Real-Time Bidding (RTB) is a form of programmatic advertising that allows for the buying and selling of digital ads in real time. When users visit a website or mobile app, a real-time auction is conducted where advertisers bid and compete for an ad space. If the advertiser has the highest bid in the auction, their ad is displayed on a publisher’s website or mobile app.
RTB is facilitated through a process that involves supply side platforms (SSPs), demand side platforms (DSPs), and ad exchanges:
- Supply Side Platform (SSP): This is programmatic software for publishers to facilitate sales of their advertising impressions. By connecting publishers with multiple ad exchanges, demand-side platforms, and ad networks all at once, SSPs let publishers sell impressions to a greater pool of potential customers.
- Demand Side Platform (DSP): This is programmatic software for advertisers that provides automated, centralized media buying from multiple sources. Advertisers seek inventory that will help them reach the right audiences at the right time, within a defined budget.
- Ad Exchange: In programmatic advertising, an ad exchange is an online marketplace where advertisers, agencies, DSPs, publishers, and SSPs can bid on advertising inventory from various publishers using RTB.
Overall, RTB helps make the buying and selling of programmatic ads more efficient. Traditional advertising requires time to develop requests for proposals (RFPs) and quotes, conduct negotiations, and create insertion orders. Through RTB, advertisers can buy and place ads quickly with more control over the process. It’s important to note that RTB is performed through an automated auction-based system, where buyers and sellers of ad space are connected in an open marketplace.