Brands Double Investment In Programmatic Platforms

A new survey by the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) has revealed that the world’s biggest-spending marketers have doubled investments in programmatic platforms over the past 12 months, Warc reported.

For the survey, the WFA polled representatives of 43 of the biggest brand advertisers, together accounting for a combined adspend of $35bn. The results revealed that 10% of the brands’ total digital media investment is now being channelled through programmatic platforms, with 44% of that being allocated to online display.

Overall, the survey’s respondents expect programmatic to increase its share of digital budgets over the next 12 months, with 77% predicting a rise in mobile activity and 83% foreseeing a significant rise in video.

When it comes to programmatic adspend, it appears that brands are moving away from agency trading desks in favour of independent trading desks, Marketing Week reports. The WFA survey revealed that brands’ use of agency trading desks have dropped by 15% over the past 12 months to 69%. On the other hand, the use of independent trading desks more than tripled over the same period, rising to 29%.

The reasons for this drop may be due to brands’ dissatisfaction with agency trading desks: none of the respondents polled for the survey were “completely satisfied” with them, while 50% are concerned about the way data is collected and used.

The WFA has released programmatic trading guidelines alongside its study results in order to help boost brands’ ROI in the area, but also to alleviate concerns about issues such as ‘arbitrage’ – where ad impressions are sold on to the marketer, sometimes causing suspicion as to whether they have been purchased at marked-up prices.

The new guidelines feature advice for advertisers to ensure their experience of programmatic is both ‘efficient and effective,’ Warc concluded.