The FINANCIAL — Although real-time bidding (RTB) is relatively new, it has already captured the imagination of businesses in several disparate industries.
And the practice looks to be primed for growth: In August, Starcom MediaVest estimated US real-time bidding revenue would reach $1.11 billion this year, and increase by another 150% in 2013.
Examining who puts the most money toward real-time bidding, a report by online advertising company the Rubicon Project found that in August, when RTB spending in the US was viewed strictly along industry categories, the technology and computing vertical was found to have the highest budget, followed by automotive, personal finance and then shopping.
The 10 companies spending the most on real-time bidding reflected a strong presence by telecoms, online retailers and car companies. As eMarketer reported, AT&T topped the RTB ad spending list, with Sprint Nextel in fifth place and Verizon in tenth. Retailers that made it into the top 10 included Amazon.com (fourth), eBay (seventh) and Dell (eighth).
The Rubicon Project also found that the news category showed the highest increase in month-over-month RTB spending at 114%, followed by shopping with a 99% bump. However, those figures should be taken with a grain of salt since Rubicon did not release details of advertising budgets, and the sharp increases could reflect nothing more than low initial spending in both verticals.
Ranking the publishers, Rubicon found that arts and entertainment ad publishers enjoyed the highest RTB ad revenue in August, followed by news media publishers and then retailers. The Rubicon Project also tallied a ranking of verticals’ effective cost per thousand (eCPM), finding that family and parenting publishers were ahead of all other industry categories.
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