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Programmatic accounts for 85% of US digital ad spending: IAB

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Data growth leads to higher programmatic investment, enabling automated buying

According to IAB’s Brand Disruption 2020 report released this week, US programmatic ad spend has grown to almost $79 billion, an 87% increase since the first year benchmarked in the report, 2017.

The IAB estimates US programmatic ad spend will cross $91 billion by 2021, an increase of more than 15% from where it currently stands.

The finding is important, because the IAB to date has eschewed official estimates for programmatic in its regular ongoing tracking of digital advertising spending in its quarterly Internet Ad Revenue Report.

Joe Mandese, Editor in Chief of MediaPost

This increase in programmatic investment—enabling automated buying—is a direct consequence of data growth, the report notes.

Internet use is increasing YoY to 4.1 billion consumers worldwide, and around half the world uses the internet, including 87% of the US population (a rise of 13% in the last 5 years).

Mobile data generation is projected to more than double by 2022, and by 2025 the amount of digital data generated globally will more than triple.

As AI, 5G, programmatic, and an alphabet soup of other new data-driven technologies continue to fuel the industry, our future selves will barely recognize 2020 ten years from now. We are at the very beginning of this new tech revolution and the possibilities are endless.

IAB Annual Report 2019

Data charts courtesy IAB’s Brand Disruption 2020 report