Global programmatic buying to triple to US$33 billion by 2017: Magna Global

Over the nine key markets surveyed (the US, the UK, Germany, France, The Netherlands, Australia, Japan, China and Spain), Magna Global forecasts that the value of impressions being traded programmatically in 2013 will reach a year-on-year increase of 37.5 per cent to US$12 billion, of which 51 per cent will be real-time bidding (RTB), worth US$6.1 billion.

The research shows that the US is and will remain the largest programmatic market, with its programmatic buying of digital media inventory reaching US$7.4 billion this year, of which US$3.9 billion worth of display-related digital inventory will be sold through RTB.

The UK, the Netherlands, Australia and France are the most prominent markets in the short and medium term. The UK and the Netherlands will lead among European markets, with programmatic penetration ratios of 59 per cent and 60 per cent, respectively, followed by France (56 per cent) and Australia (52 per cent).

Due to strict privacy laws restricting the use of behavioural data, traditional publishers resisting change and are slow to develop ecosystem infrastructure, the proportion will be significantly smaller in Japan (40 per cent), Germany (33 per cent), Spain (31 per cent) and China (23 per cent), the report said.

However, considering the size of the digital markets in Japan and China, US$4.1 billion and US$3.5 billion respectively, Magna Global predicts that the total volume of these two countries will ultimately be bigger than any other overseas market by 2017.

The research points out that RTB is being used for more premium formats by more premium publishers and more extensively for branding campaigns. In addition, brands are increasingly unifying programmatic campaigns and cross-referencing campaign tracking data between display and video.

Magna Global has recently launched the Magna Consortium with A+E Networks, AOL, Cablevision, Clear Channel Media and Entertainment, ESPN and Tribune, to establish what it calls an end-to-end integrated programmatic-buying business model to drive automation across all media transactions.