By Jennifer Derke
Since its inception, the OpenRTB (real time bidding) standard has drawn in participation from a developer community invested in advancing programmatic technologies across the digital advertising industry. OpenRTB 2.5 has been released for a 30-day open review period from November 16 until December 16, 2016.
Bill Simmons, Co-Founder and CTO, DataXu, and Co-Chair of the OpenRTB Working Group, says that “it’s been a thrill to watch this open source standard growing in adoption since the first version was introduced in 2010. The contributing community is very active, engaged and it continues to grow. With this version, we’re adding features to better address the growing popularity of mobile, video, native, and new formats like the IAB New Ad Portfolio. Six years after its introduction, OpenRTB is supported by nearly all of the suppliers of real-time bidding inventory around the globe. Over $10 Billion in digital media will be bought and sold in the U.S. in 2017 using the OpenRTB protocol according to data from MAGNA Intelligence’s report on Programmatic, September 2016.”
The latest version of OpenRTB includes updates that integrate current trends and allows for improvements in programmatic technology. Some major updates include the following:
- IAB New Ad Portfolio Support – integrating flexible aspect-ratio based ads into the bid object
- Video Placement Type Support – adding visibility into what type of placement a VAST (video ad serving template) tag is running in accordance to the IAB digital video glossary
- Header Bidding Support – allowing for a signal when a bid request is originated from an upstream decisioning implementation like header bidding
- Historic Metric Support – whereby exchanges can pass historic metrics such as viewability or click through rate
Additional updates in OpenRTB 2.5 include billing and loss notification support, payment ID, Tactic ID, clarification of device carrier, substitution macros clarification, attributes for language, and more.
The OpenRTB Working Group is accepting comments from the public through December 16th 2016. Please email openrtb@iab.com with your feedback on version 2.5 of the OpenRTB specification.
For more information on how to get involved with OpenRTB, please contact Jennifer Derke, Senior Manager, Product, IAB Tech Lab.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jennifer Derke
Senior Manager, Product Management, IAB Tech Lab