What is real-time bidding?
Hello:
I’m not necessarily sure what you mean by "real time bidding", but I am "assuming" you’re talking about auctions??? If so, real time bidding means that the auction is going on NOW, and your bid is taken NOW. Others can and will be bidding at the same time, against your bid. Basically, it’s just an auction that is taking place NOW and LIVE, as opposed to auctions that last for a period of time and take bids over the course of an auction’s duration. As in any auction, the HIGHEST bid wins, whether it be during a REAL TIME auction, or an auction that takes place over the course of a designated time.
I hope this helps!
RTB stands for (Real-Time Bidding)
Real-time Bidder (RTB) is a server to server integration option for network buyers using the Ad Exchange to evaluate and bid on each available impression.
The Real-time Bidder (RTB) component of an adexchange lets buyers use their own data, such as interest-based targeting or re-targeting, to help determine their bid for each impression.
RTB lets buyers evaluate any parameter of an impression available for auction prior to purchase. With RTB, buyers can analyze multiple factors of a given impression and overlay their own data and targeting elements to determine the optimal creative to deliver and associated bid value. RTB provides a cookie matching service that allows buyers to take data that they have collected and stored in their own cookie space and use it on an ad exchange with a Real-time Bidder.
Buyers can use the RTB to plug an exchange into their own ad server so that they don’t need to replicate line items or manage budgets in multiple places.
Guide (Step-By-Step)
Normal platforms ask for a response (end-to-end) within around 120ms. Normally the suggestion would be to aim for around 80ms (including think time) to allow for network latency etc.
Here is the step by step how this works:
- A user visits a page
- A request is sent from the browser to retrieve an ad from the publisher network.
- The publisher network retrieve a number of variables from the publisher – in some exchanges the publisher chooses which data it wants to share.
Publisher variables include:
Anonymity (if anonymous URL above is not shown)
URL e.g. youtube.comCookieId (buyers can use this to match the user to a pervious seen user, e.g. for a remarketing campaign)
Vertical – e.g. Videos > Sport
Blocks – e.g. no Google Chrome ads please
Location – e.g. user is in UK, London - The network then sends out a request to the buy-side to find ads e.g. a request is sent out to the DSPs and Buyer Networks.
This includes the publisher variables that are set in the request sent to the exchange.
- The DSPs and BuyerNetworks then run a query.
SELECT snippet, bid FROM all_advertisers WHERE targeting_url = request_url
- Bids are then returned by the buyers within the 120ms threshold.
bidder_A:
Advertiser: amazon.com
CPM: $2.50
bidder_B:
Advertiser: ebay.com
CPM: $0.50Some AdExchanges offer the ability for networks or DSPs to respond with multiple ads thus reducing the latency needed to rank and select the winning advertiser.
- Bids are then verified in some AdExchanges to ensure that publisher blocks are adhered to.
CHECK advertiser amazon.com and ebay.com are NOT blocked.
- The winning ad is then selected.
- The ad is sent back to the users browser.
- The buyer often pays the second highest price to the buyer.
bidder_A in the case above would pay
0.00050000000000000001
Developing A Bidder
Normally a bidder requires you to configure a server that can reply to a HTTP POST request depending on the ad exchange RTB protocol. Normally the server can run on a platform of your choice.
There is a lot more to this in a technical context, however this should give a basic understanding.
