Read on Signal

June 23, 2014 – Customers engage with brands across a variety of devices, through different media channels and at different times during the customer lifecycle, generating data with each interaction. Programmatic buying helps marketers combat fragmentation, enabling them to locate their target audiences and engage with them when they’re most receptive.

Introduced in 2009 as a way to make it easier for ad networks to secure select inventory, real-time bidding (RTB) is a programmatic strategy for trading ad space in real time. Sellers hold an auction for each impression, allowing advertisers to assess, price and bid for it dynamically.

The tremendous adoption of RTB underscores its importance – and represents a complete shift in the practice of advertising over the past few years.  According to eMarketer, U.S. advertisers will spend more than $3.36 billion on RTB bidding this year, up from just under $2 billion in 2012 and less than $1 billion in 2011.  eMarketer predicts double-digit increases in spending each year through 2017, when RTB will account for more than $8.49 billion in digital ad spending – or 29% of all digital display spending.

RTB has become a powerful marketing tactic for many advertisers because it delivers performance, efficiency and the ability to interact with a consumer at the right moment with the most appropriate message, eliminating guesswork and budget waste.  In fact, a 2013 study from Econsultancy found marketers claimed an average uplift in conversion rates of 26% from real-time marketing activities