Deep Dive Into OpenRTB: The Backbone of Online Ad Auctions

OpenRTB (Open Real-Time Bidding) is the standard protocol developed by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) that orchestrates auctions in programmatic advertising.

In essence, it connects two major entities: Supply Side Platforms (SSPs) used by publishers to manage their ad inventory, and Demand Side Platforms (DSPs) used by advertisers to purchase and manage ads.

Communication between these entities is facilitated via JSON formatted “bid request” and “bid response”. The SSP initiates a bid request, to which the DSP responds with a bid. Here’s a snapshot of a typical bid request:

{ 
   "id":"12345",
   "at":1,
   "tmax":120,
   "imp":[
      {
         "id":"1",
         "banner":{
            "w":728,
            "h":90,
            "pos":1,
            "battr":[
               13,
               14
            ]
         },
         "bidfloor":0.5
      }
   ],
   "site":{
      "id":"67890",
      "name":"Sample Website",
      "domain":"samplewebsite.com",
      "cat":[
         "IAB3"
      ],
      "page":"http://samplewebsite.com/homepage",
      "publisher":{
         "id":"pub123",
         "name":"Publisher X"
      }
   },
   "device":{
      "ua":"Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_14_6) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/76.0.3809.132 Safari/537.36",
      "ip":"192.168.1.1",
      "js":1
   },
   "user":{
      "id":"user456"
   }
}

OpenRTB’s Bid Request Attributes

In the simplified bid request example, a number of JSON objects are specified:

• id: Unique ID for the bid request.
• at: Auction type (1 indicates a first-price auction).
• tmax: Maximum waiting time in milliseconds for bids.
• imp: Describes the ad impression opportunity. Here it describes a banner ad with dimensions 728x90 at position 1 on the page, with a minimum bid floor of $0.5.
• site: Details about the publisher's site. Including its category as per IAB's categorization (IAB3 in this case, which stands for "Arts & Entertainment").
• device: Information about the user's device, including the user agent string and IP.
• user: An identifier for the user to whom the ad will be shown.

By issuing this bid request, the SSP is announcing an opportunity for a banner ad placement on the specified site, with the provided attributes. The DSPs will respond to this request by submitting their bids for this opportunity, considering the attributes of the user, device, and site. The highest bidder (subject to any other constraints or rules in place) will win the opportunity to display their ad.

The beauty of OpenRTB lies in the clarity and structure it brings to the programmatic ad buying process. By standardizing the language of transactions, it allows participants to conduct business efficiently and transparently. For further understanding, it’s recommended to check the OpenRTB API Specification by the IAB. Stay tuned for future deep dives into other aspects of OpenRTB.

Integrating OpenRTB for Programmatic Ad Bidding

After grasping the fundamentals of OpenRTB, it’s crucial to understand the process of integration and operation. Here are steps to get started:

1. Understand OpenRTB Documentation Fully explore and comprehend the OpenRTB API Specification. The guide details the various aspects of the OpenRTB standard, including object structures, attributes, and the meaning of the values used.

2. Evaluate Your Infrastructure Ensure your infrastructure can handle the high-volume, low-latency requirements of real-time bidding. OpenRTB involves high QPS (queries per second) and requires timely responses, generally within 100 to 150 milliseconds.

3. Define Your Bid Logic The core of a DSP is the decision engine that determines when, where, and how much to bid based on a given bid request. This can involve a combination of pre-set rules and machine learning algorithms.

4. Integration & Testing Collaborate with SSPs or Ad Exchanges for integration. It involves endpoint setup, security considerations (like authorization), and rigorous testing to ensure correct request/response formatting and handling.

5. Monitor & Optimize Post-launch, closely monitor the performance and quickly troubleshoot any issues. Continual optimization of bid strategies will be necessary to stay competitive.