Programmatic marketers are beginning to flock to the Digiday Programmatic Marketing Summit, which will be held over the next three days in Palm Springs, California.
To set the record straight, Digiday+ Research surveyed brand, retailer, and agency professionals in the first quarter of this year to understand the current state of programmatic advertising. Digiday found that while programmatic advertising remains a dominant force in marketers' ad budgets, agencies' confidence in the channel has been shaken in recent months.
A Digiday study found that marketers are overwhelmingly investing in programmatic advertising. More than three-quarters (77%) of brands and retailers say their companies currently use programmatic site display advertising, and even more (80%) of agency retailers say their customers answered that it was the same.
In contrast, 54% of brands and retailers and 50% of agencies say they invest in email newsletter sponsorships and advertising, and 51% of brands and 45% of agencies say they invest in direct sales. You indicated that you are investing in display advertising for your site. They still make up a significant portion of marketers, but not as much as programmatic.
Digiday's research found that not only are most marketers investing in programmatic, but they're also increasing their investment in the channel. More than a third (38%) of brand and retail professionals said their spending budget on programmatic site display advertising has increased this year compared to last year. This percentage makes programmatic the largest category of display advertising investments for brands, tied for number one with display advertising on direct-to-consumer sites.
Digiday research shows that agencies are increasing their programmatic investments more than brands and retailers. 42% of agency professionals say they have increased their programmatic spending budget this year compared to last year, making them the largest group in the space to increase their programmatic investments. Interestingly, when it comes to agencies, companies that have not increased their spending budget in any display advertising channel make up his second largest group, with 32% of agency respondents saying so. .
Digiday's survey confirms that a significant percentage of brands and retailers say they have increased their programmatic spending budget and say they spend a large or very large portion of their marketing budget on programmatic sites. The proportion of brand and retailer professionals who bought the product was revealed. Display advertising has been on the rise for several quarters. In Q1 2024, just under a quarter (24%) of brands said they were dedicating most or a very large portion of their budget to programmatic advertising, and in Q1 2023 This was up from 17% in the third quarter and 11% in the first quarter of 2023.
Notably, most of the growth is coming from companies that spend heavily on programmatic advertising. In the first quarter of this year, 11% of brand and retail professionals said they were devoting a very large portion of their marketing budget to programmatic, up from just 4%. In the third quarter of last year. But it's also worth noting that the 24% of brands that say they spend a lot or very much on programmatic advertising are more rebounds than anything else. Roughly one-third of brand professionals spent a large or very large portion of their marketing budget on programmatic in 2022 (34% in Q3 2022, 32% in Q1 2022) %).
It's also worth noting that Digiday's research shows that brands and retailers who spend small amounts on programmatic advertising make up the largest group. In Q1 2024, 43% of brand and retail professionals said they spend only a small portion or a small portion of their marketing budget on display advertising on programmatic sites.
However, when it comes to agencies, it's a different story. A Digiday study found that the percentage of agency clients spending significant amounts on programmatic is actually decreasing. Less than a quarter (23%) of agency professionals say a large or very large portion of their clients' marketing budgets will be spent on display advertising on programmatic sites in Q1 2024 , down from 29% in Q3 2023, 34% in Q1 2023, and 43%. % in Q3 2022.
At the same time, the percentage of agency professionals who say their clients spend nothing on programmatic marketing has skyrocketed in the past six months, from just 2% in Q3 2023 to more than 2% in Q1 2024. reached 18%. Put another way, 82% of agencies in the first quarter of this year reported that their clients were spending at least a very small amount of their marketing budget on display advertising on programmatic sites compared to six months ago. He said it was down from 98%. The rise of ad-only sites may be contributing to fewer agency marketers investing in programmatic advertising.
So how do we explain the fact that nearly half of agency professionals say their display advertising spending budget has increased since last year? It's interesting to note that agencies that spend medium budgets on advertising make up the largest group in Digiday's study. 38% of agency professionals said their clients spend a moderate amount of their budget on programmatic advertising.
That brand and agency marketers are spending differently on programmatic advertising makes sense when you consider what each group is trying to get out of advertising within the channel. When measuring the success of programmatic advertising, brands and retailers look at sales to determine success, while agencies look at clicks.
36% of brand and retail experts told Digiday that the primary measure of programmatic site display advertising success is commerce or sales, which is the top measure of branding in programmatic. Click-throughs came in second place, with 29% of brands and retailers saying they were the main metric for measuring programmatic success, followed by conversions such as downloads and registrations at 14%.
Meanwhile, click-throughs are the top metric for programmatic success among agency professionals, with 37% choosing it as their primary metric for programmatic site display advertising. Commerce or Sales follows at 33%, followed by impressions in third place, with 13% of agency professionals choosing impressions as their primary measure of programmatic success.
