Advertisers and publishers are rapidly adopting programmatic ad-buying and selling tools, but is there a benefit?
A new report (PDF) out from Integral Ad Science suggests that it, in fact, does not. The study found that programmatic display and video ads - those sold through automated channels - garnered lower quality ads impressions than ads bough and sold through a direction relationship with a publisher.
The Integral Ad Science stidy measured the quality of ad impressions based on factors including viewability, ad fraud, and brand resik and found that direct-sold display ad boost achive viewability rates that are nearly 10 percent higher than programmatic display ads. Video ads sol programmatically, in comparison, perform far worse - with a 35.5 percent viewability rate in Q1 2016 compared to 59.3 percent viewability rate for publisher's direct ads.
Programmatic advertising is set to surge in the coming years, and digital ad stakeholders will have to work hard to moderate the negatives side effects that come with an increased number of automated ad placements.