Event Marketers: Are You Using RTB to Get the Best Prices for Your Online Advertising?

Real-time bidding (RTB) is ramping fast.  According to eMarketer’s latest forecast of the US online ad market, advertisers will spend $3.34 billion this year for display ads through RTB, amounting to 73.9% year over year growth.  By 2017, RTB is expected to account for 29% of all digital display spending!

RTB refers to the process of evaluating, bidding on and buying ad inventory on an impression-by-impression basis in real-time through online ad exchanges.

This auction-based marketplace is made possible through programmatic media buying, the automated purchasing of advertising inventory.  Some people use the terms RTB and programmatic interchangeably but it is important to note they are not the same thing… RTB is just one part of programmatic.

The reason you need to stay on top of this trend is RTB is changing the way online advertising is bought and sold – and can help you more cost-effectively target potential attendees. 

RTB enables you to buy audiences vs. specific web sites.  Instead of just reaching your show’s target audiences on a limited number of websites where they congregate in mass, you can now reach them on 1,000s of web sites as they travel across the web thus greatly increasing the pool of ad inventory available to you.  This alters the supply/demand equation in your favor i.e. more supply puts downward pressure on pricing.

If you are using online retargeting to drive attendance and promote your exhibitions or events, then you are already benefiting from RTB.

Stay on top of RTB because your competitors will have significant advantages over you in online advertising if they are leveraging it and you are not.

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Posted on November 4, 2013