eMarketer estimates that programmatic ad spending in the US is going to rise almost 50% this year, to nearly $15 billion. That’s about 55% of the total money being spent on display ads but, lest you let it give you the impression that marketers are extremely happy with programmatic ad buying, over 40% of those polled recently by US Media Buyers said that they were worried about the loss of quality control when buying ads programmatically.
In other words, marketers like the fact that buying ads programmatically is easy, but don’t like the loss of control in terms of where those ads are placed and other factors.
For example, 73% said placement transparency was also an issue, and only 31% felt that this issue is being addressed correctly by the industry. In fact, 60% of those surveyed said that placement transparency was the one thing keeping them from spending more on programmatic ad buying, and making a bigger move from direct buying.
So yes, programmatic ad buying is certainly increasing, but communication between buyers and sellers is still a problem that needs to be worked out in order for spending on programmatic to really take off.
