RTB (Real time bidding)
RTB is the acronym for Real Time Bidding, a model or way to advertise on the Internet. It is based on bids and auctions in real time where advertisers compete to acquire advertising space to impact their potential customers at the ideal time for them to receive the ad.
In general, it can be said that RTB is the model where advertisers buy advertising space in real time where they choose: to whom, where and when their ad is displayed.
1. RTB, How does it work?
We will describe in a few words how an RTB auction works, in order to put into context the different actors involved:
The user or visitor, enters a website and their user data is collected using cookies, with which a visitor profile is created.
Based on the interest of companies and advertisers for that type of profile, they receive an offer for which they can bid. But the most common is that they make use of DSP (Demand Side Platform), where advertisers set purchase parameters and automated bids, and where they can monitor the performance and reach generated with their bidding parameters.
Another actor is the publishers or owners of the websites, which are the ones that offer the spaces where advertisers can display their ads. These spaces where advertisements can be displayed are brought together in a Sell Side Platform (SSP) where the objective is to optimize the revenues of the different media/spaces.
After that, the AD Exchange platforms facilitate the exchange between supply and demand. It is the place where those who manage the spaces that will be sold and those who manage the buyers’ conditions will finish transaction in real time.
The AD Exchange takes the offers of space for sale from the SSPs and, on the other hand, creates the auctions on the basis of the data provided by the DSPs. This way, advertisers bid for the free spaces, the winners get to display the ad, and the available spaces are covered. This completes the RTB advertising buying process.
2. Advantages of using RTB
Those who choose to make use of RTB in their online advertising campaigns will benefit from multiple advantages, such as:
Effective audience targeting. It is possible to create highly personalized ads for the types of audiences that are most interesting, to always impact with the language, tone and message according to the audience.
Better budget management. By only paying for impressions according to the desired audience, we impact with the audience that is our buyer persona (increasing the chances of getting a conversion and convert it into a new lead).
Higher revenue per campaign. The objective of the campaign is that the value of each impression generates the highest ROI, since the qualified traffic on which the advertising is shown avoids that, to a great extent, impressions are wasted.
Total control. You can set custom parameters and can even choose the website where the ad will be displayed, the periodicity, the time, the creativity, etc. This will help to create more effective campaigns.