Google Touts Its Real Time Bidding Display Ad Platform

Google is an advertising company par excellence, but it still has areas where it's not doing so great or where there is still a lot of potential for growth. One of the areas where it has been doing better in recent years, but it could still see an improvement, is display advertising.

Still, Google says that it has seen some big strides for itself and its customers and provided some numbers to back this up.

One of the reasons for its better performing display ad business is the increasing use of real-time bids (RTB) as well as demand side platforms, two relatively modern technologies that are having a great effect on the display ad market. And, unsurprisingly, Google offers both.

"In the last few years, there’s been a technological Big Bang, creating new ways to buy display ads across the web: exchanges involving real time bidding, demand side platforms, improved ad networks and more," Neal Mohan, Vice President of Product Management at Google, writes.

"We’re seeing this rapid growth and change first-hand. Since we acquired Invite Media in June 2010, the number of advertisers on the platform has doubled; agency spend has grown by almost 300%," he explained.

"And spending on display ads on the Google Display Network is growing more than 100% annually in a large number of countries," he continued.

To back up his claims, he provided some numbers which indicate the growing interest in the new display ad model. A study commissioned by Google showed that 88 percent of buyers will be spending money on RTB this year, compared to 75 percent last year.

What's more, RTB determined 47 percent of buyers to increase their online ad spending this year, while 16 percent will maintain the same level and 37 percent are unsure.

However, RTB is still considered a bit experimental by many buyers, though that is changing. 79 percent say they RTB will account for at least 10 percent of their display ad budgets and 33 percent believe it will make up over 50 percent of their spending.

The point that Google is trying to drive home is that RTB is working for everyone. RTB enables advertisers to bid on an impression-by-impression basis.

Each time someone loads a page with a display ads handled by Google's ad exchange, an automatic bid is triggered and advertisers place bids depending on a number of predetermined factors. The most appealing bid wins the spot and all of this happens in a manner of milliseconds.