Real Time Bidding In The European Market

by Frank Vitetta

Since the beginning of the internet people have been looking for the easiest and quickest ways to make money online and this is one of the main causes of the prevalence of online advertising in recent years. Lately however a new form of online advertising has been causing storms as a result of its effectiveness and efficiently compared to the old system.

Real Time Bidding (RTB) focuses on the auctioning of ad space on a per-impression basis, with the auctioning process being completed before the page is loaded, meaning the user never sees the process taking place. The initial outlook is promising with the latest reports from Q3 of 2014 showing that ad revenue in all European markets has been increasing, with a growth rate of over 200% in the last year since RTB technology has been introduced.

What is RTB?

RTB is a form of online advertising whereby advertisers will bid against each other for designated ad space that is being auctioned off by a particular publisher. This new approach to online advertising has revolutionized the old method, making the process faster and simpler, whilst also being more effective for both advertisers and publishers alike. Advertisers used to have to seek out publishers and buy the ad spaces they had available on their own, which was a very time consuming process for both parties.

With the new approach advertisers and publishers sign up to a RTB advertising platform where advertisers can bid on the ad spaces that the publishers of a number of different sites sell, catering their ads to specific audiences by carefully selecting the ad spaces and sites they bid on. This means their ads are much more effective as they can more better targeted to reach the desired audience. Publishers also benefit from this approach as having a number of advertisers bid on ad space will increase demand, driving the prices up and maximizing the revenues gained by the publishers for the sale of their ad space.

The new process is therefore a win-win situation for both parties and this is reason that specialist RTB platforms such as Geniad have been gaining popularity recently.

Growth in the European market.

The initial outlook for RTB in the European market is promising with RTB ad spending having already increased by 16% in the last year. Taking a look at each European country individually shows that the three biggest markets at the moment have all registered strong growth over the last year. The UK market grew by 800%, with Germany showing almost the same rate and France growing with a rate of around 300%. The strongest market is East Europe, with Poland registering an impressive growth rate of 800% and the Netherlands, one of the earliest adopters of RTB technology in Europe, with a growth rate of only 100% but is still constantly growing.

The major winners in the RTB trend report for Q3, published by Adform are countries which just have lately discovered the RTB market as a new way of advertising online, notably Slovakia have a market growth of 1400% and Portugal a growth of around 1200%. The general consensus then is that RTB has become a major force in online advertising, not just in the EU but worldwide and we can expect this relatively new market to continue to growth exponentially over the next few years.

The future for online advertising and RTB.

The recent performance of RTB suggests that it will continue to be an important part of online advertising in years to come as more and more advertisers and publishers begin to use this new approach. The result of more people signing up to RTB platforms is that the platforms themselves will become more efficient and effective. Additional publishers signing up will mean that advertisers have a wider catalogue of sites and audiences that they can choose to target their ads to, allowing them to target their desired audiences more capably. Additional advertisers signing up to RTB platforms will mean more people are bidding on the ad spaces publishers are offering, increasing demand for these ad spaces, generating higher revenues for the ad spaces the publishers are selling.

It is clear then that as RTB platforms rise in popularity and more and more people sign up for them they will continue to become more effective advertising platforms for both advertisers and publishers. As the market continues to grow the latest RTB technologies will enable the platforms to continue to innovate the online advertising medium and ensure they stay at the forefront of online advertising for years to come.

Frank Vitetta is a freelance journalist and he focuses on covering interesting news from all over the world and sharing it with the rest of the world. He is passionate about innovation and online marketing.