In Adsmovil we partnered with PubMatic to launch the first US Hispanic Mobile Ad Exchange, and as we dig deeper into this fascinating new world, I thought it would be good to clarify some terms.
First, RTB is not the same as Programmatic. RTB (Real Time Bidding) is just one of many protocols to buy media. Programmatic and RTB are confused because Programmatic started with the automatic buying of media via an RTB protocol.
However, nowadays as Programmatic has progressed and companies continued to innovate, there are many new protocols for buying digital media. For example, many premium publishers are providing media buyers with the possibility of buying guaranteed impressions. They set a fixed CPM for those impressions and no auction is required.
For a more detailed account on all the options under Programmatic, Justin Re’s article titled “Bidding Goodbye to ‘RTB’” is excellent. Justin Re is the Associate Director of Product Management at PubMatic.