Introduction to RTB bidding

RTB (Real Time Bidding), known as real-time bidding in Chinese, is a bidding technology that uses third-party technology to evaluate and bid for each user's display behavior on millions of websites. It is a major mode of Internet advertising at present.

RTB mode enables advertisers to transmit the right advertising information to the right people at the right time, the media can maximize the value of the remaining traffic, and from the point of view of advertisers, users can see the relevant information through personalized advertising technology.

Unlike adnetwork, real-time bidding avoids the arrival of an ineffective audience and makes purchases only for meaningful users. Its core is the DSP platform (demand-side platform). For the media, RTB can bring more advertising sales, automate the sales process and reduce expenses. For advertisers and agents, the most direct benefit is to improve the effectiveness and return on investment.

From "prediction" to "real-time control"

The traditional purchase of display advertising is based on "prediction": based on previous data, advertisers estimate the target group, delivery time and location averagely, and the advertisement exposure is sold according to the price agreed by both advertisers and digital media. This often leads to a waste of part of the budget. If advertisers want to attract young male consumers, but at the same time have to pay for female consumers who visit these media.

Because it is more relevant, real-time bidding advertising is easy to attract the interest of users. If advertisers know that you have visited their web page, they will digitally mark your computer (cookie) when you visit. Advertisers will pay a higher price in the subsequent bidding for advertising space and contact such users again.

RTB real-time bidding

It's like an auction market. DSP is a demand-side platform that serves advertisers and buys audiences on the advertising trading platform. RTB is a flexible, fair and transparent pricing method based on auction model. Multiple buyers (DSP platform) bid at the same time according to the evaluation of constraints and traffic value, the seller (SSP platform) asks for prices according to their own service capabilities and levels, and the auction intermediary (Ad Exchange platform) maintains the auction rules and decides that the highest bidder gets the exposure opportunity of the user's display. In the end, the transaction price is paid at the second highest bid.

In addition to the original advertisers, advertising agencies and online media, the Internet advertising industry chain under the RTB advertising mode has also derived many important roles, such as advertising trading platform (Ad Exchange), advertiser demand agency platform (DSP), media resource supplier platform (SSP), third-party data management platform (DMP) and so on.