The use of data-driven software to automate online advertising, already a fast-growing phenomenon known as programmatic buying, is on the cusp of taking over the way most digital ad budgets are spent.
That’s according to a new survey of more than 400 marketers, ad agencies, publishers, and ad tech firms released this morning by AdExchanger, a publishing and now a research company focused on tech-driven digital advertising. Compared with the traditional (and rapidly declining) method of people arranging ad deals with individual publishers by phone, fax, email, or perhaps even three-martini lunches, programmatic methods allow for more efficient spending on highly targeted audiences across a wide variety of media.
Currently more than two-thirds of agencies use automated ad buying for at least 20% of their budget, and more than a third are up to at least 60%. Almost half plan to get to 60% by 2015.
For the full story read Forbes and for more about programmatic buying read A Guide to Programmatic Buying by Ad Pushup.