ANA’s survey: Marketers increase their capability of programmatic media buying

More marketers are increasing their in-house ad-buying capabilities due to growing concerns around fraud and transparency of advertising operations, according to the latest survey from Association of National Advertisers (ANA) and Forrester. The survey -conducted in February and including responses from 128 ANA members- showed that 31% respondents expanded their in-house capabilities to manage and supervise programmatic ad-buying. Also they adopted several steps to address their concerns: 62% said they’re requesting detailed work guidelines and reporting from their agencies. “While programmatic buying indeed offers benefits, it suffers from a complex and non-transparent supply chain” said Bob Liodice, President-CEO of the ANA. “And that is wasteful. The industry and marketers in particular, would greatly benefit from a rethink of the entire digital supply chain.” 70% cited higher robot fraud in programmatic buys as a concern, and 64% said the lack of transparency in the costs associated with the programmatic supply chain. The survey, being presented at the ANA’s Media Leadership Conference, comes a year after the advertiser trade organization intensified its focus on the topic of media transparency. Since then, the ANA has hired two firms -K2 and Ebiquity- to investigate the issue.