The overwhelming majority of marketers who use programmatic targeting for their campaigns is expected to grow over the next year. But in what areas are programmatic traders concentrating their spending? In a survey [download page] of 250 programmatic traders in the US, Adelphic found that the largest portions of respondents will be increasing their focus on digital video and mobile.
The vast majority (92.2%) of programmatic traders surveyed are finding that the growing number of channels and advertising formats makes their job increasingly challenging. Some of these channels are getting more attention than others, with emerging ones yet to make as much of a mark as more established ones.
For example, more than 70% of programmatic traders say they will be increasing their programmatic ad spend on digital video while, to a lesser extent, roughly 4 in 10 traders expect that they or their clients will hike their spending on CTV/OTT.
This comes on the heels of data from earlier this year that revealed the bulk of total digital video ad spend is transacted programmatically. And for good reason, as Freewheel found that the number of video ad views from programmatic channels doubled during Q2 2019.
Mobile is another channel for which programmatic traders plan to increase their advertising investment, with 62% saying they will be doing so. While not quite at the same level, almost half (47%) of respondents also say they expect programmatic ad spend to rise for digital audio.
Programmatic hasn’t escaped the trend of brands taking their marketing and advertising in-house. A reason brands are leaning towards in-housing, in general, is to be more cost-efficient and curb wasteful spending. The same is true for programmatic advertising, with cost-saving (23.6%) being the most important reason respondents believe that brands are looking to bring programmatic in-house.
The report does note that although brands may be taking their programmatic efforts in-house, three-quarters (75%) of traders at agencies say they definitely have all the resources necessary to execute their programmatic campaigns successfully, compared to the less than two-thirds (62%) of traders at brands who can say the same.
The full report can be downloaded here.
About the Data: Results are based on a survey of 250 programmatic traders based in the United States and working within programmatic advertising groups at advertising agencies or in-house at brands.
