As the Media Industry Continues Heavy Shift to Programmatic Buying, Disconnects Grow Between Buyers and Sellers, Agencies and Marketers

The media community is allocating more budgets and more inventory to programmatic buying, according to Wave Three of the new Programmatic Advertising Report released by Advertiser Perceptions. And while buyers are focusing their efforts on better performance and a stronger ROI, sellers are looking for easier to use products, improved audiences and more premium inventory.

With headlines continuing to focus on the issue of digital advertising transparency as a backdrop, the study shows there is a growing disconnect between Agencies and Marketers. The majority of Marketers (59%) are planning to move their programmatic buying in-house, yet 61% of Agencies do not believe this will happen. The disconnect extends to Buyers and Sellers… Buyers anticipate their programmatic media spend will grow 21% in 2015 to account for nearly half of their total digital ad budgets, while Sellers don’t expect programmatic inventory to grow substantially.

More Programmatic Spending on the Horizon

What will unleash more dollars in programmatic? Four out of 10 programmatic advertisers see a need to demonstrate better ROI while three in 10 cite the need for greater transparency in ad placement and the related need for assurance that their ad is in a brand-safe environment

The shift from traditional to programmatic trading continues. Buyers will rely less on traditional buying in 2015.


Transparency and Viewability Remain Critical to Acceptance and Commitment

Recent negative press around viewability issues is having a major impact on commitment to programmatic for Buyers and Sellers alike. Half of those already spending in programmatic say that the press stories “strongly impact” their commitment. Transparency is cited over and over as single most important quality in a successful partnership.

The entire media community is concerned about “quality” and “viewing” issues.

Education and Guidance for Advertisers is Needed

The programmatic marketplace is filled with jargon and nomenclature confusion. Among even advanced programmatic marketers the report states that the way that the marketplace categorizes companies — ad exchanges, agency trading desks, DSPs, SSPs, DMPs, etc. — are not well understood.

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