The state of programmatic advertising in 5 charts

Programmatic advertising digital display ad spend will make up 90% of digital display ad spend in the US this year, and that share is growing, according to our forecast. Most of the $132.96 billion in spend will go to video, but non-video ads still make up a large portion. Here are five charts summarizing where programmatic ad spend is headed and the identity challenges it faces right now.

1. Programmatic pivoted to video

US programmatic video ad spend passed non-video for the first time last year, according to our forecast. Over the next few years, programmatic video ad spend will increase faster than non-video. The uptick in video ad spend is driven by connected TV (CTV), mobile, and social media advertising on TikTok and other platforms.

2. Breaking out CTV growth

Of the $25.09 billion in US CTV ad spend we project this year, $21.52 billion will be programmatic. That means close to 9 in 10 CTV ad dollars are programmatic, and programmatic ad spend on the platform will climb by double digits through the end of our forecast period in 2025.

CTV ad spend could grow even higher, but 65% of advertisers are still wary of content-level transparency, according to Proximic. Better transparency and streamlined ad buying would push advertisers even further toward programmatic advertising on CTV.

3. Breaking down inventory categories

Some 26% of programmatic ad inventory is news More than 10% goes to lifestyle, games, and technology, according to 33Across.

Within non-video inventory in these categories, publishers are fighting over a fairly stagnant pool of non-video programmatic ad dollars.

4. Programmatic advertising is grabbing out-of-home (OOH) share

Programmatic advertising will account for more than 10% of US OOH ad spend and more than 30% of digital OOH ad spend in 2025, according to our forecast. Within this category, the largest share (41%) is going to billboards, followed by screens and TVs (24%), according to Place Exchange.

5. Programmatic faces an identity crisis

With third-party cookies going away, programmatic advertising needs to rely on alternative data solutions. Advertisers and publishers worldwide view their own first-party data activations as most promising for replacing cookies, per DoubleVerify. In the US, identity solutions and services spending is on the rise, passing $10 billion this year, according to our forecast.

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