What is a Demand-Side Platform (DSP)?

A Demand-Side Platform (DSP) is a programmatic advertising platform that allows advertisers to automatically buy ad inventory across multiple channels—such as websites, mobile apps, search engines, and social media—in real time. By utilizing demand-side platform advertising, advertisers can manage their entire digital ad campaigns from a single interface, eliminating the need to manually contact individual publishers.

With a DSP, you can target specific audience segments based on demographics, behavior, or location, ensuring your ads are reaching the right people at the right time. DSPs make it possible to buy ad placements through an automated auction process, known as real-time bidding (RTB). This allows you to set parameters like budget, target audience, and ad formats (e.g., display, video, mobile), while the DSP handles the rest—scanning available ad inventories and placing bids for the most relevant opportunities.