How to choose RTB traffic source wisely?

November 12, 2020

We're sure you're familiar with RTB (real-time bidding) which is a programmatic on-the-fly system allowing you to buy advertising inventory on a per-impression basis. Informed ones use this technology to automize the traffic buying process, minimize the human factor in it and as a result costs for your business. However, more and more providers of RTB traffic appear on the market. And that's when the question arises: what to look for when choosing one?

And here's TOP 5 tips on how not to make a mistake when choosing RTB traffic source.

Tip №1

Pay special attention to traffic quality. Some exchanges resell traffic from other exchanges or traffic from untrustworthy sources. In this case the safest option would be to choose networks that are known for their work with direct publishers. So that the risk of buying low-quality traffic is minimized.

Tip №2

Choose simple integrations. Choose a network that supports common and generally accepted RTB standards - for example, the well-documented Open RTB protocol or simple and easily customizable XML / JSON formats.

Tip №3

Choose experienced RTB sellers. Basically there is nothing complicated about RTB integration. However, there is a number of nuances (from a banal human error to technical aspects) that can lead to the fact that the new integration does not work. So we recommend you to choose RTB sources with extensive integration experience. They know the most common integration problems and for sure have already equipped their platform with metrics and alerts that allow them to quickly identify and fix the problem.

Tip №4

Don't hesitate to ask about customization options. The more options a source has for targeting user audiences, the better. Real-time bidding is a business that requires a lot of server 'horsepower’ so your task here is to find out whether the RTB traffic provider knows how to fine-tune the amount of requests that he sends to your purchasing platform or not. A positive answer to this question will assure you that the source is capable of avoiding overloads and also will allow you not to load the servers with requests of audiences you do not need (on which you are not going to place bets anyway)

Tip №5

Ask if a partner has Header bidding. This technology allows you to bid on the seller's side even before it's time to show the ad to the user. And it has two huge advantages. First off, such sellers have the opportunity to spend more time on the auction, which means they can wait longer for the buyer to send a bid to the auction. This allows the buyer to reduce hardware costs for their purchasing platform (even if it doesn't respond ultra-fast, the integration will still work). Secondly, the technology reduces traffic losses since the user does not have to wait for the end of the auction to see the advertisement: by the time the ad unit was loaded, the auction had already passed.

All these five points are perfectly covered by Clickadu. It's time to work with trusted RTB traffic sources!

Clickadu Team