Demand Side Platform (DSP)
An automated system that allows advertising buyers to manage multiple ad exchanges accounts through one interface.
DSPs work with ad exchanges and SSPs. These three elements support real-time bidding. It offers buyers and sellers the ability to “value inventory over impression in real time”.

Advertisers use the DSP side of programmatic platforms to reach users. You can think of advertisers as a brand, digital agency or individual. In other words, the programmatic platform brings together websites with SSP and advertisers with DSP. The DSP campaign creation tool purpose is to provide parameters about the desired audience such as gender, age, location, annual revenue.
There are also managed service DSPs and full-service DSPs, explicitly designed for advertisers who feel that their expertise is insufficient and who need support during campaign management.
The DSP analyzes each inventory to decide whether it is valuable to the advertiser and whether it fits the requirements and targeting settings. If available, DSP will automatically calculate the maximum cost for this inventory and send the bid response back to the exchange. The price of a bid is based on the advertiser's preset budgeting data and user information such as location, demographics and browsing behavior.
DSP's Can Target:
- By geographic location, district, city, time zone;
- By device (desktop, mobile, tablet)
- By gender, marital status, income, education level, language, interests (this is expanded targeting thanks to the integration with the VIP that collects first, second and third party data);
DSPs may integrate with DMPs, this way they access additional audience data essential for campaign optimization and retargeting.
Some DSPs focus mainly on CRM data, whereas others specialize only on mobile data. Hence, before choosing a DSP, it is crucial to find out what data your DSP uses, which segments it focuses on and how big is the reach for those segments.