Auction Data
Every time an advertiser bids to show you an ad, Ethikal tracks that auction and shows you the value of your data in real-time.
Understanding Auctions
Real-Time Bidding (RTB)
When you visit a webpage:
The Process (happens in ~150ms):
- Page loads: You visit a website with ad slots
- Ad request sent: Site sends request to ad exchange
- Auction created: Exchange creates auction for your impression
- Bidders notified: Potential advertisers receive auction details
- Bids submitted: Advertisers bid based on your data value
- Winner selected: Highest bid wins the auction
- Ad delivered: Winning ad shown to you
- Payment processed: Winner pays, site gets paid
All of this happens before the page finishes loading!
Auction Participants
Ad Exchanges:
- Google Ad Exchange
- OpenX
- PubMatic
- Rubicon Project
- AppNexus
Demand-Side Platforms (DSPs):
- The Trade Desk
- MediaMath
- Amazon DSP
- Adobe Advertising Cloud
Supply-Side Platforms (SSPs):
- Google Ad Manager
- Index Exchange
- Magnite
- OpenX
Viewing Your Auctions
Auction List
Navigate to Data Value > Auction Data to see all your auctions:
| Time | Site | Winner | Bid | Your Share | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3:24 PM | shopping.com | Tech Brand | $2.15 | $1.72 | Paid |
| 3:22 PM | news.com | Auto Brand | $0.89 | $0.71 | Pending |
| 3:19 PM | blog.com | Retail Co | $1.45 | $1.16 | Paid |
Filters:
- Date range
- Site
- Advertiser
- Value range
- Payment status
Auction Details
Click any auction to see complete information:
Auction Details
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Auction ID: A47B2C3E
Time: Dec 6, 2025, 3:24:17 PM
Duration: 147ms
Site Information
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
URL: shopping-site.com/electronics/laptops
Page Title: "Best Laptops 2025"
Category: Electronics > Computers
Ad Placement: Top Banner (728x90)
Auction Results
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Winning Bid: $2.15
Second Bid: $1.89
Floor Price: $0.50
Bidders: 23 advertisers
Auction Type: Second-price auction
Winner: Tech Brand X
Campaign: Laptop Launch Q4 2025
Creative: "New Model Release"
Landing Page: techbrand.com/new-laptop
Your Data Used
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
• Age Range: 25-34
• Gender: [Your gender]
• Location: San Francisco, CA
• Interests: Technology, Electronics
• Intent: High purchase intent (laptop shopping)
• Device: iPhone 14 Pro
• Time Context: Afternoon browsing
Value Breakdown
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Winning Bid: $2.15
Platform Fee (15%): -$0.32
Publisher Share: -$0.11
Your Share (80%): $1.72
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Status: Paid ✓
Payment Date: Dec 7, 2025
Auction Analytics
Daily Summary
Today's Auction Summary
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Total Auctions: 47
Avg. Winning Bid: $1.23
Total Value: $57.81
Your Earnings: $46.25
Top Performing:
Time: 3:00-4:00 PM (12 auctions, $18.45)
Site: shopping-site.com ($24.67)
Category: Shopping Intent ($26.89)
Hourly Breakdown:
9 AM ▓▓░░░ $4.23 (3 auctions)
10 AM ▓▓▓░░ $6.45 (5 auctions)
11 AM ▓▓▓▓░ $8.92 (6 auctions)
12 PM ▓▓▓░░ $7.34 (5 auctions)
1 PM ▓▓▓▓░ $9.12 (7 auctions)
2 PM ▓▓▓▓▓ $12.56 (9 auctions)
3 PM ▓▓▓▓▓ $18.45 (12 auctions)
Trend Analysis
Weekly Trends:
Auction Value (Last 7 Days)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
$60 ┤ ╭─╮
$50 ┤ ╭────╯ ╰╮
$40 ┤ ╭───╯ │
$30 ┤ │ ╰─
$20 ┤──╯
└─┬──┬──┬──┬──┬──┬──┬─
M T W T F S S
Total: $298.45
Average: $42.64/day
Peak: Friday ($57.23)
Growth: +15% vs last week
Monthly Performance:
- Total auctions: 1,247
- Total value: $1,456.78
- Average per auction: $1.17
- Best day: Black Friday ($89.34)
Top Advertisers
See who's bidding on your data:
| Advertiser | Auctions | Total Bid | Avg. Bid | Win Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tech Brand X | 23 | $45.67 | $1.99 | 87% |
| Retail Co | 18 | $32.45 | $1.80 | 72% |
| Auto Brand | 15 | $28.92 | $1.93 | 80% |
| Travel Co | 12 | $34.56 | $2.88 | 91% |
Auction Types
Second-Price Auction (Most Common)
How it works:
- Winner pays second-highest bid (not their own)
- Encourages truthful bidding
- You see both bids
Example:
Bids:
Advertiser A: $2.00
Advertiser B: $1.50 ← Second price
Advertiser C: $1.00
Result:
Winner: Advertiser A
Payment: $1.50 (second price)
Your share: $1.20 (80% of $1.50)
First-Price Auction
How it works:
- Winner pays their exact bid
- Higher risk for bidders
- Less common now
Example:
Bids:
Advertiser A: $2.00 ← Winner pays this
Advertiser B: $1.50
Advertiser C: $1.00
Result:
Winner: Advertiser A
Payment: $2.00 (first price)
Your share: $1.60 (80% of $2.00)
Private Marketplace (PMP)
How it works:
- Invitation-only auctions
- Premium publishers
- Higher floor prices
- Better quality advertisers
Benefits:
- Higher average bids
- Brand-safe environment
- Better earnings potential
Value Factors
What Affects Bid Prices?
Your Profile (Highest Impact):
- Demographics (age, gender, income)
- Interests and behavior
- Purchase intent signals
- Location
- Device type
Context:
- Website category
- Page content
- Time of day
- Day of week
- Seasonality
Advertiser Demand:
- Campaign budgets
- Competition
- Target audience scarcity
- Urgency (end of month/quarter)
Ad Placement:
- Above the fold: Higher value
- Large formats: Higher value
- Video slots: Highest value
- Sidebar/footer: Lower value
High-Value Scenarios
Premium Signals ($2.00+):
- Finance/banking sites + high income demo
- B2B sites + professional context
- Travel sites + high purchase intent
- Luxury sites + affluent demographics
Good Signals ($1.00-$2.00):
- Shopping sites + general intent
- Entertainment + broad demographics
- News sites + engaged reader
- Tech sites + tech interests
Standard Signals ($0.50-$1.00):
- General content sites
- Casual browsing
- Low-intent signals
- Mass-market demographics
Low-Value Signals (less than $0.50):
- Very broad targeting
- Low-quality placements
- Off-peak times
- Non-commercial context
Maximizing Auction Value
Strategic Tips
Timing:
- Browse during business hours (higher demand)
- Weekdays > weekends for most categories
- Month-end/quarter-end (budget flush)
- Holiday shopping seasons
Content:
- Visit high-value site categories
- Show purchase intent signals
- Engage with commercial content
- Research products/services
Profile:
- Complete your profile accurately
- Update interests regularly
- Participate in surveys
- Verify demographics
Behavior:
- Consistent browsing patterns
- Quality engagement
- Real interest signals
- Trustworthy profile
What to Avoid
Don't:
- ❌ Click ads fraudulently
- ❌ Fake your demographics
- ❌ Use bots or automation
- ❌ Create fake accounts
- ❌ Share your account
- ❌ Manipulate signals
These actions:
- Violate terms of service
- Result in account suspension
- Damage advertiser trust
- Hurt all users
Auction Privacy
What Advertisers See
In the Auction:
- Age range (not exact age)
- Gender
- City/region (not exact location)
- Interest categories (not specific sites)
- Intent signals (shopping, research, etc.)
- Device type and OS
NOT Visible:
- Your name or email
- Exact location (address)
- Specific URLs visited
- Personal messages
- Financial information
- Health data
Data Controls
You Control:
- What data goes into auctions
- Which advertisers can bid
- Auction participation level
- Data retention period
Per-Auction Settings:
- Allow/block specific advertisers
- Set minimum bid prices
- Choose data to share
- Opt out of categories
Payment from Auctions
How You Get Paid
Revenue Share:
Winning Bid: $2.00
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Platform Fee (15%): -$0.30
Publisher Share (5%): -$0.10
Your Share (80%): $1.60
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Standard split for all auctions
Payment Timeline:
- Auction completes: Immediate
- Advertiser pays: 1-3 days
- Your account credited: 3-5 days
- Withdrawal available: Immediately after credit
Minimum Payout: $10
Disputed Auctions
If an advertiser doesn't pay:
- Grace Period: 7 days for payment
- First Reminder: Sent at 7 days
- Second Reminder: Sent at 14 days
- Dispute Filed: At 21 days
- Resolution: 30-60 days
You're Protected:
- Ethikal fronts payment at 30 days
- We pursue collection from advertiser
- Your earnings are guaranteed
Auction Export
Export Your Data
Download complete auction history:
Formats:
- CSV (Excel-compatible)
- JSON (developer-friendly)
- PDF (human-readable report)
Data Included:
- All auction details
- Bid amounts
- Winning advertisers
- Your earnings
- Timestamps
- Site context
Use Cases:
- Tax reporting
- Personal analytics
- Data analysis
- Record keeping
- Sharing insights
FAQs
Q: Why do some auctions have no winner? A: If no bid meets the floor price, or your privacy settings block all bidders, the auction fails.
Q: Can I see losing bids? A: Yes! Click "Show All Bids" on any auction to see all participants.
Q: Why is my share only 80%? A: Platform fees (15%) and publisher share (5%) cover costs and incentivize quality sites.
Q: Can I set a minimum bid? A: Yes, in Settings > Data Value > Minimum Bid Price.
Q: Do I get paid for blocked auctions? A: No. If you block tracking, no auction occurs, so no payment.
Next Steps
- View Analytics - Deep dive into trends
- Privacy Settings - Balance privacy and value
- Advertiser Programs - Earn bonuses
- Payment Settings - Configure payouts
Understanding your auction data helps you maximize value while maintaining privacy.