A staggering eight in ten advertising professionals – or 89% – believe programmatic buying represents the future of their industry.
That is according to a report from AppNexus, in partnership with WARC and IAB Europe, which saw over 600 European ad agencies, publishers and marketing departments submit their views on programmatic advertising and its potential lifespan.
Findings from the document suggest a bright future for marketers currently championing the real-time approach, but it may take a while for this to be the case.
Programmatic the future, but not the present
The survey shows media buying agencies leading the adoption of programmatic, with 79% using the technique in their activity.
The uptake declined to a modest yet respectable 48% among publishers, going down to 46% of general advertising agencies and 22% of marketers.
Yet while so many advertisers were happy to declare that programmatic would soon boost their industry beyond belief, an average of just 42% were found to be using this in their buying of ad space.
Given the rock-bottom levels of adoption in their category, it was of little surprise to discover that just 22% of marketers had not heard of programmatic. This invited comment from David Tiltman, WARC’s head of content, who claimed that brands are “missing a trick” if they fail to keep up with this particular trend
“The wealth of data collected via programmatic can be used to shape strategies as well as evaluate campaigns,” Tiltman commented.
“Programmatic enables advertisers and marketers to use data creatively, and build online ad strategies that both respond to context and consumers’ online behaviour, and therefore raise the effectiveness of digital marketing.”