The programmatic ecosystem runs on Demand-Side Platforms (DSPs, used by advertisers to bid on inventory), Supply-Side Platforms (SSPs, used by publishers to sell inventory), and Data Management Platforms (DMPs) that supply the audience and behavioral data used for targeting.
When a user loads a webpage, an automated auction runs in under 100 milliseconds across every ad slot on the page, with the winning bid's ad rendered near-instantly — enabling precise, scalable targeting across a much larger footprint of inventory than direct, manually negotiated media buys could reach.