Introduction

Internet advertising is in demand as a promotional tool for goods and services. Site owners are willing to publish advertising materials, and advertisers are willing to pay for publishing.

The number of sites and advertisers is so immense that direct contracts are ineffective, since they incur additional expense in searching for contractors. Both sides need an intermediary who can use automated methods to publish ads on sites, as well as provide a mechanism for reliable pricing. As a part of the Yandex SSP, the RTB host is one of these intermediaries.

Note.

The technical details of RTB (Real-Time Bidding) are described in the OpenRTB specification. It is intended to regulate the interaction between ad suppliers, web sites, and intermediaries.

The RTB host implements the idea of an auction where advertisers compete for the right to display ads on the web sites that interest them. The winning advertiser is the one who offers the highest bid, on the condition that it is acceptable to the site owner.

Embodying a classic market mechanism, the RTB host is the pricing tool. Since the auction is performed automatically with a high frequency (thousands of times per second), there is no doubt as to the fairness of the final price.

Purpose of this document

This document describes the RTB host application interface (further referred to as the “API”). Advertisers can use the API to participate in auctions.

Since the auction is automatic, automated systems act on behalf of advertisers and site owners. This document is intended for developers of automated systems for advertisers (Demand-Side Platform, or DSP).