Choose how leads are distributed

This article helps you choose how each accepted lead is offered to buyers. Distribution is configured on the campaign Distribution tab and decides which eligible buyer wins for that run.

Pick a method that matches how your buyers actually buy. You can change it later, but starting simple keeps the first dry run easy to reason about.

What is distribution?

After a lead passes campaign validation and filters, distribution selects the winning buyer among those who are active, in schedule, under cap, and otherwise eligible. Every strategy below sells a lead to one winning buyer for that run.

The Distribution tab holds a single card, How leads get sold. It is an ordered list of steps. Every lead is checked against the steps from the top, the first step that matches decides how that lead is sold, and anything that matches nothing falls through to the last step, Everything else.

A new campaign has only Everything else, so one strategy covers all of its traffic. That is the right place to start. Add steps later when different traffic deserves different treatment, for example sending your own native traffic to the highest bidder while partner traffic keeps a fixed ladder.

The strategies

Advanced is something you grow into after a flat strategy is working. You do not need it for a first campaign.

Tiered Bidding still appears on campaigns that already run it, and those keep working unchanged. It can no longer be chosen for a new campaign or a new step. Use Advanced instead, which expresses the same idea with named, individually configurable tiers.

Prerequisites

• An existing campaign
• At least one buyer you plan to attach (buyer user already created in Manage Users)

Choose a distribution method

1. Go to Campaigns and open the campaign.
2. Open the Distribution tab and find the How leads get sold card.
3. Open the last step, Everything else. This step is the campaign's own distribution setting and it always runs last.
4. Under How to sell them, pick Waterfall, Highest Bidder, Weighted, or Advanced. Each name carries a one-line explanation, with fuller detail on hover.
5. Set the buyer list underneath. Drag to set try order for Waterfall, or set each buyer's share for Weighted. Remove any buyer that should not compete here.
6. Set Minimum price if the strategy needs a floor.
7. Click Save.
8. Attach buyers on the Buyers tab if you have not already.
9. Return to Overview and confirm setup health no longer flags distribution.

Until you edit it, the buyer list is a live view of every active buyer on the campaign, so buyers you add later join automatically. Your first edit fixes the list, and from then on a newly added buyer is surfaced with a prompt rather than joining silently.

Sell different traffic differently

Add a step when one supplier or channel should be sold another way.

1. On the How leads get sold card, click Add a step.
2. Give the step a name you will recognise later on the lead timeline.
3. Under 1 · Which leads, choose the suppliers, traffic sources, or channels this step should catch. Leave a level unset to mean any. Switch to Advanced if you need a condition the simple picker cannot express.
4. Under 2 · How to sell them, set the strategy, buyer list, order or weights, and minimum price for this step alone. Leave the minimum empty to use the campaign minimum.
5. Drag steps to reorder them. The first match wins, so put the most specific step highest.
6. Click Save.
7. Click Show which strategy each source gets to simulate the result. It maps every supplier and traffic source to the step it will take, before you send a real lead.

A step with no conditions matches everything, so anything ordered below it never runs. The card marks the steps it has shadowed.

Which method should you start with?

Tips and gotchas

• Distribution only chooses among eligible buyers. Caps, schedules, inactive status, and buyer filters can remove someone before they compete.
• Waterfall order matters. Put your preferred or primary buyer first if that is the business rule.
• Highest Bidder needs buyers who can respond with bids. Pair it with the right buyer delivery method.
• Weighted shares converge over volume. Short tests can look uneven.
• Steps are read top to bottom and the first match wins. Reordering changes outcomes, so re-run the simulator after you drag anything.
• On a ping/post campaign the step is decided at ping time and pinned for the post, so bids are always ranked by the strategy that produced them.
• The lead timeline names the deciding step on a Routed by row, so you can always check which step a lead took.
• Do not add steps on day one. One strategy and one buyer list is enough to prove the path.

Expected result

The How leads get sold card shows a saved strategy on Everything else, buyers are attached and eligible, and a test lead's timeline shows a clear winner with a Routed by row naming the step you expected.

Related articles

• Create and configure a campaign
• Add your first buyer
• Direct post and ping/post
• Caps and schedules
• Your first lead, end to end