​pendingReason — what the buy is waiting on

​errorCode — structured failure codes

​buyerReference — the handle to quote

​Media-buy identifiers and source references

​Transition notifications

​Optimization goals

​Target kinds

​Supported metrics

​Reading and tuning media buys

​Update budget and optimization goals

​Cancel a single package

​Override creative attachment

​Package flight-date changes

​Updating a paused media buy

​Cascade behavior

​Failures and debug

​Related concepts

Campaign

Package

Get media buy status

Update campaign

Overview

Where a media buy sits in the hierarchy

Product format identity

Budget

Status

Most-restrictive rule

How status flows

Why a storefront held or rejected your buy

Why isn’t my buy live?

One-call lookup

`pendingReason` — what the buy is waiting on

`errorCode` — structured failure codes

`buyerReference` — the handle to quote

Media-buy identifiers and source references

Transition notifications

Optimization goals

Target kinds

Supported metrics

Reading and tuning media buys

Update budget and optimization goals

Cancel a single package

Override creative attachment

Package flight-date changes

Updating a paused media buy

Cascade behavior

Failures and debug

Related concepts