It’s been predicted that two-thirds (67%) of global display advertising will be traded programmatically by 2019, according to research by ROI agency Zenith.
Around 59% of display ads are currently being traded programmatically in 2017 with the value set to increase at an average of 21% a year. The amount of ads sold is estimated to rise from $57.5 billion to $84.9 billion.
These forecasts indicate positive growth for programmatic as the tool has transformed from remnant inventory to selling in premium environments.
This is where agencies use private deals to upscale with publishers to ensure targeted ads are displayed in the right place to the right user at the right price.
The global picture
Across Canada, the US and the UK, it’s estimated a respective 81%, 78% and 77% of display advertising will be bought programmatically in 2017. In Europe, Denmark follows with 70% of display ads being traded via the method, followed next by France at 63%.
The US is currently the largest programmatic market, valued at $32.6 billion. This is followed by China where just 29% of display ads are traded programmatically, resulting in a market value of $5.3 billion.
“The most advanced display markets will be 90% programmatic by 2019. It won’t be many years after that until the global display market is fully programmatic,” said Jonathan Barnard, head of forecasting and director of global intelligence at Zenith.
Trust concerns
While these stats provide a prospective outlook to programmatic advertising, there are concerns within industry around the transparency and trust among the buying process between advertisers and media agencies.
A study by Infectious Media found 71% of advertisers believed media agencies have struggled to adapt to programmatic, while just under three quarters (74%) claimed agencies don’t fully report financial data, while 73% don’t accurately measure programmatic.
These concerns have paved marketers to capitalise with innovation, however, such as last week’s launch of TRUTH, an agency utilising secure blockchain technology to improve industry compliance standards.