This slideshow is focusing on what we expect happening in the ad industry this year including ad fraud issues.

1. Programmatic and RTB Trends and Challenges
2016 REPORT

2. Programmatic ad spend in 2015 reached
$15 billion
globally and is projected to hit
$33 billion
by 2017!
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That’s according to recent figures by IPG’s Magna Global who project the meteoric rise
of digital media in general will surpass the king of them all (TV) by the end of 2017.

3. WHAT CAN YOU EXPECT IN 2016?
Despite the train leaving the station
years ago, there are still hurdles to
overcome. There always are.
What 2016 holds can be said to be
both exciting and a wee bit scary.

4. THE EXCITING

5. PROGRAMMATIC LOOKING BULLISH
As much as we say programmatic buying has been
around for about six years now, it has taken time to
catch on. Just like any new approach. There was a school
of thought that worried it was just a passing cloud.
As uncertain as those baby steps may have seemed
at first, programmatic wasn’t blown out of the face
of the earth as some predicted. That was just a
handful of extreme opinions that were silenced
before they had a chance to snowball. Thankfully.

6. Programmatic is here to stay as stat after stat continues to hammer in.
Little wonder then that:
eMarketer prognosticates
programmatic ad spending in 2016
will account for 63 percent
of all digital ad display spending.
63%

7. Programmatic advertising is a wide arena
as you probably know. If you don’t, here’s a quick
pointer: it’s made up of RTB (which is further
broken down into open exchange and private
marketplace) and programmatic direct
(comprises programmatic guaranteed and
preferred offer).
Now, happenings in the marketplace have
diverted the waters to the programmatic direct
course as buyers opt for guaranteed inventory
in favor of the private marketplace, a trend
that will last well beyond 2016.
But it’s not all doom and gloom for RTB. See, as
advertisers float in programmatic direct waters,
they’ll feel more at ease and warm up to bidding.
Ultimately, it’s going to really open up the market
more.
PROGRAMMATIC ADVERTISING
RTB
open exchange
private marketplace
programmatic guaranteed
preferred offer
Programmatic direct

8. BEYOND BANNER ADS
Banner ads have held the prom queen mantle within
programmatic advertising for a while now. This year, that
status is set to be diluted as other jaw-dropping entrants
join the contest and become viable options: rich media,
video, sponsorships.
Chances are these newer options will get started in the
programmatic direct stage where it’s possible to purchase online
spots in advance (at set prices) as opposed to going through
auctions as is characteristic of real-time bidding.

9. CROSS-DEVICE TARGETING WILL GAIN MORE PROMINENCE
Historically, tracking consumers across the plethora of devices
(mobile, tablet, desktop/laptop) has been a tricky affair.
That though is set to change as digital
marketers stamp their foot on cross-device
targeting and tracking,
more so on a macro level.

10. SO WILL QUALITY OF MOBILE INVENTORY
You can also expect an improvement in the
quality of inventory, particularly in apps.
Quality is not a word that has been used to describe mobile
inventory, and this can partly be attributed to the role
developers have had to play in the supply at the expense of
traditional publishers.
As mobile gains a foothold this year and we get a tad more
discerning though, it is hoped developers will be intuitive and
respond to the data without being lured by the idea of placing
banners close to where accidental clicks might occur!

11. PROGRAMMATIC TV WILL BECOME HOT PROPERTY
Programmatic has made a lot of headway as we speak,
and TV synchronization is set to be the next phase.
With programmatic TV, companies are able to monitor television ads airing in
real-time, and when they combine this with paid search, they are able to serve
mobile users with tailored ads. No doubt a shot in the arm with the
increasing habit of consumer dual-screening
(watching Internet-connected TVs) alongside their
mobile devices.
This is no longer big
brand territory, even
the smaller fish are set
to benefit immensely.

12. MORE ACCURATE ATTRIBUTION
Attribution has forever been one of the
biggest gaps with digital media, and
particularly programmatic. We still seem to be
facing that famous Wannamaker problem:
As more technological advancements are made
this year, the industry will be in a better
position to track the user’s path to
conversion, and consequently, allocation of ad
budgets will become more efficient. With the
ability to identify the same user across multiple
devices, the data advertisers gather will be
used to build more accurate attribution
models that factor in all the devices.
50% of my
marketing works,
I’m just not sure
which 50%

13. THE CHALLENGES
We will witness significant leaps and bounds in programmatic advertising in 2016,
but beyond the traditional challenges of brand safety, ad fraud, transparency, and
viewability, there will be more perturbing issues for the industry to ponder as the
landscape keeps evolving.

14. Publishers
are projected to loose
$41 billion globally due
to ad blocking
According to research from Adobe and PageFair:
AD BLOCKING GOES MAINSTREAM
We may still be living in the early days of the ad blocking battle,
but both advertisers and publishers will need to adapt to
the landscape and technology that is quickly evolving.
Everyone across the board will get serious with regard to
addressing this issue. Advertisers will raise the bar among
themselves, as well as with their vendor cohorts, on things
like precision targeting and ad creative. Publishers, on the
other hand, will be looking to better understand their
customers, and they will get nifty with their data-driven
offerings.

15. STILL FIGURING MOBILE AND VIDEO
This year, mobile programmatic spend in countries like the US is expected to surpass
desktop for the first time ever. As the platform continues to gather pace, we will
need to confront mobile challenges head-on.
Did you know half of advertisers are now using
programmatic to buy smartphone inventory?
Yup, that’s according to findings by the IAB that looked at a remarkable 301 markets.
Surprisingly:
44 percent have little or no knowledge of it!

16. On which side of the divide do you lie?
Based on this survey, the main barriers of mobile programmatic were identified as:
Challenges in tracking 32% of respondents
Lack of budget 29%
Creativity restraints 29%
In addition, a number of advertisers have been buying mobile blindly without any data.
It’s been more about scale at the expense of accuracy with a slew of probabilistic
vendors running around leaving marketers craving for a more deterministic methodology.

17. Mobile and desktop are completely different worlds. Totally.
Especially with regard to fragmentation.
With mobile, it’s more about understanding what the user is doing
at this moment in time and leveraging local data to make
predictions. And doing so precipitates a consideration of three
layers (which creates a mapping of the world):
location history patterns
audience segments
real-time data

18. SHORTAGE OF QUALITY INVENTORY
In this business, quality inventories are a
gem; rare and costly. With the deficiency of
quality ads out there, advertisers will hope
more publishers join the fray to put up ads
on exchanges.
And for any brand that wants to reach its
users more effectively, it will require
fresh and innovative data sources that are
deterministic, not mapped from cookies
using probabilistic approaches.

19. LAST-CLICK ATTRIBUTION
The entire digital industry has an issue with
last-click attribution, one of the shortcomings of
programmatic advertising. Even big boys like
Facebook have singled it out, arguing the system is
way too narrow to gauge campaign performance.
As it grows into a trend this year, a new model will
lend credibility to ads that have in the past
escaped the attention of the user (by being
clicked on or in engagement speak).

20. FRAUD ACTIVITY
Some issues like ad fraud will forever be a
challenge, and 2016 is no exception. And if
previous patterns are anything to go by,
embrace for more headlines on the digital
fraud front.
Digital advertisers will lose
$7.2 billion worldwide this year
This figure is based on a January 2016 report
by the Association of National Advertisers
which showed bot fraud, for example, to be
on the up:
It impacted 37% of ads in 2015
compared to 22% the previous
year.

21. Programmatic buys were found to have
more incidences of fraud compared to
direct buys, with higher CPM (cost per 1000
impressions) campaigns being most under
threat, a fact that remains unchanged from
previous year’s findings by White Ops.
On the mobile side of things, the picture isn’t
in rich tone either.
34% of programmatic mobile
ad inventory is fake
That’s according to recent figures by Forensiq
and Applift.

22. When it comes to mobile,
fraud comes in three main flavors:
click fraud
impression fraud
install fraud

23. LACK OF IN-HOUSE RESOURCES
In 2015, more and more brands shifted base
in-house as they sought to cut the cord
conjoining them to agencies. This year, it’s a
trend that’s set to continue as companies seek
to enjoy the benefits that come with the move.
Be warned though, this path is fraught with
challenges.
For starters, a good deal of marketers have no
clear idea what parts they can (and should)
glue together to have a better grasp of ad
tech. It remains too complex, too technical,
and too fragmented for the average
marketer to figure out and consequently
implement effectively.
And while there are some who have cultivated
solutions that serve them very well, most
tend to lack the manpower, or technical
and operational capabilities to pull it off.

24. LOOKING AHEAD

25. In summary,
the industry has (and continues) to evolve tremendously.
Issues like brand safety, viewability, transparency, and ad fraud will
remain constants for the foreseeable future, but the industry is past
the stage where they were its main preoccupation.
Programmatic (and RTB) has a couple more warts and while we may find
them a pain in the short term, the point is we will be able to work on them
in the long term.
It will be interesting to watch the trends unfold in 2016 as new initiatives and
platforms are launched every day. Better yet, it will be interesting to see how
companies respond and adapt their digital marketing budget and policies.

26. Are your ads showing
on porn and streaming sites?
Check it for free before you say no
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27. Make sure brand safety is not
an issue for your ads anymore.
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