The Delivery Floor
The Delivery Floor is the one place in the Subscriber Exchange where we put money behind a delivery number. It is included with the Ultimate plan, and it works entirely on its own: nothing to enable, no claim to file, no support ticket.
In one sentence: if an Ultimate broadcast campaign finishes a cycle having delivered less than 80% of what it could realistically have delivered, the gap is credited back to you automatically.
The Delivery Floor applies to Ultimate plans only, and to broadcast campaigns only. If you are on another plan, or running a swap, none of this applies — see Plans and limits for what your plan includes.
Why it exists
An exchange is a supply-and-demand system. Most cycles deliver in full, but a campaign can occasionally fall short through no fault of yours — the pool of matching hosts thins out, or too many campaigns are chasing the same slice of it that month.
Paying for the top plan should not mean absorbing that risk silently. The Delivery Floor turns an under-delivered cycle into an automatic make-good instead of a conversation.
How the floor is calculated
Three numbers, in this order.
1. What the cycle was entitled to
Your Ultimate plan's included placements per cycle (18), plus any credit-bought extras and any paid delivery boost on that campaign, then scaled by your reliability score exactly as the scheduler scaled it. This is what the exchange actually owed the campaign — not a headline number it was never going to deliver.
2. What the pool could actually have given you
The number of channels that genuinely matched the campaign: its content level, its topic, and every targeting choice you made.
The lower of these two numbers is what the floor measures against.
This is the guard that keeps the floor honest. If you target a niche where only three channels qualify, your campaign's realistic maximum is three placements — and delivering three is delivering everything available. Narrow targeting can never manufacture a shortfall, because the floor is capped by the pool you actually asked for. It is the same number the reach estimate showed you before you submitted.
3. The 80% line
The floor target is 80% of that realistic maximum, rounded. Deliver at or above it and nothing happens — the cycle performed. Deliver below it and the difference between what you got and the 80% line is the shortfall.
A worked example
- Your Ultimate campaign is entitled to 18 placements this cycle.
- 30 channels matched its level, topic and targeting — so the realistic maximum is 18 (the smaller of the two).
- The floor target is 80% of 18, which is 14.
- The cycle closes having delivered 9 placements.
- The shortfall is 14 minus 9, which is 5 placements.
- 5 placements at $0.50 each is a $2.50 make-good.
And a case where nothing is due:
- The same campaign, but your targeting was narrow enough that only 6 channels matched. The realistic maximum is 6, the floor target is 5, and the cycle delivered 6. That is full delivery — no make-good, and correctly so.
How the shortfall is priced
Each missing placement is valued at $0.50 — the market price of a placement on the exchange, taken straight from the paid delivery menu, where $0.99 buys 2 placements, $1.99 buys 4 and $2.99 buys 6.
The total make-good is capped at the value of one full cycle's entitlement, so it can never exceed what a complete cycle was worth in the first place.
How you are paid
The make-good arrives as Boost credit on your account, not as SubX credits and not as cash.
That is a deliberate choice. Compensating a delivery shortage with more exchange credits would push you to consume even more of the same scarce inventory that just fell short. Boost credit spends on a different product entirely, so the make-good is worth something immediately.
You will see it as a credit entry on your Boost credit balance, described as a Delivery Floor make-good and naming the cycle it covers, along with what was delivered against the floor target.
Timing
The floor is checked on a recurring sweep rather than at the instant a cycle ends:
- Your campaign's cycle finishes — every placement for the cycle has either run or been closed out, and none remain scheduled.
- A short settling period passes, so late placements and takedowns are fully recorded before anything is measured.
- The sweep checks the cycle, and if it fell below the floor, the credit is granted.
So expect a make-good a couple of days after the cycle closes, not the same hour. The check is safe to repeat: a cycle that has already been made good is never paid twice, even if the sweep runs over it again.
What the Delivery Floor does not cover
| Situation | Covered? |
|---|---|
| An Ultimate broadcast cycle that under-delivered | Yes — automatically |
| A cycle that under-delivered because your targeting was narrow | No — the floor is capped by the pool you targeted |
| A cycle cut short because you cancelled the campaign | No — the cycle didn't close on its own terms |
| Reach lost to a low reliability score | No — the entitlement is measured after the reliability haircut, so the floor promises no more than the exchange owed |
| A campaign that was declined in review | No — a declined ad has no cycle. The delivery-boost charge is refunded instead |
| A swap | No — a swap is a single 1:1 trade with no placement count |
| Any plan other than Ultimate | No — see Plans and limits |
FAQ
Do I have to claim it?
No. There is nothing to submit and nothing to enable. If a cycle qualifies, the credit lands on its own.
Will I be told?
The grant appears on your Boost credit balance with a description naming the cycle, what was delivered, and the floor it was measured against.
Can I be paid in cash instead?
No. The make-good is issued as Boost credit.
Why 80% and not 100%?
An exchange is not a guaranteed-inventory ad network — placements depend on real channels being available and willing. The 80% line is the point at which a cycle has stopped being normal variance and started being a genuine shortfall.
My cycle delivered nothing at all. What happens?
If the campaign had a realistic maximum above zero and delivered nothing, the whole 80% target is the shortfall and it is credited in full. If the diagnostic on the ad row showed that no channels matched your targeting, the realistic maximum was zero and there is nothing to make good — widen your targeting or lower the level and try again. Click Why? on the ad row to see which applied.
Next: Plans, tiers and limits — the full table of what each subscription tier changes, including which one includes this floor.