The Programmatic Glossary
A practical glossary designed to help marketers, advertisers and ad-tech professionals understand the terminology that powers programmatic advertising
Technical Infrastructure
OpenRTB (oRTB)
The technical language standard that allows SSPs (Supply-Side Platforms) and DSPs (Demand-Side Platforms) to communicate with each other during programmatic auctions. It defines the exact format of bid requests and bid responses so that different systems, built by different companies, can work together seamlessly.
HOW IT WORKS
The IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) developed OpenRTB as an open standard so that any SSP (Supply-Side Platform) and any DSP (Demand-Side Platform) can communicate without custom integration work. When an SSP sends a bid request, it follows the OpenRTB specification, meaning any DSP that supports OpenRTB can understand it and respond correctly.
EXAMPLE
Limelight builds an SSP (Supply-Side Platform) using OpenRTB. A new DSP (Demand-Side Platform) wants to access Limelight's publisher inventory. Because both use OpenRTB, integration is straightforward. Without this standard, every SSP and DSP pair would need a bespoke technical integration.
RELATED TERMS
RTB (Real-Time Bidding) | Bid Request | Bid Response | SSP | DSP
★ LIMELIGHT INSIGHT: Limelight supports custom OpenRTB endpoints for flexible demand integration, allowing partners to configure exactly how they receive and respond to bid requests across different demand sources
