In this guide
Programmatic advertising uses technology to organise the buying and selling of advertising opportunities. It automates parts of a transaction, but people still decide what to buy, what to sell, what to measure and which rules should apply.
Follow a single opportunity: a publisher has space for an ad, a buyer wants to reach an appropriate audience, and systems exchange the information needed to decide whether to transact.
Who does what?
An advertiser provides the objective and budget. A demand-side platform, or DSP, helps a buying team evaluate opportunities and place bids. A publisher provides the media environment. A supply-side platform, or SSP, helps organise access to inventory and the selling process.
These roles are a starting point rather than a complete map. Businesses can operate in several parts of the chain. Contracts and actual technical paths matter more than the label on a company website.
Auctions are one transaction type
Real-time bidding is an auction-based way to evaluate an individual opportunity. Programmatic also includes arrangements with negotiated terms, such as private marketplaces and programmatic guaranteed deals.
Avoid assuming that programmatic always means an open auction or that a private deal automatically delivers better quality. Quality depends on the environment, seller, controls, measurement and terms.
Follow the supply chain
A buyer should understand which parties are authorised to sell a publisher's inventory. The IAB Tech Lab's ads.txt initiative helps publishers declare authorised sellers. Its sellers.json specification and the SupplyChain object add visibility into sellers and intermediaries.
These mechanisms help make a transaction inspectable. They do not replace checks on the media environment, campaign suitability or business relationship.
What AdOps checks
Before launch, confirm buyer and seller identifiers, deal details, creative requirements, dates and reporting expectations. If a deal does not deliver, check eligibility in sequence: is the opportunity available, does it match the buyer's rules, is the creative eligible, and can the transaction clear?
A long list of active settings is less useful than an explanation of which setting excludes an opportunity. Change one condition at a time and record the result.
Start with an objective
Choose a transaction type because it fits the campaign. A guaranteed placement, curated deal and auction can solve different problems. Write down the intended environment, quality requirements, costs and measurement approach before choosing the route to market.
Keep learning
Look up a term in the glossary →
