RTB: a step towards new technology

The growing interest in working with big data could not ignore the advertising industry, which always gravitates to the use of technical innovations. A few years ago, a new RTB (real-time-bidding) technology appeared, which quickly won the recognition of advertisers in the USA and Europe. To date, RTB is almost equal in volume to standard display advertising. In Russia, the market is developing much more slowly, but nevertheless, even in times of crisis, we are seeing a steady upward trend. The advertising market is always susceptible to new products, and advertisers are willing to try new ways to interact with the audience. However, RTB has become so in demand that there are entire resources that are completely dedicated to the system. What is the reason for such popularity?

RTB: the simple essence of a complex thing

The media advertising market has been developing steadily: sites sold places for banners, search engines introduced opportunities for working with video, images and interactivity. Over time, the prices offered by sites became overpriced, and as a result, advertisers began to avoid such placements. Aggregator sites have appeared that allow you to choose topics and buy package placements on selected resources. But the cost of such placements continues to consist of the prices of the owners of advertising spaces. These standard models have been replaced by the new RTB online advertising technology.

How does she work? The user visits the site, loads the page of the site with a place for advertising. At this point, the implementation of the logic of the RTB platform begins. SSP (Sell ​​Side platform - technology platforms for web publishers, with which advertising networks or sites can sell their advertising spots, aims to sell more expensive ) the exchange has preliminary user data, in addition, you can buy information about DMP ( Data Management Platform - technology platform with accumulated structured user data) Based on this knowledge and advertisers' bids, an auction begins, which lasts a few milliseconds, absolutely invisible to the visitor. The winner of the auction shows its advertising to the user. The key point is precisely that the system knows the user or assumes who he is, since he has already tracked him using special programs (browser and social network data, pixel tag, cookie). DSP (Demand-Side Platform) is responsible for this - the unique brain of an RTB system, including a predictor - a mechanism that helps to procure unique users. The predictor assumes, builds probabilities on the basis of the purchased data, evaluates the user, analyzes his behavior on the site, collects data and clusters each unique user individually. It is these clusters that the auction is aimed at.

• precise targeting - the creative is shown to users whose interests or previous history of visits which most closely matches the goals of the advertiser
  
  
• high conversion without annoying “harassment” of users - there is no need to constantly show creatives to users, just select the right place and the right moment to display
  
  
• lack of prepayment and bid management - since the auction is held in real time, prepayment is not possible; bids can be controlled in the same way as in contextual advertising.
  
  
• open analytics and transparent reporting
  
  
• deep task customization
  
  
• the ability to make changes to strategies during the advertising flight.

Thus, automation and customization form the maximum set of advantages for the advertiser.

RTB: Value for Advertiser and Customer

Three main channels for purchasing RTB advertising can be distinguished: the general format (auctions at the sites), the mobile programmer and the video advertising gaining serious momentum. Standard display advertising can only assume user characteristics, for example, based on the content of the site itself. The programmer allows you to use various data: third-party systems, arrays of offline clients, data from CRM. At some points, the use of RTB helps to keep the audience attracted (actually purchased) and not spend money on collecting new data. If we turn to bid management, then with the standard placement of display advertising, the site sets a rigid CPM (cost per thousand impressions) taking into account premiums per season, and the programmer allows you to test and combine on the market both a huge number of sites at once, as well as strategies, creatives, remarketing Moreover, with each iteration, deep audience optimization takes place.

In general, Russia is a difficult market for RTB, and the attitude to display advertising is divided into two parts: they do not know or do not understand. Advertisers compare RTB, display advertising and search advertising, while they are not competitors in the struggle to develop the advertising budget, but links in a single chain that must be used consistently. And the first should be RTB, because it helps to position the product, to generate interest.

Consider a small case. Suppose a company is engaged in the rental and sale of segways (two-wheeled self-balancing scooters). So that you are not distracted from the post, insert the picture :-) So, these scooters can be used for city tours or some kind of walking race 30 km along the embankments of a beautiful river. If you show a client who, for example, is looking for a scooter or a bicycle, an Segway advertisement, he will most likely continue his search. And if you offer a banner with a segway and bright text to a group of people who often study the routes of unusual excursions, steep city routes and are interested in extreme pastimes? At a minimum, interest will arise and users will later become more susceptible to advertising.

Thus, RTB is largely called upon to form an audience that is interested in the proposal and to publicize this proposal to the selected audience. Here it is worth dividing the line between the Programmatic strategy and the standard purchase of the media. The usual purchase of advertising on the site comes down to paying for impressions. At the same time, it rarely happens that some site is responsible for the quality of these impressions: casual users see ads, mass disinterested audience, and bots that certainly happen in the life of large sites interesting to the advertiser. Programmatic at RTB is focused on the purchase of ad impressions for both the narrowest, targeted, segment of the audience and the overall reach, while audiences and strategies can be divided.

RTB creates a new type of advertising that is interesting and useful to both the user and the advertiser.

• The user receives a targeted offer, in fact, an answer to his request.
  
  
• Advertising for the user carries an information function - based on the profile, ads with offers about which he might not have known before are popped up.
  
  
• The user avoids annoying ads.
  
  
• The advertiser pays for the most relevant users.
  
  
• The advertiser gets his audience, which can be reused from the promo to the promo: offer a new product, apply for a promotional offer, etc.
  
  
• DSP, the brain of RTB, works for the advertiser. The purpose of the system is to buy an impression for the most relevant user as cheaply as possible. As a rule, you can configure almost everything in DSP: from bets to deep statistics.
  
  
• RTB provides the most accurate targeting, and this is the optimization of the budget.

At RealWeb, we build multi-million dollar RTB strategies for our customers using our tools. As a rule, combined solutions are selected for the client, which allow them to reach different audiences and choose the most suitable option. There are a lot of RTB systems on the market, for example, Google Doubleclick, Yandex auction Bayan 2, Auditorius, Hubrus, Getintent, Segmento, etc.
It happens that an advertiser tries one RTB site with a small budget and is disappointed in technology forever. This is not surprising, since several factors must be taken into account. First of all, the relevance of the platform for this advertiser, its predictive ability, targeting capabilities and various alternatives, expert assessment of the allocated budget are important. For some advertisers, a small budget is enough to start building a chain of attracting the target audience - they know, they are trusted, they are a brand and these advertisers themselves are experts in the logistics of their site. But there are more difficult tasks: less well-known companies with big ambitions. And here it is worth considering the amount of resources that such a locomotive can move, as well as the level of competition.

Finally, it is imperative to remember that in most cases, RTB (like any advertisement) creates a desire, but Programmatic allows you to do this very beautifully, from the point of view of combining or mutually excluding cross-platforms, mobile, video and, finally, desktop advertising. He does this, individualizing each shown creative and at the same time training the system on different strategies for purchasing an audience, over and over again significantly improving performance. As a rule, such complex work takes place in very convenient and understandable statistics.
But the main sales process occurs after and it happens that an unprofessional salesperson ruins the entire gradually formed interest in the product. Therefore, we advise not only to combine the strategies of various RTB platforms, but also to pay attention to all departments responsible for interacting with the client.

The advertising industry is constantly responding to market challenges and uses modern technology. Sometimes it seems that she is ahead of time. It is important to correctly use strategies, combine them and choose the most relevant to your business goals. Then your advertisement will not be shooting from a cannon at sparrows, but a well-aimed blow to the target.