US mobile programmatic ad spend to reach $9.33bn this year
A recent eMarketer report stated that programmatic advertising has moved past the experimental stage and is becoming the standard for marketers looking to simplify the media buying process. EMarketer forecasts that US mobile programmatic ad spend will reach $9.33bn this year and account for 60.5% of total US programmatic display ad spending. The mobile growth figure is driven up significantly by Facebook, which is considered a programmatic platform. Another key feature of mobile programmatic growth is video, which is expected to account for $3.79bn by 2017.   

by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, October 20, 2015

Programmatic advertising, the use of technology to automate the buying, selling or fulfillment of ads, is becoming the standard for marketers looking to simplify the media buying process, moving past the experimental stage, says the new eMarketer report, “Mobile Programmatic Advertising: Grabbing the Vast Majority of US Display Ad Dollars by 2017.”

While programmatic was originally used to effectively buy desktop banners, theprocess has naturally expanded to mobile, where eMarketer forecasts US mobile programmatic ad spending will reach $9.33 billion this year and account for 60.5% of total US programmatic display ad spending.

US Programmatic Digital Display Ad Spending ($billions; % Change Y-O-Y) Year Device 2014 2015 2016 2017 Mobile $4.44b $9.33 $14.89 $20.45 % Change 234.3% 110.2% 59.6% 37.3% % Programmatic digital display ad spending 43.0% 60.5% 69.1% 76.3% Desktop/Laptop $5.89 $6.10 $6.66 $6.34 % Change 73.3% 3.7% 9.2% -4.9% % Programmatic digital display ad spending 57.9% 39.5% 30.9% 23.7% Source: EMarketer, October 2015

A February 2015 survey, conducted by RBC Capital Markets and Advertising Age, found that the biggest portion of US marketers cited mobile as the channel or format expected to have the most opportunity for programmatic buying. And with social, video and native increasingly intertwined with mobile, such an opportunity is only growing, says the report.

Craig Palli, chief strategy officer at mobile marketing firm Fiksu, says “… a year ago, clients were only doing science experiments in mobile programmatic… this year… larger brands coming in with millions of dollars… “

Facebook is playing a substantial role in mobile’s programmatic growth, says the report. With Facebook considered a largely programmatic platform, and its US mobile revenues expected to total $5.89 billion this year and reach $10.32 billion by 2017, its direct contribution to total US mobile programmatic digital display ad spending will be significant.

Additionally, the report anticipates that Facebook will play a secondary role in fueling the growth of mobile programmatic ad spending, as both mobile web and app publishers look to redesign their sites in the style of Facebook’s popular in-feed units.

Another key aspect to mobile programmatic’s advancement is video, which will exhibit swift growth over the next 24 months, albeit starting from a small base of just $1.14 billion. By 2017, that number will reach $3.79 billion, but its share will remain small, at 18.5%.

US Mobile Programmatic Digital Display Ad Spending ($billions; % Change Y-O-Y) Year Device 2014 2015 2016 2017 Video $0.19 $1.14 $2.42 $3.79 % Change 914.0% 501.6% 112.9% 56.8% % Total mobile programmatic digital display ad spending 4.3% 12.2% 16.2% 18.5% Other $4.25 $8.19 $12.47 $16.66 % Change 224.6% 92.9% 52.2% 33.5% % Total mobile programmatic digital display ad spending 95.7% 87.8% 83.8% 81.5% Source: EMarketer, October 2015

The report concludes by noting that, though these numbers may seem extremely conservative to the many who are bullish on mobile video growth, it’s important to note that eMarketer’s definition of digital video only includes in-stream video ads (pre-, mid- or post-roll) and does not include many of the fast-growing a-types often lumped into the digital video ad category, such as native video or in-feed video.

For additional information from EMarketer, please visit here.