By Iryna Kozirevych
Bid request is an integral component of the programmatic advertising industry; however, understanding all its nuances may be a bit challenging. What exactly is it? What role does it play? How does it work?
Keep reading to find answers to these and other questions.
What is a Bid Request
A bid request is a piece of code that enables the process of buying ad inventory and displaying ads programmatically. It contains the information essential to delivering relevant advertisements: information about a user (for instance, their location and type of device), details about the publisher (like the website’s category), and the “description” of the available impression (for example, format and dimensions). This piece of code activates every time a user visits a website.
Don’t confuse it with an ad request. An ad request is counted every time a website requests ads; that’s the number of ad units that were requested.
Why is a Bid Request Necessary
Thanks to bid requests, it becomes easier for advertisers to reach their target audiences and deliver personalized experiences. Here is a brief bid request example: a marketer is going to target users who have visited their website but left without making a purchase. This is possible with a bid request. As a result, an ad will reach exactly these users instead of being delivered to people who have already converted or to those who have never visited the website.
For publishers, bid requests play an important role as well. They enable greater relevance of the advertising content, which helps to improve the experience of their website visitors or app users.
How Does a Bid Request Work
Everything starts when a user enters a website that contains ad units. When this happens, a bid request is prepared automatically, with all the data about the user and an available impression.
Then, the request goes to the ad exchange, which provides marketers with the available data. Advertisers place their bids, and then the ad server identifies the winning one. After this, the ad is delivered to the website and displayed to the user.
It is important to keep in mind that multiple ad spots on the same page typically can have separate bid requests, and the process we described above is repeated for every inventory piece. Therefore, multiple marketers can compete for the ad space on the same page.
Bid Request in RTB
In the case of RTB (real-time bidding), the process is pretty much the same as described above. When an impression becomes available, a bid request is sent to advertisers who determine if it matches their requirements. This is done through demand-side platforms (DSPs). Then, they submit their bids, and the real-time auction starts. The winning ad is identified and delivered to the publisher’s website or app. Note that while advertisers use DSPs, publishers monetize their ad inventory with the help of SSPs — supply-side platforms.
The entire process may look a bit confusing, but its completion takes less than a second while the page is loading. This way, when the user finally sees the content of the page, the ad is already there. That is one of the benefits of programmatic advertising — effective automation and acceleration of media buying and selling.
Pros and Cons of Using Bid Requests for Placing Ads
Even though bid requests seem to be only beneficial, there are still some things to keep in mind, so let’s take a closer look at them.
Pros
Advertisers can deliver the right ads to the right users.
Publishers make the most of every ad space and monetize their inventory effectively.
Enhanced personalization, which is a benefit for both marketers and publishers.
Inventory can be bought on a per-impression basis.
Cons
Publishers should never share requests with unidentified vendors, as this may lead to ad fraud.
Sometimes, ads may not fit the content of the page properly — to ensure an effective “request a bid” process, advertisers need to specify as many campaign parameters as possible, limit the websites they would like to get inventory on, etc.
What Information is Included in a Bid Request?
Now, let’s get a deeper dive into the information included in bid requests. Here are several typical examples:
Cookies: pieces of information that a browser saves for a website — this way, the server understands if a visitor has already checked a specific page.
Browsing history: information about websites that a user has visited previously.
An IP address: an Internet protocol address that identifies a device on the Internet.
Device ID: these IDs are unique identifiers collected with a user’s consent.
Any known demographic data: user’s age, gender, location, etc.
The time of impression: this clarifies when the user actively sees the advertisement and can help identify user behavior.
Information about the platform: the number of available impressions, data about the inventory, and so on.
Tags: also known as pixels, these are small pieces of code that are leveraged to collect information about the visitors of a website, as well as their activities.
App-related information: in case the inventory is for an app, the request may contain the app ID, publisher ID, and content type.
However, it is essential to remember that not every request to bid can collect all the types of data listed above. For instance, if there is no location information provided, an advertisement targeting specific local customers is not likely to take part in the auction.
How Can Bid Requests be Improved?
Neither advertisers nor publishers generate bid requests on their own. However, there are still ways to improve them and, as a result, get more effective outcomes. Here are several factors influencing the bid request process:
- The quality of the website. Popular websites that have a lot of traffic tend to attract more competitive bids, which means higher income for publishers. Therefore, before starting to take part in programmatic auctions, website and app owners should increase the quality of their platforms.
- The available inventory. The ad space available on the website (or within the app) usually differs in format, size, and location. All these parameters can affect the demand and bid value. After joining the programmatic environment, publishers need to monitor performance continuously — this will help identify the most effective inventory and optimize strategy.
- The quality of data. More detailed and accurate user data enables more detailed bid requests. In turn, this can also lead to higher bids and income for publishers while it gets easier for advertisers to reach the right users.
Consider Attekmi Your Trusted Partner
Bid requests allow advertisers to reach their audiences effectively while publishers ensure relevant experiences for their visitors and users. However, they are not the only ones who benefit from requests and programmatic advertising in general.
Thus, creating an ad exchange implies a great opportunity to earn on media trading. By matching supply and demand effectively, you can drive stable income. However, developing such a platform from scratch requires time, skills, and money.
At Attekmi, we are ready to solve this challenge for you. To start earning on media trading, consider our AdEx Basic and AdEx Plus solutions. Besides, if you need some special features, you can go for our White Label Ad Exchange — a fully customized solution, from UI personalization to on-request feature development.
Does Attekmi look like the right choice? Let’s get in touch!