“Programmatic’s role in digital ad buying has grown from virtually zero to nearly half of all transactions in just five years,” says Tim Elkington, Chief Strategy Officer at the UK’s Internet Advertising Bureau.
Almost half of online display ads in 2014 – worth just under £1 billion – were bought through ‘programmatic’ technologies, according to the second annual industry study quantifying how UK digital display advertising is traded. The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) UKs “Media Owner Sales Techniques” study, conducted by research and strategy consultancy MTM, reveals that of the £2.13 billion¹ spent on display ads across the internet and mobile in 2014, 45% (£960 million) was traded programmatically – up from 28% in 2013. ‘Programmatic’ – which refers to ads bought and sold using automated systems and processes such as real-time bidding – was narrowly behind direct sales between publishers and buyers (49% share of display ad sales). Only 6% were bought through ad networks (down from 22%). E.g. 49% of all digital display ads in 2014 were purchased directly Programmatic accounts for two-thirds of mobile ad sales Programmatic’s share of mobile ad sales has nearly doubled from
