Premium Programmatic Enters the New Frontier with Programmatic Guaranteed Leading the Way (Part 2)

Undoubtedly, in our conversations about unlocking the value of “Premium Programmatic”, we place heavy emphasis on the involvement of people and direct deals. But with the right technology in place, teams can be freed up to focus more on the strategic value of the deal and less on manual inputs across disparate systems. 

To explore this topic further we partnered with Beeler.Tech, which focuses on connecting people, creating conversations, and bringing efficiency to digital media and ad tech, and CoLab Media Consulting, a specialist media consulting and market research business. The study surveyed senior revenue and ad operations professionals at leading publishers, to gain a deeper understanding of their thoughts on industry trends and spend forecasts in 2021, especially as it pertains to programmatic direct.

A key takeaway is that publishers are expecting the rise of automated deals that offer the scale and operational benefits of RTB-based, open auction transactions, but include the same level of granularity and control that both buyers and sellers can get from direct sales. 

For example, some 66% of publishers surveyed expected growth in terms of programmatic guaranteed over the next 12 months -- and as the industry works to collectively move beyond third-party cookie-based targeting, we expect this shift to accelerate.

Key survey highlights include: 

  • On average direct sold inventory accounts for 39% of publisher revenue with (digital) programmatic accounting for 28% of overall publisher revenue.

  • 66% of respondents expected growth in terms of programmatic guaranteed.

  • 60% of publishers forecasted growth in preferred deals and private marketplaces (PMPs). 

  • 18% of respondents thought that the volume of indirect inventory sold via RTB and/or the open market would shrink over the next 12 months.

  • 58% of publishers said advertiser demand would be driving these shifts toward more “premium” programmatic transactions.

While publishers are eyeing an increased spend in premium programmatic channels post-pandemic, widespread adoption may be hinged on more centralized technology solutions.  

You can download the report for full details.

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