Programmatic, step by step
Seven lessons that open up the machinery of automated ad buying: bid requests, DSPs and SSPs, header bidding, first-price auctions, deals, supply path optimization and the new curation layer. By the end you can read an OpenRTB request and trace a dollar from brand to publisher.
This track counts towards the ClearTrust Programmatic Advertising certificate
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intermediate · 7 lessons · 56 minutes
- 01
Real-time bidding in 100 milliseconds
What happens in the blink between a page loading and an ad appearing: the ad request, the OpenRTB bid request, the bids and the winner.
8 min - 02
DSPs and SSPs: the two sides of the trade
How demand-side and supply-side platforms work, how they get paid, how exchanges fit in, and why the line between them is blurring.
8 min - 03
Header bidding and Prebid
Why publishers replaced the waterfall with header bidding, how Prebid.js and Prebid Server work, and how Google responded.
8 min - 04
Auctions: first price vs second price
Why programmatic moved from second-price to first-price auctions by 2019, how bid shading works, and what floors and pricing rules change.
8 min - 05
Deals: PMPs, preferred deals and programmatic guaranteed
How deal IDs work, and when buyers and sellers choose open auction, private marketplaces, preferred deals or programmatic guaranteed.
8 min - 06
Supply path optimization (SPO)
Why the same impression reaches buyers through many paths, how SPO picks the best ones, and how ads.txt, sellers.json and schain make it possible.
8 min - 07
Curation and the new middle
Curation, the 2024–2026 trend of packaging supply and data into deal IDs, who does it, how it is paid for, and where the money ends up.
8 min