ANA, TAG TrustNet Launch Programmatic Transparency Benchmark

The ANA and TAG TrustNet have released early findings from their first quarterly Programmatic Transparency Benchmark Study.

Following the release of the ANA Programmatic Media Supply Chain Transparency Study late last year, the new benchmarking project seeks to collect, reconcile, and analyse ANA members’ log-level data to establish supply chain metrics against which individual marketers can regularly assess their own programmatic campaigns. The aggregated data will be released on a quarterly basis.

This work is vital to ANA members, as the 2023 study offered recommendations that would enable $22bn in industry-wide programmatic efficiency gains. Guidance was based on heavy advertiser spend on Made for Advertising (MFA) websites, multiple supply chain partners working on advertiser accounts and campaigns appearing on a very high number of suboptimal websites. A key conclusion was that about one-quarter of the money spent on programmatic advertising was wasted, with just 36 cents of every dollar that enters a DSP effectively reaching the consumer. Transaction costs such as DSP and SSP fees accounted for 29 percent of every dollar and invalid, non-measurable, non-viewable, and MFA impressions accounted for 35 percent.

According to these new 2024 findings (among 11 companies), the percentage of media dollars spent on MFAs has dropped from 15 percent to four percent, suggesting that advertisers are taking greater control following heavy press coverage of last year’s study results. The average number of websites and apps on which campaigns run have also dropped from 44,000 to 23,000, and a high percentage of advertisers have reduced their number of SSP and exchange partners.

ANA and TAG TrustNet are offering this new Benchmark service to ANA members on a limited basis. While all data will inform aggregate benchmarks, each participating advertiser will also receive its own confidential monthly metrics, including MFA activity, transaction costs, media quality (ad fraud, viewability), sustainability and DEI. Industry averages and recommendations will be released on a quarterly basis.

“Marketers face a critical challenge optimising their programmatic investment: information asymmetry, where sellers possess more or better information than buyers,” said Bob Liodice, CEO of the ANA. “This Benchmark is meant to correct this imbalance, empowering brands to regain line of sight into their full programmatic supply chain and paving a crucial pathway to more effective decision-making that drives growth in the open web programmatic ecosystem.”

Mike Zaneis, president and CEO of TAG TrustNet, reinforced Liodice’s thoughts. “Marketers need tools to help them address complicated challenges like waste in programmatic media,” he noted. “The ANA-TAG Trustnet Benchmarking initiative help marketers identify problem areas and ensure their investments in programmatic media reach intended audiences in environments where transparency, accountability and positive user experiences are the norm, not the exception.”

The first Benchmark report can be accessed here.