---
title: "What is arbitrage in media buying? | AdBuyMCP"
description: "Buying media at one price and reselling it to the advertiser at a higher one, keeping the difference undisclosed."
url: "https://adbuymcp.com/glossary/arbitrage"
---

[Home](https://adbuymcp.com/) / [Glossary](https://adbuymcp.com/glossary) / Arbitrage

Buying and commercials

# What is arbitrage in media buying?

Buying media at one price and reselling it to the advertiser at a higher one, keeping the difference undisclosed. Distinct from a disclosed fee in that the advertiser cannot see what the media actually cost.

Also called spread media markup principal trading

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What it means here

## Here is what the term means for a UK buyer

The definition above holds anywhere. Buying media in the UK adds the detail below, including where AdBuyMCP does something different.

Legal, common, and the reason 'transparent' is a loaded word in this industry. The test is simple: can you see what the media cost, separately from what you were charged? Under an all-in price the answer is no by design, because the media and the margin are one number. AdBuyMCP prices its awareness plans that way, from one published rate set by the size of your market and how often it should see you, and the weekly report shows what each channel delivered for the price.

Read next

- [Which kind of programmatic advertising company you are buying from Goes deeper](https://adbuymcp.com/glossary/programmatic#programmatic-advertising-company)
- [The four channels in an awareness plan Channels](https://adbuymcp.com/channels)
- [What UK awareness advertising costs Cost](https://adbuymcp.com/cost)
- [What a DSP does and when you need one Guide](https://adbuymcp.com/guides/what-is-a-dsp-and-do-you-need-one)

Type your company website or work email to see who we think buys from you and what reaching them 3, 5 or 12 times a week would cost.

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Related terms

## These terms sit next to this one

Most confusion in media buying comes from two adjacent terms being used interchangeably, so these are the neighbours worth reading next.

- ### [Take rate](https://adbuymcp.com/glossary/take-rate)
  The share of an advertiser's media budget retained by the platform rather than spent on media, whether that share is disclosed or embedded in the price. The word is neutral about disclosure, which is why the useful question is the figure rather than the policy.
- ### [Ad tech tax](https://adbuymcp.com/glossary#ad-tech-tax)
  The cumulative share of an advertiser's budget taken by the intermediaries between advertiser and publisher, none of which individually looks large. Those are the demand platform, exchange, supply platform, data vendors and verification.
- ### [Working media](https://adbuymcp.com/glossary#working-media)
  The portion of an advertising budget that actually buys advertising, as opposed to the portion consumed by platform fees, data costs, agency fees, ad serving and production. Usually expressed as a percentage of total spend.

Same group

## These terms are also in Buying and commercials

How media is transacted and where the money goes. The terms in this group are the ones a price conversation turns on.

- [Demand-side platform (DSP)](https://adbuymcp.com/glossary/dsp)
- [Supply-side platform (SSP)](https://adbuymcp.com/glossary#ssp)
- [Ad exchange](https://adbuymcp.com/glossary#ad-exchange)
- [Real-time bidding (RTB)](https://adbuymcp.com/glossary#real-time-bidding)
- [Private marketplace (PMP)](https://adbuymcp.com/glossary#private-marketplace)
- [Deal ID](https://adbuymcp.com/glossary#deal-id)
- [CPM](https://adbuymcp.com/glossary/cpm)
- [CPC](https://adbuymcp.com/glossary#cpc)

[All 81 terms](https://adbuymcp.com/glossary)