The Association of National Advertisers said it is hiring a consultant to launch a study of programmatic buying, a practice that it says may cost advertisers billions of dollars in waste.
According to a request for proposal issued by the group, programmatic ad spending is expected to top $200 billion, but that “only 40% to 60% of digital dollars invested by advertisers find their way to publishers.”
The ANA said the way programmatic buying is done now is too complex, offers little accountability and not enough transparency.
“Marketers do not have a fully transparent line of sight into their programmatic supply chains,” said ANA CEO Bob Liodice. “The lack of full transparency for ad delivery and ad quality is diminishing marketers’ ability to fully optimize investments and drive greater business growth. We believe this lack of transparency is costing advertisers billions of dollars in waste.”
The ANA said the goals of its study is to make the digital media supply chain understandable, highly transparent and analytically rich, institute corrective solutions and industry standards and determine whether industry oversight bodies are needed to ensure the integrity of the programmatic ecosystem.
The RFP submissions will be due by early June, and a shortlist of candidates will later be invited to make formal presentations, the ANA said. A winner will be selected over the summer when fieldwork on the study will commence.
