---
title: "What is an insertion order (IO)? | AdBuyMCP"
description: "A contractual document committing an advertiser to buy specified advertising from a specified seller at agreed terms."
url: "https://adbuymcp.com/glossary/insertion-order"
---

[Home](https://adbuymcp.com/) / [Glossary](https://adbuymcp.com/glossary) / Insertion order (IO)

Buying and commercials

# What is an insertion order (IO)?

A contractual document committing an advertiser to buy specified advertising from a specified seller at agreed terms. The mechanism by which media that is not bought programmatically is bought instead.

Also called IO booking

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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.

The word that separates a channel you can buy in an afternoon from one that takes a fortnight. UK cinema and addressable television transact this way, and so do named-show podcast deals: a brief goes to the seller, clearance happens where the channel needs it, an order is confirmed, and delivery is reconciled afterwards. AdBuyMCP's booking workflows generate the brief and hold the order's state, and a named person at the seller confirms each step, quoting the seller's own reference. No live step advances on a timer.

Read next

- [What transacts programmatically in the UK, and what does not Goes deeper](https://adbuymcp.com/glossary/programmatic#programmatic-advertising)
- [Podcasts in an awareness plan Channel](https://adbuymcp.com/channels/podcast-audio)
- [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)

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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.

- ### [Cinema advertising](https://adbuymcp.com/glossary/cinema-advertising)
  Advertising shown on cinema screens before a film, sold by audience packs, film genre and venue rather than by individual viewer. Delivered as a Digital Cinema Package and subject to its own age-rating clearance separate from broadcast clearance.
- ### [Addressable TV](https://adbuymcp.com/glossary/addressable-tv)
  Television advertising where different households watching the same programme at the same time receive different adverts, swapped in at the set-top box or in the stream. It is bought on household attributes and geography rather than on programme and time slot.
- ### [Programmatic advertising](https://adbuymcp.com/glossary/programmatic)
  Buying advertising through automated systems that decide, impression by impression, whether to bid and how much to pay for it. It describes the transaction mechanism rather than a channel: CTV, audio, DOOH and display can all be bought programmatically.

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)