Programmatic ad buying behavior more than doubled over the last two years despite major ad fraud and transparency concerns. The ANA (Association of National Advertisers) and Forrester just released the results of a new study reporting  of a new study reporting an increase in programmatic ad buying habits among marketers from 34% in 2014 to 79% in 2016. This research was conducted last month among 128 ANA members.

Two-thirds (66%) of marketers reported “I understand it (programmatic) and use it to execute campaigns” compared to 23% in 2014. Nearly all marketers reported programmatic buying of display advertising and eight in 10 (84%) reported purchasing programmatic video advertising.

Marketers identified key benefits of programmatic ad buying as:

• Better targeting (90% rating),
• Real-time optimization (76%),
• Managing buys across multiple channels (66%)
• Reach consumers at multiple points along the purchase path; decreased cost of media (62%, each)
• Ability to personalize ads to individual consumers (60%)
• Reach more consumers by buying ads in more channel (56%)
• Dynamic ad placement (49%)
• Access to a broader set of media options (48%)
• Faster executions of media buys (43%)
• Ability to buy ad directly from media companies, without an agency (24%)

Still markets cite there three top concerns in programmatic ad buying as the higher bot fraud in programmatic buys (69%), the lack of transparency to the costs within the programmatic supply change (64%) and the potential for buying traffic with low viewability (63%).

The research confirms the industries rapid adoption of programmatic buying habits. With the reported complexity of programmatic amid critical concerns, 31% of marketers stated that they expanded their in-house capabilities to manage programmatic ad buying. It appears marketers are looking to new opportunities to fully analyze the digital supply chain from request to execution.