RTB and programmatic are taking over the digital ad industry. It is estimated that 90% of U.S advertising will be bought programmatically by 2017. Programmatic advertising allows publishers to unlock the value of underutilized inventory by optimizing CPMs and targeting. It may be a few years before real-time, cross-channel targeting and optimization become the norm, but forward-thinking media companies are already making rapid progress in this direction and seeing real benefits.

In spite of rising industry interest in programmatic advertising, there is still significant confusion surrounding it. In a survey conducted last year by the Association of National Advertising, only 26.0% respondents said they knew what programmatic buying is and have actually used it. Many advertisers perceive programmatic as a way to buy ad space on the cheap. So it falls on publishers to do a better job of educating advertisers about what programmatic can do for them.

Beneath the associated acronyms and buzzwords, the fundamentals of programmatic advertising are straightforward. View the infographic below to understand the four main approaches to programmatic buying.