RTB
RTB (Real-Time Bidding) is an auction mechanism where every single ad impression is sold on the fly, through an instant auction between advertisers: while a page or app is still loading, the system runs the auction and shows the winning ad. It's the opposite of buying a fixed volume of impressions upfront at an agreed price.
How RTB works in practice
A publisher (the site or app showing the ad) puts an impression up for auction through an ad exchange, advertisers bid in real time through their DSPs based on data about that user (geo, device, interests), and the highest bidder wins. All of this happens in a fraction of a second, while the user is still waiting for the page to load.
RTB and buying traffic for a PWA offer
Push and native networks sometimes sell part of their inventory through RTB rather than at a fixed price, meaning the cost per impression floats with real-time competition for that specific audience segment. For a buyer, that affects budget planning: RTB bids are less predictable than fixed-price buys, but often let you win higher-quality traffic if you set an appropriate bid cap.
FAQ
- Is RTB the same thing as programmatic?
- RTB is one mechanism within programmatic buying (alongside PMP and programmatic guaranteed): programmatic is the umbrella term for automated ad buying, while RTB specifically means the real-time auction.
- Does a buyer need to understand RTB in detail when buying push traffic directly from a network?
- Not in full detail, but it helps to know that RTB pricing floats auction to auction — that's why the cost per impression or click can shift during the day even with no changes to the campaign settings.
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