Have you ever participated in an online auto auction? Frequently, it is a pastime for gear heads that look to buy the occasional odd find or someone else’s restoration nightmare at a good price. Real-time bidding places these armchair bidders in a fierce competition for the time that the bidding window is open. Depending on the auction, the time may be no more than a few minutes.
Translating this concept to the purchase of online display advertising, real-time bidding replaces the outmoded system that forces the advertising website owner to purchase impressions in bulk. What might have seemed like a good deal quickly revealed itself to be a bit of a crapshoot since it was impossible to ascertain the effectiveness of some impressions when compared to others.
Without getting into a boring explanation of backroom technical details, let is suffice to say that real-time bidding – or RTB, as it’s known by insiders – is the type of bidding experience that takes place before a consumer actually opens a website. In fact, it takes place in the extremely short lag time between the click on the website’s link and the display of the page.
Does this mean that you need to spend your day at the computer during peak advertising hours? No, of course not! Here’s how it works:
- Know the parameters. Hopefully, you have done your homework and found the types of clicks that offer a higher return on investment than others. Know when they happen, who makes them and what led to the buying decision. If you don’t have this data on hand, use your Google Analytics tools to get a better idea of your traffic before you proceed.
- Choose your seller. Ad exchanges are common venues for buying display inventory. Going through a third party that will make the purchase for you is also possible. In these cases, you do need to enter the exact parameters of the inventory you are willing to pay for.
- Set a maximum price. Remember when eBay revolutionized its bidding model by letting you set a maximum price for the item you wanted? Until this price was reached, your account continued to outbid other bidders. It is not all that different for RTB.
If you like the old way of buying your impressions, think twice before ignoring this newer procedure. Not only do you have the option of spending your marketing money more efficiently, but you also get the capabilities of targeting your consumer with pinpoint accuracy.
If you need assistance with your marketing, schedule a complimentary strategy session.
