Real-time bidding, commonly abbreviated as RTB, is a digital advertising technology that allows for the buying and selling of online ad impressions through real-time auctions. These auctions occur in the milliseconds it takes for a web page to load. When a user clicks on a webpage that has ad space designed for RTB, information about the page and the user is sent to an ad exchange. This exchange then auctions off the ad space to the highest bidder among advertisers, and the winning ad is immediately displayed on the user’s screen. The process involves multiple parties, including advertisers, publishers, ad exchanges, and demand-side platforms (DSPs) for the buyers, as well as supply-side platforms (SSPs) for the sellers. RTB is a highly efficient method that maximizes the relevance of ads to the target audience, optimizes the prices for publishers and advertisers, and ensures that the ad space is filled with content that is likely to be engaging to the user. This programmatic system has revolutionized online advertising by streamlining the process and leveraging data to improve the effectiveness of ad spend.
