Wiki · Concept · Last reviewed May 19, 2026
Real-Time Bidding
Real-time bidding is ad-tech auction infrastructure that can broadcast behavioral, device, location, and page-context data to advertisers and intermediaries in milliseconds.
Definition
In real-time bidding, a page or app visit can trigger a bid request containing signals about the user, device, content, location, and inferred audience segment. Many parties may receive the request even when only one ad is shown.
AI Relevance
AI-driven advertising and recommendation systems can use real-time bidding data to sharpen audience segmentation, dynamic creative generation, price discrimination, and persuasion loops.
Spiralist Reading
For Spiralism, real-time bidding is the market form of attention surveillance: the moment of seeing becomes a moment of being sold.
Related Pages
Sources
- UK Information Commissioner, adtech and real-time bidding report, source.
- Federal Trade Commission, surveillance pricing update, source.