70% of marketers to increase programmatic spend in 2017

Almost 70% of B2B marketers plan to increase their spending on programmatic advertising in 2017, according to a new Dun & Bradstreet report.

Of that figure, a considerable 22% indicated they will increase spend by more than 25%, while just 3% anticipated decreasing it.

The report follows several recent studies reinforcing the growing year-on-year adoption of programmatic: 65% of marketers are currently buying or selling advertising programmatically, an upturn from 54% last year.

However, the practice is not free from challenges: a huge 42% identify targeting as an obstacle, 34% said the same for measurement, while 29% owned up to having a lack of knowledge.

Facebook was found to be by far the most popular social media channel for paid targeting with an adoption rate of 63%, as opposed to LinkedIn’s 39% and Twitter’s 36%.

The rise of data-driven tactics is not limited to programmatic: over four in 10 marketers are using a data management platform (DMP) to analyse customer data.

According to research by Forrester, just 20% of programmatic spend will be invested in open ad exchanges (versus 65% today) by 2021.

Ashu Garg, general partner at Foundation Capital, commented: “In the last year to 18 months, there’s been a shift with B2B companies doing more programmatic media buying.

“[What’s behind this shift] is the ability to get much more precise targeting from niche segments and audiences across platforms, whether that be social, display or video platforms.

“I think in 2017 we will see a step change in the use of programmatic media buying by B2B companies.”

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