There are many ins and outs of buying media over RTB, which can be confusing for brands that are just beginning to enter the marketplace. The variables in pricing, management systems and types of campaign deliveries can be daunting. Here's what we've learned along the road to successfully delivered ad impressions:

Mobile advertisers have it all wrong. They think real-time bidding (RTB) is all that's used for performance advertising. And they think big-name publishers (the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Facebook) are what they're relying on for premium ad distribution. Not only can you (and should you) use direct publishers & RTB extension for both -- but guess what? Your campaigns are already being run this way. It's a dirty, yet well-known secret within the ad tech industry, but not so much outside of it (or to its customers), that performance and premium are often used in tandem without useful …

For once, online advertising has the opportunity to beat television ads. The content that's running in the ad unit natively will allow the window to premium programmatic to blow right open.

If you pay attention to the news (or the gas pumps) you're aware of the concept of "peak oil," which posits that oil production will hit a high point after which the number of barrels produced declines in every subsequent year. There's a strong parallel in online media, where the rise in mobile content consumption is making the cookie less important. While there are detractors to the concept of "peak oil," it's impossible to deny that we're very close to hitting "peak cookie," leaving marketers with less access to cookie-level data in the following years.

A lot can happen in six hours: You can fly from one coast to the other or run a marathon. You can even play in a Super Bowl or two! Mainstream DSPs can take six hours or more to report the media buys that were made on your behalf. Digital media vendors boast about the latest and greatest in real-time bidding, yet they are willing to label something that takes almost an entire workday "real time." That's as if a head football coach prepared a playbook, handed it off to his quarterback, got on a plane to London and then …

If you're new to real-time bidding (RTB) and programmatic marketing, it can all sound pretty daunting: algorithms, pixels, attribution modeling, data management platforms. The list goes on and on. And just when you thought it couldn't get more complicated, the latest chatter is all about how AI (artificial intelligence) is leading to a future where machines manage everything. The way people talk about it, you'd think Skynet from "The Terminator" was coming back to life to take over digital marketing.

MAGNA GLOBAL recently shared forecasts indicating massive investments in both RTB and programmatic premium in the coming years. Estimates forecast that by 2017, RTB and non-RTB based programmatic channels will account for 83% of US digital display ad spending, and programmatic sales will surpass traditional direct-to-publisher sales. So what is driving this growth?

Programmatic advertising is sweeping the digital landscape. While it's long been a staple in online, mobile programmatic bidding is taking off like a rocket -- and without third-party cookies to boot. According to IDC, mobile RTB spend in the U.S. is forecast to reach more than $2.9 billion by 2017. With a healthier budget, how can advertisers ensure they're taking the right approach? Check out our five best practices for your mobile programmatic campaigns.

Ben Winkler, chief digital officer/chief innovation officer at Omnicom's OMD Worldwide, sees a lot of potential for RTB at his agency. "It creates a greater focus for us on supply and partnering with some of our larger direct publishers," he explains. "That brings them closer to our business and to the business of our clients."