What is Real Time Bidding?
It is a technology of display advertising purchase through programmatic online auctions. RTB focuses directly on shows to targeted visitors, rather than planning reserves of advertising space on certain sites. Each show is redeemed in a split second – during page loading – RTB system instantly holds an auction. As a result, the best offer from advertisers appears in front of a user whom it is most interesting.
The power to track more metrics and a huge automation led to what we now call programmic advertising or online advertising.
Due to a much more detailed segmentation of the traffic and audience monitoring, it is possible now that computers choose the best options. It reduces mistakes caused by human factor.
How does it relate to real-time bidding?
Advertisements of search results have programmatic nature. But visual adverts for high volume RTB campaigns, were negotiated by email or phone – usual channels of communication. It continued until the world found out about real-time bidding platforms. It is a step forward in online advertising. It let customers bid for viewings on a huge number of sites simultaneously. In this way, RTB companies get more money, as they very accurately target the audience.
While advertising using RTB is considered to be a synonymous to online ads, the truth is simple: it is just a tool with a range of characteristics, a protocol.