Have you ever wanted to sell your traffic using OpenRTB? Adserver.Online supports this feature, and in this article, we will explain how to send your traffic to 3rd-party OpenRTB endpoints. If you would like to buy traffic using OpenRTB, please check out this article.
OpenRTB protocol was first introduced to make connection and integration between ad servers easier. And in the case of selling traffic, Adserver.Online will request remote OpenRTB endpoints in order to retrieve ads.
Basically, the response to the OpenRTB request is a set of ads in a special format. As soon as OpenRTB responses are ads by their nature, we handle them as special ads instead of creating a separate section like "RTB connections" on our panel. That's why OpenRTB on our platform is configured differently compared to other popular ad servers.
How to sell traffic using OpenRTB
In order to sell traffic using OpenRTB protocol, you need to follow almost the same setup as you would need for displaying usual ads (e.g., banners). So we suppose the whole process shouldn't look too confusing.
Before you start, we kindly recommend reading the specification of the OpenRTB protocol. It will help you understand how it works in general and introduce you to the terminology in use.
Be aware that OpenRTB ads are disabled by default. You should enable this feature in the Settings / Common menu.
Endpoints configuration
First, you need to create a new campaign.
It is important that one campaign can have only one OpenRTB ad. If a campaign has some ads already, you cannot add a new OpenRTB ad to it.
Hence if you need to configure multiple endpoints, you must create several campaigns – one campaign per OpenRTB ad.
After that, you can create an OpenRTB ad and configure an endpoint.
On the OpenRTB ad form, you need to specify the URL of the RTB endpoint. The URL has to be provided by your demand partner (advertiser or ad network).
Additionally, you may adjust various RTB-specific options, such as
- Custom site categories (site.cat in RTB specification)
- Blocked advertiser categories (bcat in RTB specification)
- Blocklist of domains (badv in RTB specification)
- Position (pos in RTB specification)
- Auction type (at in RTB specification)
- Bidfloor
You should check the OpenRTB specification for the details on these options.
Supply chain
Your demand partner may ask you to update (or add) Ads.txt and/or Seller.json files in order to increase traffic source transparency.
Our platform supports both of these files. However, you have to customize internal domains first.
As soon as domains are configured, you will see the "Supply chain" button on a website view page. It shows all the necessary info regarding Ads.txt and Sellers.json configuration for this particular website.
Technical note. Our system passes the following objects in RTB-request:
- publisher.id and publisher.domain
- source.ext.schain. If you resell traffic, your domain will be added to the existing schain.nodes list.
Onboarding questions and answers
When connecting to a new supply partner, you might be asked the following questions. We prepared the answers.
Q: What version of OpenRTB do you support?
A: Currently, Adserver.Online supports OpenRTB v2.5
Q: What is the max RPS (Requests Per Second)?
A: By default, our system doesn't limit RPS. Meaning all incoming traffic to your adserver has a chance to go to DSP. It depends on your configuration (e.g., configured targeting).
Q: Can you control RPS on your side?
A: Yes. You can configure the Throttling option on the campaign form.
Q: Can you configure pre-targeting not to send irrelevant traffic to DSP?
A: Yes. You can configure all targetings available on the campaign form.
Q: Where are your RTB servers located?
A: Europe. It would be good if the partner's servers were also in the EU.
Q: Do you support IPv6?
A: Yes.
Q: How long do you wait for DSP response?
A. Adserver waits for 500ms at maximum for RTB response.
Troubleshooting
Sometimes it's not easy to understand what goes wrong. The easiest way to identify an issue is to use a debugger tool. To open the debugger, press the Debug button on the zone's view page.
You will see a page that explains the ad delivery process during the ad request step by step. And once you get the RTB requests created by our system, you should be able to troubleshoot.
Additionally, you may find useful information in a special report in the Reports / Remote requests menu.
And that's it. We've covered the most essential aspects of setting up an OpenRTB connection. Suppose you want to sell traffic using OpenRTB with Adserver.Online, just follow these instructions carefully, and it's unlikely you will encounter any problems.
NB: manuals/documentation from your partners are needed when you contact our support with questions about OpenRTB integration.