Traditional demand lets you keep your own ads on Sulvo units as a passback. Sulvo demand competes first. When Sulvo does not take the impression, the request goes to the campaign you configured instead of going unfilled.
You set that handoff with the campaign CPM rate. That rate is the price your passback competes at. It is not a Sulvo payout, and it is not a guaranteed fill setting.
Create and manage these campaigns at surge.sulvo.com/buyers on the Traditional tab. For what Traditional demand is, see Traditional Demand.
What the CPM rate does
A Traditional demand campaign runs as a Price Priority campaign. Price Priority means the campaign competes on the CPM you enter. In Google Ad Manager, that same line-item type is used to fill remnant inventory with the highest paying eligible line item.
On a Sulvo unit, the practical effect is:
If Sulvo demand is worth more than your CPM rate, Sulvo keeps the impression.
If Sulvo demand is worth less than your CPM rate, the impression is passed back to your campaign.
That is why the rate has to match what the backup demand can actually do.
The two passback types
When you create a campaign, Campaign source is either:
Upload creative. Sulvo traffics an image you upload as a Price Priority campaign. Use this for a direct-sold advertiser with a fixed CPM, or for a house image that should only appear when nothing else fills. An image is required. Do not upload or inject third-party ad scripts here. Programmatic demand belongs in Prebid Connectors or a GAM Path campaign.
GAM Path. Sulvo calls an existing ad unit from your Google Ad Manager account. Connect GAM data access first. Use this when you already have Ad Manager remnant, Ad Exchange, AdSense, or other demand you want as the fallback.
Prebid connectors and Traditional passbacks are not an either/or choice. Prebid adds buyers into the Sulvo auction. Passbacks catch impressions that nobody in that auction takes.
Too low vs too high
The CPM rate is a floor for Sulvo and a bid for your own demand. Both sides of that tradeoff matter.
If the CPM rate is... | What happens | What you will see |
|---|---|---|
Too low | Sulvo almost always beats the passback. Almost nothing is handed to your creative or GAM unit. | Passback impressions stay near zero. A rate such as |
About right | Sulvo keeps impressions it can sell above the rate. Your demand only takes the leftovers it can actually fill. | Some passback volume, few empty slots, and blended revenue that holds or rises. |
Too high | The passback wins often. Upload creatives replace paid demand. A GAM Path unit is asked to fill more than it can. | Low fill, empty ad slots, or a lot of house/direct creatives where paid demand used to run. |
This is the same fill-versus-price tradeoff as any remnant floor. If the floor is too high, you will not sell enough impressions. If it is too low, you will sell a lot of impressions at a weaker average price.
Do not judge the rate by CPM alone. A higher passback CPM that creates empty slots or replaces stronger Sulvo demand can lower page revenue even when the reported CPM looks better.
How to choose the starting rate
Do not start from a wish number, your best day, or your best country. Start from what the backup demand is actually worth on that size.
Decide the job of this campaign.
Pull 7 to 14 days of eCPM or remnant CPM for the same size, and ideally the same placement.
Enter that value as the CPM rate.
Target one Sulvo ad unit first. Leave Quantity blank only after the rate looks right.
Use this starting point by campaign job:
Campaign job | Starting CPM rate |
|---|---|
House or brand image with no media cost | A very low rate, such as |
Direct-sold image with a contracted CPM | The advertiser's actual sold CPM. If that rate regularly beats your average programmatic CPM on the same size, the campaign should win those impressions. |
GAM Path as a true fallback | About what that GAM unit already earns on remnant inventory, or slightly below it if you want Sulvo to keep first look. |
Protect existing GAM demand unless Sulvo beats it | About that GAM unit's typical remnant eCPM, so Sulvo only wins when it is truly higher. |
Set a different campaign, or at least a different rate, by size. A 300x250 in-content unit, a sticky, and an interstitial do not have the same remnant value. Device and country mix also change what a floor can clear.
Upload creative: extra pricing notes
Enter the real sold CPM for a paid direct advertiser. That is the number the campaign should compete with.
If the image is only there to hide whitespace, keep the rate very low. A high house rate will push paid demand out.
The uploaded image fills when it wins. Empty slots are uncommon on this path. The usual failure is showing the house or direct image too often, which looks like high fill and weaker paid revenue.
Use Quantity if the advertiser bought a fixed impression count. Use Unlimited only when the rate is meant to compete continuously.
GAM Path: extra pricing notes
Connect GAM data access before you create the campaign.
Point GAM Path at a live remnant unit that can actually fill: Ad Exchange, AdSense, Open Bidding, or another remnant line item. A guaranteed-only or empty unit will produce blanks when Sulvo passes back.
Do not stack two high floors. If the Sulvo CPM rate is high and the GAM unit has a high unified pricing rule or line-item floor, both sides can reject the impression and the slot stays empty.
Align the Sulvo CPM rate with what that GAM unit already fills. If the GAM unit typically clears around its remnant eCPM, the Sulvo rate should sit near that number, not above your best Sulvo CPM.
After you turn the campaign on, compare Sulvo passback volume with GAM unfilled and GAM eCPM on the same unit. If GAM unfilled rises while Sulvo passbacks rise, the Sulvo rate is above what GAM can fill.
How to test a new rate
Make one change at a time.
Open Traditional demand.
Create or edit the campaign. Set Size to the placement you are testing.
Under Targeting, select one Sulvo ad unit. Do not start sitewide.
Set a start date. Use a short window or an optional Quantity cap while you test.
Enter the starting CPM from the table above.
Wait 3 to 7 days, or until the unit has enough impressions to read. Seasonal and weekend mixes can move remnant CPMs, so avoid judging a Monday-only sample.
Adjust the rate by about 10 to 20 percent. Do not jump from
0.0001to a premium CPM in one step.
Watch these together, not one metric in isolation:
Passback impressions or passback share on the targeted unit
Empty or unfilled slots on the page
Sulvo earnings and blended revenue for that unit
For GAM Path, GAM unfilled and GAM eCPM on the mapped unit
Keep the rate if blended revenue holds or rises and empty slots do not increase. Lower the rate if fill drops. Raise the rate only if almost nothing is being passed back and you have backup demand that can fill those impressions.
Troubleshooting
What you see | Likely cause | What to change |
|---|---|---|
Almost no passbacks | CPM rate is below typical Sulvo bids | Raise toward the backup demand's real eCPM. |
Empty ad slots after you added a GAM Path campaign | Sulvo is passing back more than that GAM unit can fill, or GAM has its own high floor | Lower the Sulvo CPM rate. Confirm the GAM unit is live remnant demand. Lower or narrow the GAM floor if you stacked two floors. |
House or direct images everywhere | Upload creative CPM is higher than most Sulvo bids | Lower the rate to the sold CPM, or to a leftover-only rate for house ads. |
Fill looks fine, paid revenue is down | The passback is winning too often at a weaker price | Lower the CPM rate so Sulvo keeps more impressions. |
One size looks right, another looks empty | One sitewide rate | Split campaigns by size and, if needed, by unit. |
GAM Path will not save or will not appear | GAM data access is not connected | Connect GAM data access, then select an existing GAM ad unit. |