90 Per Cent of Advertisers Plan on Buying Programmatic Ads Differently

Money-dollar-notes.jpgNearly 90 per cent of advertisers are looking to move away from the agency trading desks (ATDs) model of programmatic ad buying, though nearly 40 per cent of the world’s biggest brands use it as their main approach.

These findings are based on a survey by the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA). The survey, of 59 WFA member companies representing 18 industry sectors, showed growing amounts of spending going through the programmatic channel. The 59 members have a total global ad spend in excess of $70bn (£56m) and are part of a 16 per cent digital ad spend now on programmatic, compared to 10 per cent in 2014.

Programmatic is most developed in North America, which accounts for 23 per cent of the survey respondents’ digital spend. This is followed by 17 per cent in Europe and 12 per cent in China – though the Chinese spend is expected to grow via private exchanges.

The research also found that alternatives to ATDs are growing. Independent trading desks have seen an increase in use by 12 per cent, since WFA’s last piece of programmatic research in 2014, and are used by 46 per cent of the respondents. While, in-house or ‘hybrid’ models were found to be used by more than 20 per cent of respondents.

The second generation of programmatic models has seen improvement in transparency, according to the research. 29 per cent of respondents were said to be satisfied with the level of transparency provided by their ATD, up from 21 per cent in 2014. While transparency at ITDs was found to satisfy nearly half of users, up from 36 per cent a few years ago.

“Programmatic has expanded rapidly and its no surprise that the market and mechanisms that big brands use to spend through this channel are evolving,” said Matt Green, global media & digital marketing lead at the WFA. “The rise of in-house, hybrid models and independent trading desks demonstrates that the original trading model left much to be desired.

“The second generation of trading models is now being built and while agency trading desks still take the greatest share of digital spend there are now real alternatives being developed that give brands more control over data and technology alongside the wider push to ensure greater transparency.”

Mobile display and video currently accounts for 25 per cent of programmatic budgets. This was expected to increase by 98 per cent of respondents – 61 per cent of which saying it will increase significantly.