Today, programmatic advertising is the fastest-growing digital marketing strategy by far, accounting for more than 50% of advertising expenditures this year and predicted to hit 58% next year, according to a report from Zenith.
Programmatic advertising offers a number of benefits over traditional marketing strategies. In fact, it works on the back of those existing strategies to gather data and target users more accurately. This is partly why it has seen such explosive growth since 2012, now representing nearly $24 billion of ad spend in the US alone this year.
Looking to 2017, programmatic advertising growth is set to slow down slightly from previous year’s 71% growth. However, a robust 31% growth is still anticipated, with the expectation of hitting $64 billion globally by 2018. Perhaps most interesting is the fact that the U.S. currently makes up 62% of the global programmatic advertising market today. There is still growth to be seen within the U.S., but Europe and China are expected to see massive gains in the next two to three years as they catch up with the U.S.
The Zenith report also points out that traditional media — including television and radio — are gradually incorporating the use of programmatic trading: “Some television, radio and digital out-of-home platforms already offer automated and data-driven trading of inventory,” Zenith states. “It will take years, but eventually programmatic trading will be available as standard across traditional media.”
