US Programmatic Digital Display Ad Spending

Connected TV Ad Dollars Will Surpass Desktop by 2021

Programmatic Digital Display Ad Spending

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Ad Spending and Industry Trends Through 2021 for Canada, China, France, Germany, the UK and the US

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Executive Summary

The vast majority (83.5%) of US digital display ad dollars are transacted using programmatic technology today.

The triopoly now accounts for a significant share of programmatic display ad dollars in the US. So do the social networks.

More than half of the $57.30 billion US advertisers spend on programmatic digital display ads this year goes to social networks—companies that lean heavily on automation and data-driven technology to grant advertisers audience scale and precision. Facebook’s ad revenues contribute significantly to the social network share, as well as the triopoly’s share. Combined, the US programmatic digital display ad revenues of the triopoly (Google, Facebook and Amazon) also account for half of the programmatic display ad market.

While the vast majority of mobile display ad dollars transact programmatically, some programmatic practices are still developing.

This year, $46.86 billion, or 88.7% of all US mobile display ad dollars, will transact via automated means. While programmatic is well-established in areas like social and mobile web, practices including in-app bidding, private marketplaces (PMPs) and other programmatic tactics are only now ramping up in certain parts of the in-app space. Moving forward, in-app ad opportunities will prove increasingly important as limitations to third-party tracking plague desktop and mobile web advertisers.

Video continues to account for a significant share of the market, with practically half of all programmatic ad dollars in the US coming from video by 2021. Over-the-top (OTT), social video and connected TV are all driving programmatic video.

Video is one of the fastest-growing digital display ad formats, and our new connected TV breakout confirms that more than one in 10 programmatic video ad dollars already goes to connected TV. Over the next 24 months, connected TV will grab video ad spending share from desktop, as it makes its march to $6.26 billion by 2021. At that time, programmatic ads delivered to connected TVs will account for 15.9% of total programmatic video, compared with just 9.0% for desktop and laptop.

WHAT’S IN THIS REPORT? This report presents our updated forecast for US programmatic digital display ad spending through 2021. It provides context for how the programmatic market is growing across transaction types, formats and devices.

KEY STAT: By 2021, US digital display advertisers will invest nearly $80 billion in programmatic advertising.

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Table of Contents

  1. Executive Summary
  2. Programmatic Digital Display Ad Spending Outlook
  3. Programmatic Direct
  4. Real-Time Bidding
  1. Mobile Programmatic Ad Spending
  2. Programmatic Digital Video Ad Spending
  3. Key Takeaways
  4. eMarketer Interviews
  1. Read Next
  2. Media Gallery

Interviewed for This Report

Greg Anderson
Xaxis
Managing Director
Interviewed August 12, 2019
Ellie Bamford
R/GA
Vice President, Media
Interviewed August 28, 2019
Youssef Ben-Youssef
Roku
Head of Ad Platform
Interviewed August 12, 2019
Amanda Betsold
iCrossing
Vice President, Head of Programmatic
Interviewed August 6, 2019
Mike Caprio
Zeta Global
Divisional President
Interviewed August 14, 2019
Denise Colella
NBCUniversal
Senior Vice President, Advanced Advertising Products and Strategy
Interviewed August 13, 2019
Geisla de Souza
Jellyfish
Head of Display EMEA and APAC and Paid Media Operations
Interviewed August 12, 2019
Kevin Fennelley
dataxu
Senior Director, Device Graph and TV Products
Interviewed August 28, 2019
Glenn Fishback
Smaato
Chief Revenue Officer
Interviewed August 12, 2019
Ryan Fleisch
Adobe
Head of Product Marketing, Adobe Advertising Cloud
Interviewed August 14, 2019
Doug Fleming
Hulu
Head of Advanced TV
Interviewed August 12, 2019
Anne Frisbie
InMobi
Senior Vice President, Global Brand and Programmatic
Interviewed August 28, 2019
Marc Grabowski
Criteo
Executive Vice President, Global Supply
Interviewed August 16, 2019
Jeff Hirsch
PubMatic
CMO and Head of US Publisher Development
Interviewed August 6, 2019
Julien Hirth
Scibids
Founder
Interviewed August 15, 2019
Jeremy Hlavacek
Watson Advertising
Head of Revenue
Interviewed August 7, 2019
Kevin Hunt
SpotX
Senior Vice President, Global Marketing
Interviewed August 14, 2019
Aleksandra Injac
Mindshare
US Programmatic Practice Lead
Interviewed August 27, 2019
Anthony Katsur
Nexstar Digital
Senior Vice President, Strategy and Operations
Interviewed August 16, 2019
Walter Knapp
Sovrn
CEO
Interviewed August 8, 2019
David Kohl
TrustX
President, CEO
Interviewed August 13, 2019
Harry Kratel
Smaato
Vice President, Global Marketing
Interviewed August 12, 2019
James Lawson
AdTheorent, Inc.
CEO, Board Member
Interviewed August 16, 2019
James Malins
Amobee
Senior Vice President, Programmatic
Interviewed August 15, 2019
Amanda Martin
Goodway Group
Director, Enterprise Partnerships
Interviewed August 8, 2019
Tahira McGhee
R/GA
Group Director, Media Management
Interviewed August 28, 2019
Ramsey McGrory
MediaOcean
Chief Revenue Officer
Interviewed August 8, 2019
Hiten Mistry
Centro
Senior Vice President, Product Management
Interviewed August 8, 2019
Jordan Mitchell
Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB)
Senior Vice President, IAB Tech Lab
Interviewed August 13, 2019
Liane Nadeau
Digitas North America
Vice President and Group Director, Head of Programmatic
Interviewed August 14, 2019
Ari Paparo
Beeswax
CEO
Interviewed August 2, 2019
Matt Prohaska
Prohaska Consulting
CEO, Principal
Interviewed August 14, 2019
Michael Provenzano
Vistar Media
Co-Founder, CEO
Interviewed August 2, 2019
Jon Schulz
Viant
CMO
Interviewed August 28, 2019
Mario Schiappacasse
Jellyfish
Head of Programmatic Media
Interviewed August 12, 2019
Justin Silberman
Dailymotion
Vice President, Product
Interviewed August 7, 2019
Philip Smolin
Amobee
Chief Strategy Officer
Interviewed August 15, 2019
Scott Symonds
AKQA
Managing Director
Interviewed August 7, 2019
Todd Tran
Teads
Global Senior Vice President, Programmatic
Interviewed August 16, 2019
Jackie Vanover
MediaMath
Vice President, DSP
Interviewed August 15, 2019
Dean Vegliante
Netmining
President
Interviewed August 13, 2019
Terri Walter
TrustX
Chief Growth Officer
Interviewed August 13, 2019
Manu Warikoo
MediaOcean
Chief Product Officer
Interviewed August 8, 2019
Nimrod Zuta
ironSource
Vice President, Product
Interviewed October 28, 2019
Jude O’Connor
AdColony
General Manager, Brand, North America
Interviewed August 13, 2019

authors

Lauren Fisher

Contributors

Ross Benes
Analyst
Man-Chung Cheung
Research Analyst
Blake Droesch
Junior Analyst
Bill Fisher
Senior Analyst
Nicole Perrin
Principal Analyst
Tracy Tang
Senior Researcher
Karin von Abrams
Principal Analyst