Brands say they like it, but too few are doing it.
We’re talking about programmatic buying for mobile. And a new report from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) shows there’s a long way to go.
The report suggests that although “more than three-quarters (76 percent) of brand marketers consider programmatic buying in mobile advertising to be an important development,” too few are now purchasing ads programmatically.
The report is from IAB’s Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence and was conducted by Ovum.
“Based on the responses of 200 top-level brand marketing executives, the new figures show that two in five (41 percent) marketers agreed that mobile programmatic advertising would help them reach their target audiences,” notes the IAB. “However, only 27 percent of marketers in total are actually buying inventory in this way, with 18 percent using private exchanges and 17 percent using open exchanges (some use both).”
“It is clear that programmatic advertising is strongly embedded in the minds of many mobile marketers,” said Anna Bager, Senior Vice President for Mobile and Video at IAB. “However, there is still much work to be done before mobile programmatic can reach its full potential. IAB is committed to educating mobile marketers about the benefits of this growing format and, towards that end, recently released a Mobile Programmatic Playbook. Our efforts on the mobile programmatic front have only just begun, and we look forward to increased adoption as familiarity improves.”
The overwhelming majority of survey respondents said they were happy with the performance of their mobile ads.
The report shows “87 percent saying they were satisfied/fairly satisfied, and 8 percent saying they were completely satisfied. This has led to significant optimism for the future, with 14 percent of respondents indicating that they expect their companies’ mobile advertising budgets to increase by over half in the next two years and 57 percent saying they expect them to rise by under half,” notes IAB.
The top give mobile concerns uncovered by the report?
According to the IAB research, they include device operating system fragmentation, lack of standardized metrics to measure mobile advertising, lack of agency expertise in mobile advertising, and “too many different ways to source or buy mobile inventory.”
“With mobile taking a more prominent role in consumers’ lives each year, an uptick in marketers’ potential concerns surrounding mobile privacy is no surprise,” said Mike Zaneis, Executive Vice President, Public Policy, and General Counsel, IAB. “The IAB is in full support of the Digital Advertising Alliance’s work on this front. Its recent release of new user-friendly tools for mobile choice and transparency brings new level of consumer control to the fast-growing mobile medium.”
To view the full “2015 Marketer Perceptions of Mobile Advertising” survey, click here.