6 min read
Most marketers are knowledgeable on modern media buying and programmatic tactics but are still struggling to provide the best results for their business or clients. This could be for one of two reasons: they’re either relying solely on traditional ad buying methods or haven’t thoroughly grasped the concept of programmatic ad buying and how real-time bidding plays an essential part in its success.
Real-time bidding is steadily becoming more popular and is expected to experience some major growth in the next couple of years. PR Newswire reports that this is because of “a rapid increase in the number of smartphone users, and a focus on improved campaign performance and increased RoI.” They also say that “the global RTB market size [is forecasted] to grow from $6.6 billion in 2019 to $27.2 billion by 2024, at a CAGR of 32.9% during 2019-2024.”
Here’s what you need to know to take advantage of the fast-growing market and win more impressions through optimized real-time bidding.
WHAT IS REAL-TIME BIDDING?
Real-time bidding refers to the autonomous process in which the sale of advertising inventory is bought and sold through a programmatic auction. Its overall role in programmatic ad buying is to get your ad into OTT/CTV inventory and in front of the right audience as quickly as possible through bids done in real-time.
This means that you discover relevant ad space, bid on it against your competitors, AND serve the ad (if you win the impression) in a matter of 100 milliseconds. It’s an advancement in technology that cannot be ignored if you want to keep up with the competition, let alone get ahead.
Here’s a recap of the real-time bidding process and how it works:
- You decide to surf the Wall Street Journal website.
- The moment you arrive, the WSJ sends out a bid request to the major ad exchanges.
- The request includes various pieces of data gleaned from your digital fingerprint: IP address, your demographics, location, device, operating system, browsing history, and more.
- The ad exchanges then conduct an auction with the myriad advertisers competing for the opportunity to serve you an ad.
- The highest bidder wins the impression, and the ad is served. The entire process happens for every available ad slot on the screen.
IMPORTANCE OF OPTIMIZED REAL-TIME BIDDING
Real-time bidding is already increasingly more important today than ever before, but it can be downright unstoppable when it’s used to its maximum potential. Other than being a driving factor in the success of your programmatic digital advertising efforts, the importance of optimized real-time bidding for winning impressions can be seen in a number of ways.
Quick fixes and performance
Your overall performance is directly impacted by optimizing your real-time bidding. Sure, it’s helpful that you can get your hands on data in real-time, but if you don’t utilize that data appropriately, your bidding is not optimized. As the data comes in, you and your team should collect and report the data to evaluate the successes and failures of bids to make quick fixes when necessary and produce more informed decision-making in future impressions.
Reach and targeting
Greater reach can be a good thing, but if your bidding is not optimized to target your exact audience, you will waste money on that impression. One of the greatest advantages of real-time bidding is cutting out a portion of consumers with no interest in your product and giving more focus to potential and current customers who will benefit from your product/service.
Access to targeting
Thankfully, with access to browsing history, IP address, location, and more, it’s possible to optimize your real-time bidding parameters. The more information you have on your specific audience, the better you will pinpoint the right impressions to get your ads in front of — meaning more successful conversions and sales.
Value and cost
Optimized bidding shines bright when it comes to value and cost. When your real-time bidding is set up to target only the right people with the right message, the ad and impression bring more value to your efforts to communicate with your consumers, and the cost is lowered by reducing (if not eliminating) ad waste on uninterested parties.
Research supports more efficient ad bids
Studies performed by Juniper Research have found that “machine learning algorithms used to enable more efficient ad bids over RTB (real-time bidding) networks will generate some $42 billion in annual ad spend by 2021, up from an estimated $3.5 billion in 2016.” They contribute this efficiency to its accessibility and affordability.
OPTIMIZE YOUR RTB WITH STRATEGUS
Strategus customizes and optimizes your RTB algorithm prior to every campaign to ensure you are only buying impressions that have a better chance to convert. Our team understands that your campaign’s success relies heavily on not only winning more impressions, but winning more impressions that are more relevant to your goals.
Our process includes:
- Gaining a thorough understanding of your brand, business, product/service, campaign goals, target audience, and more.
- Polishing a bidding algorithm specific to your campaign with effective criteria.
- Setting max bids and budgets to ensure you’re not overspending for impressions.
- Getting you more wins through our optimized real-time bidding tactics.
We know how complex it can be for you to bid on a specific audience with efficiency and accuracy, but with our experience and expertise, you no longer have to stay up all night worrying about it. We know all the ins-and-outs of programmatic ad buying and optimizing real-time bidding, so you’ll never have to worry about it again.
STAY INFORMED ON THE LATEST WITH REAL-TIME BIDDING
Technology is always advancing at an unpredictable speed, typically in ways that better marketing tactics and strengthen communication between brands and consumers in the advertising world. For this reason, it’s important to keep up with the latest and stay informed about best practices in the digital world and optimization opportunities. Contact our team at Strategus to discuss your brand’s potential and follow our blog for more insight and resources on programmatic ad buying and real-time bidding.
