This article contains answers to the questions asked during the May 12, 2026 webinar on Real Time Bidding.
This article contains the following questions:
- What is the purpose of the Real Time Bidding system?
- What is the error Ringba Pool Rate Limited (error code 1026)?
- How do I limit pings to buyers, not just calls?
- Is there a downside to not sharing the caller ID on the ping? We are trying to avoid non-winning bidders seeing and marketing to those caller IDs.
- Publishers are sending thousands of pings per day, is there a way of limiting or capping pings that are being sent to buyers?
- How can you send calls to bid against multiple buyers, but when they are selling to each other, it says that it’s pinging too fast? This means that sometimes, its not the highest bidder that gets the call, but the system blocks from getting repeat bids,even if the higher bid would be done directly instead of through a broker.
- What is the major benefit for me to use this as a broker?
- What does it cost?
- This was a lot. If I start using this, how much support will I receive?
What is the purpose of the Real Time Bidding system?
Real Time Bidding (RTB) is the buying side of “programmatic” buying and selling of calls. RTB is not needed if you’re the one generating the calls; (however, you will need ring trees and ring tree targets if you want to sell programmatically or ping your targets to see if they want the call you generated). You only need RTB if you want to receive a ping from your Publisher so you can determine if you actually want the call that’s available.
The biggest benefit of a “programmatic campaign” (when buyers use RTB) is that EVERYONE is more likely to win, meaning it’s better for everyone:
- The buyer can make a real-time buying decision based on actual data
- The seller can make sure they’re only offering the call to buyers that are available and that actually want the call
- The caller gets connected to the best buyer for their needs FASTER.
RTB solves the problem of callers needing to hold while waiting on other buyers who may have been called first, but don't answer because they don’t have agents available. Bottom line, the right callers get connected to the right end service providers faster and everyone wins.
What is the error Ringba Pool Rate Limited (error code 1026)?
The error 1026 is an internal rate limit that protects your account and your buyers from receiving multiple pings from the same caller ID (CID). It means that the account has reached the limit of 4 active bids for the same CID. As bids expire, spaces become available for publishers to send more bids for the same CID.
See RTB Error Codes.
How do I limit pings to buyers, not just calls?
Many times, reducing the pings you receive is enough by itself to solve the problem of sending too many pings: using RTB with pass through means the pings you receive become pings you send. However, if you’ve already adjusted the rate limit for your publishers and are still having trouble sending many pings, there are still options you can try.
Check if your targets are configured correctly according to your buyer’s specifics: hours of operation, daily cap and concurrency cap settings, zip code and/or state filters... Buyers don’t complain about pings that turn into calls. If your buyer is complaining about your pings, that must mean something about your pings isn’t meeting their needs. So, get in touch with your buyer and customize your filters to send the buyer only the pings that are most relevant to them.
Most importantly, communicate with your publishers to ensure they are sending all the necessary parameters in the ping. If everything is correct, contact them to understand why they are pinging so frequently and sending so few calls.
See Controlling Pings in RTB with Pass Through.
Is there a downside to not sharing the caller ID on the ping? We are trying to avoid non-winning bidders seeing and marketing to those caller IDs.
Many buyers need the caller ID to check availability based on the caller’s region. Some will reject bid requests if this information is not present. Typically, pings with the caller ID have a higher chance of generating larger bids.
See How do I allow the RTB client to see the caller ID?
Publishers are sending thousands of pings per day, is there a way of limiting or capping pings that are being sent to buyers?
In this case, the problem lies with your publisher. Check if they are sending all the required parameters in all those pings. If everything is correct with their request, and they are sending thousands of pings but few or almost no calls, our recommendation is to limit the number of pings they can send by adjusting the
Rate Limit on the campaign page. Additionally, contact them and ask why this is happening. Communication is key.
See Controlling Pings in RTB with Pass Through.
How can you send calls to bid against multiple buyers, but when they are selling to each other, it says that it’s pinging too fast? This means that sometimes, its not the
highest bidder that gets the call, but the system blocks from getting repeat bids, even if the higher bid would be done directly instead of through a broker.
If you add all buyers to the same ring tree and adjust the ping timeout, Ringba pings them all simultaneously and analyzes all bids received within that time frame (usually between 2 and 5 seconds). Ringba chooses the bid with the highest value, and that buyer is the winner.
If your buyer is taking longer than the ping timeout, their bid is ignored. This is important because the longer the caller waits, the greater the chance they will hang up before connecting, and you will lose a good opportunity to convert.
What is the major benefit for me to use this as a broker?
If you’re a broker, then you can benefit from RTB Pass Through in many ways. First of all, this feature lets you perform better, and therefore, earn more calls from your publishers (those trying to sell calls). If you’re not using RTB with pass through, then your publishers must call you.
Once that happens, if you can’t find a place to send the call, you may be forced to hang up. While you won’t be “penalized” immediately for this (since you are likely only paying for the call after a certain amount of connected call length), if this happens enough, your publishers will not be happy, and they will look to prioritize other potential buyers over you.
Additionally, RTB with pass through lets you modify both the bid and the connected call length... and you can customize this for each individual publisher if you’d like. Meaning, you can increase or decrease your margin appropriately based on the publisher, and even determine if you’d like to add time to the connected call length before the call is considered converted.
Brokers with the most success using RTB with pass through have many “direct publishers” (those generating their own calls) to buy the calls from, and many “end buyers” (the actual end service provider) to sell the calls to (instead of relying heavily on buying from or selling to other brokers).
What does it cost?
RTB and RTB Pass Through are included in Ringba’s Enterprise Plan. Currently, pricing starts at $1500 per month for this plan, which includes unlimited pings. (Note: It is likely that in the near future pricing will become usage-based. Meaning, the starting point will cost less, but it will not include unlimited pings.)
See Platform Pricing.
This was a lot. If I start using this, how much support will I receive?
Ringba’s goal is to help clients succeed! The basics of RTB or RTB with pass through are generally pretty easy to learn, but we realize that additional guidance and support may be required. Initial training will be arranged when you start using RTB/RTB PT and you can always work with your account manager, who can help with many things and/or arrange a meeting with someone on the Ringba team that is more technical, and able to help you with your more advanced questions.