Tags containing: "IAB"

U.S. Programmatic Display Ad Revenues Totaled $10.1 Billion in 2014

July 21, 2015 Research Team—DCN

Programmatic buying and selling of online display-related advertising generated $10.1 billion in 2014, comprising 20% of last year’s overall internet advertising revenues ($49.5 billion) according to the first-ever IAB Programmatic Revenue Report, prepared by PwC US. This figure represents approximately 52% of display-related advertising in 2014 ($19.6 billion), while non-programmatic display-related revenues accounted for the remaining 48% at $9.4 billion.

As David Silverman, Emerging Company Services Practice Co-Leader of PwC, points out in the report, “over the last several years, publishers and advertisers have continued to adopt programmatic buying and selling of digital inventory into their media strategies; however, within the complex programmatic ecosystem there has been a lack of consensus around the definition of programmatic and its associated types and formats and the size of the programmatic market in comparison with the overall internet advertising market.”

For the purpose of this study, programmatic was defined, but not universally accepted, as “machine based buying and selling of digital media including auction based methods like RTB and private marketplaces as well as the automation of direct sales, sometimes called programmatic direct.”

Highlights from the IAB report include:

Open auctions made up approximately 70% of the programmatic revenue in 2014.
Display banner ads made up approximately 80% of programmatic revenues in 2014, but the findings demonstrate that mobile and video formats will take more of advertiser and publisher budgets and inventory over time
Ad tech revenues represented approximately 55% of the programmatic revenue pie in 2014 and approximately 45% of programmatic revenues ultimately found its way to the publishers.
The majority of programmatic inventory was bought and sold through Open Auctions, but the report predicts a shift to other types (i.e. Private Auction, Unreserved Fixed Rate or Automated Guaranteed) in the next few years.
Programmatic revenues from ad tech outweighed those from publishers in 2014.
Programmatic buying and selling are moving forward; however, sizing the programmatic industry will continue to be a challenge until standardization and increased transparency become more apparent.

Industry-Research | Video

Measuring ROI Holds Marketers Back from Original Digital Video Investments

May 5, 2015 Research Team—DCN

Content marketing that leverages digital video is seen as one of the best storytelling mediums by marketers and is garnering bigger, standalone budgets accordingly, yet these same brand advertising executives are challenged with justifying its ROI, according to a qualitative study— Content Revelations— from DigitasLBi and IAB, and conducted by Advertiser Perceptions. According to the research, measuring ROI vs. other media is the top obstacle among marketers for increasing their spending on original digital video.

The report finding are summarized in an Infographic. Key takeaways include:

Two-thirds of marketers and agency executives believe that original digital video will become as important as original TV programming within the next three to five years.
Original digital video is expected to climb from 37% of marketer’s total video budgets in 2014 42% in 2015.
The majority of marketers (64%) anticipate increasing their digital video ad spend in the next 12 months.
Measuring ROI, followed by content quality, audience/campaign measurement and price are the top obstacles preventing marketers from spending more on digital video.

Industry-Research

Mobile Marketing on the Rise

April 28, 2015 Research Team—DCN

The IAB Mobile Center has released the third edition of its Marketer Perceptions of Mobile Advertising research. Based on the responses of 200 top-level brand marketing executives, the new figures show that two in five (41%) marketers agreed that mobile programmatic advertising would help them reach their target audiences. However, only 27% of marketers in total are actually buying inventory in this way, with 18% using private exchanges and 17% using open exchanges (some use both). The 2015 survey also asked about sources of mobile ad budgets. While a large share of mobile ad spend represents new ad dollars, about one-third came from substitution, in which funds from other media were shifted to mobile advertising. Print, PC, and TV budgets are all affected by the shift of dollars to mobile.

Key findings from Marketer Perceptions of Mobile Advertising:

Marketers expect that their spending on mobile advertising will increase over the next two years: 14% anticipate it will rise by more than 50% while 57% expect it to rise by less than 50%.
About one-third of mobile advertising spend is substitution from other channels, with print media hit hardest (58%), followed by PC digital and TV.
Marketers in our 2014 survey show a high level of satisfaction with the results of their mobile marketing activities. The majority is either satisfied (50%) or fairly satisfied (37%) while a further 8% completely satisfied.
Marketers show a strong interest in mobile programmatic, as 41% agree that it will help them reach target audiences. However, relatively few are actually buying mobile inventory programmatically today: 18% via private exchanges and 17% via open exchanges.
Marketer uneasiness over potential data privacy issues is pronounced: 37% of respondents in 2014 cited privacy as a very important issue compared to 22% in 2013.
In the current survey 29% of respondents said multiscreen advertising is very important to their
digital advertising strategy, compared to 21% in the 2013 survey. A further 48% of brands in the current survey view multiscreen as important, compared to 46% in 2013.

New to this edition of the study, marketers were asked about another development of interest: advertising opportunities with new-generation connected devices. Connected TVs generated the most enthusiasm (73%), followed closely behind by connected cars (69%), and wearables (66%).

Industry-Research

IAB Hosts Discussion of its State of Viewability Transaction 2015 Position Paper

December 19, 2014 Research Team—DCN

IAB held a call to discuss its new State of Viewability Transaction 2015 position paper. In addition to reading out the principles outlined in the paper, Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO of IAB, and Sherrill Mane, SVP of Research, Analytics and Measurement at IAB answered questions from the call participants.

Below are the topics addressed along with key insights from the discussion.

Scope of the principles:

IAB principles do not specify who should be responsible for covering the cost of viewability vendor services.
The issue of fraudulent traffic is outside the scope of the viewability discussion, although these issues do overlap at times. TAG (Trustworthy Accountability Group) was created specifically to address the issues of fraud.
The principles apply to desktop (display and video) transactions and do not cover mobile.
IAB is not making any recommendations on how viewability should affect pricing.
IAB generally limits the principles to measurable impressions – some formats, e.g. sponsorships, cannot be measured and are thus outside the scope.

How IAB arrived at the 70% viewability threshold for measured impressions:

As the position paper specified, the core aspiration of the 3MS initiative was to have 100% of traded impressions be deemed viewable by the MRC. IAB consulted a group with the IAB board (primarily composed of sellers), who have recommended that a 70% viewability rate was achievable at this point in time. IAB recognizes that 70% will be difficult for some publishers, but they think this is achievable. At the same time if a publisher thinks that they can do better than 70%, IAB encourages them to do so.

Dealing with unmeasurable impressions:

IAB has cautioned against extrapolating any metrics from the measurable impressions to unmeasurable impressions.
As per the example to principle 3 in the published position paper, unmeasured impressions should be billed for as fully viewable impressions (though not contributing towards the 70% viewability threshold for the measured impressions).

Next steps IAB will be undertaking to pave the road to 100% viewability:

IAB has assembled an additional group of leaders to monitor the impact of viewability on publishers and course-correct if necessary (as the position paper specified, IAB are looking to revisit the principles at least twice a year).
The industry is not yet at a level of sophistication where there can be a standard test suite that is run across all vendors to establish measurement consistency. IAB is working with the MRC and is encouraging its members to share data with the MRC to help them address the variability in measurement rates between vendors.

Impact on agencies:

IAB thinks that the 100% viewability guarantees demanded by some of the agencies are unreasonable and will only hurt efforts to collaborate and fixed measurement throughout the system.
Asked how IAB would recommend agencies to communicate to clients the endorsement of paying for 30% of inventory that was not viewable, Rothenberg advised agencies to always reference the MRC “Viewability Implementation Considerations”, issued on 16 October 2014, which state that 100% viewability is an unreasonable expectation at this point. Rothenberg advised agencies to educate clients on the current technological limitations of this space and the need to absorb the discrepancies in measurement.

Advertising | Perspectives | Revenue

IAB Says 100% Viewability Measurement is Not Yet Possible

December 16, 2014 DCN

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) today released the “State of Viewability Transaction 2015,” a position paper offering the digital media and advertising industries guidance on how to manage the shift of digital media’s “audience currency” to 100 percent viewability. During this ‘Year of Transition,’ the IAB recommends 70% as the best threshold for buyers and sellers (upping the standard from 50%, which the Media Rating Council (MRC) called for in March of this year).

To foster stronger collaboration and build trust throughout the entire media ecosystem, the IAB recommends that marketers, agencies, and publishers adhere to seven principles during 2015, which it outlines here.

“The entire industry came together to provide true accountability through a single viewability measurement. At this point in time, it’s critical that all parties adhere to the MRC standard and provide for a period of transition while the systems catch up. On behalf of all premium publishers, I commend the IAB’s shepherding the industry through this phase.”

—Jason Kint, CEO, Digital Content Next

Read the IAB’s entire “State of Viewability Transaction 2015” statement.