Real-Time Bidding
An auction-based system where ad impressions are bought and sold in milliseconds as a webpage or app loads.
What Real-Time Bidding means
Real-time bidding (RTB) is a programmatic auction mechanism where individual ad impressions are bought and sold in the time it takes a webpage to load (typically under 100 milliseconds). When a user visits a page, the publisher's ad server sends a bid request containing available user data (device, location, context, and possibly behavioral data) to multiple demand-side platforms, which evaluate and bid in real time. RTB has faced significant privacy scrutiny — the IAB Europe's implementation of RTB was found to violate GDPR by the Belgian DPA because bid requests containing personal data are broadcast to hundreds of potential buyers, creating a data sharing and security concern. This ruling has implications for the entire programmatic advertising ecosystem and is driving the industry toward privacy-preserving alternatives like Google's Privacy Sandbox Protected Audience API.
Related terms
Programmatic Advertising
Automated buying and selling of digital advertising through real-time auctions and algorithmic decision-making.
Ad Auction
The real-time bidding process where platforms determine which ad to show to a specific user based on bid, quality, and relevance.
Privacy Sandbox
Google's initiative to replace third-party cookies with privacy-preserving APIs for advertising targeting and measurement.
GDPR
The General Data Protection Regulation — the EU's comprehensive data protection law governing how personal data is collected, processed, and stored.