44 per cent of ad industry professionals admit to knowing very little or nothing about how programmatic buying works – and thats particularly true of advertisers, where the figure rises to 63 per cent.

Thats according to a global study of over 1,2000 professionals in the industry, carried out by AppNexus, in co-ordination with Circle Research, WARC DDMAlliance, and IAB bodies in Singapore, Australia and across Europe.

However, a lack of knowledge hasnt stopped adoption. 67 per cent said they use programmatic – 29 per cent despite knowing very little about it.

“The future of advertising is programmatic,” said Nigel Gilbert, VP strategic development, EMEA at AppNexus. “Already used by two-thirds of digital advertisers and seen as having a vital part to play in all future digital advertising, anything that can be traded programmatically soon will be.

“But for programmatic to reach its full potential, issues around lack of understanding, trust, transparency and measurement need first to be addressed. As a company committed to creating a better internet, we wanted to produce a study that acts as a springboard for a candid and comprehensive discussion of what works and what still needs to be improved, as well as highlight the role we can all collectively play in delivering more efficient and effective advertising campaigns that are the lifeblood of the internet.”

After this lack of understanding, programmatics biggest challenges were identified as ‘fear of ads appearing on undesirable sites’ (43 per cent) and ‘lack of transparency as to where advertisements will end up being displayed’ (42 per cent).