Despite the widespread acceptance of programmatic advertising across the globe, US publishers appear reluctant to introduce this method of ad selling to foreign markets.

Nearly all of the country’s large publishers (98%) are looking to sell online ad space programmatically, without assistance, based on data provided by their audiences. Over half of this group (56%) are taking things even further, declaring that they are “aggressively pursuing” the use of data for selling ads.

However, these stats are solely for the development of programmatic activity within the US. When questioned about their attitudes towards programmatic audience development overseas, participation dropped to 72.4% – the remaining 27.6% having no international programmatic strategy in place.

Programmatic stays planted

The tendency to keep programmatic ad efforts within national borders was pinned mainly to a lack of understanding for audience development across all markets. Fortunately there are at least some signs of publishers gaining the confidence they need to branch out.

Compiled by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and Winterberry Group, the new figures show that US publishers are willing to expand their programmatic services to other markets, but only with the right offer.

In Brazil, for example, where digital ad spend has been predicted to rise from $2.49 billion in 2013 to $4.89 billion in 2017 according to eMarketer, US sites are starting to think about how the market will react to the introduction of programmatic.

Their intrigue is highlighted with the revelation that 39.1% intend to engage in programmatic audience development across Brazil over the next two years – up from 13.7% at present. Seen as the first step of an investment in programmatic, audience development in this area entails identifying engagement with consumers based on specific attributes and using the data as a foundation for an advertising strategy.

Other barriers to rolling out programmatic in other markets include the availability of suitable technology, while several publishers highlighted concerns about an ability to generate results at a required scale.

Amid the lukewarm reception for applying programmatic to foreign markets, IAB chief operating officer Patrick Dolan said it was clear this model is working for US publishers and insisted that a “programmatic everywhere” culture was just around the corner.