Glossaryreal-time biddingprogrammatic advertising
Real-Time Bidding (RTB)
RTBDSPSSPad exchangeimpressionsauctionsmillisecondswebpage load time
The process of purchasing and selling digital ad space through automated auctions that occur in the time it takes a webpage to load.
In an RTB auction, advertisers bid on individual impressions via Demand-Side Platforms (DSPs), while publishers make that inventory available through Supply-Side Platforms (SSPs) and ad exchanges. Each auction is tied to a single impression — meaning a specific ad slot on a specific page, for a specific user — and the winning bid determines which creative is served.
The entire process typically completes in under 200 milliseconds. For context, a human blink takes roughly 300 milliseconds — so the auction resolves before the user's eye has finished closing.
