A Guide to the Future of Programmatic Advertising

The first platform to operate with programmatic advertising was Google Adwords in October 2000. In 2024, confidence in programmatic advertising as a commercially useful technology to buy and sell digital ads has progressively grown and grown. 

The future of programmatic advertising technology looks exciting, and programmatic adoption is on an upward trajectory and showing no signs of slowing down soon. 

Learn more in this guide to the future of programmatic advertising and what’s in store for advertisers in the years to come.

Programmatic Advertising Spending Will Increase Across the Board

Elevated levels of trust in programmatic advertising due to its ability to scale campaigns, and improve targeting, and cost efficiency. Programmatic ads average as low as £0.50-£5 CPM.

Increased trust is reflected in sharp growth in spending on programmatic advertising in recent years. In terms of the future of programmatic advertising spending worldwide, industry research has forecast that programmatic advertising spending will increase by 725.51 billion US Dollars, with a yearly growth rate of 38.83% between 2023 and 2028. 

Programmatic Digital Out-of-Home Will Become More Prevalent 

One of the key trends in the future of programmatic advertising will be a move towards further integration with Digital Out-of-Home campaigns. In a pDOOH industry survey in September 2023, 30% of marketers worldwide responded that they only solely bought DOOH ads programmatically.

Programmatic DOOH has a much wider reach than targeted digital marketing campaigns and it’s able to connect with outdoor audiences in a non-intrusive way.

At Drovo, we are the first to market with eye-catching DOOH screens, which are available to buy programmatically. With our high-resolution double-sided car screens, we are able to provide location-based targeting, down to focussing on an area around a specific store, point of interest, landmark, or street in London.  

Our moving media format increases your street-level reach and displays your brand messaging to audiences in urban places where other advertisements and billboards aren’t present or simply not feasible. 

Drovo’s programmatic DOOH campaigns offer unique advertising opportunities and maximum impact.

Programmatic DOOH  Responds in Real-Time to Real-World Triggers

Another exciting development for the future of programmatic advertising in DOOH is outdoor campaigns being able to respond to real-world triggers, thereby showing outdoor audiences contextually relevant ads that correlate with the current environment they are experiencing. 

For example, our screens are able to change due to changes in weather conditions such as 

• Temperature
• Rain
• Snow

What’s more, buying ads on an automated programmatic DSP platform is a rapid process, so lead times for setting up programmatic DOOH ads and them going out live on the streets are minimal, a matter of minutes. 

The time efficiency of buying DOOH ads programmatically will continue to help save advertisers and brands valuable time.

Improved Targeting 

One of the main benefits of programmatic ad buying across all formats that is attracting more and more businesses and organisations is its efficient serving of relevant impressions to audiences in the right spaces. 

In a research project survey, 54% of marketing professionals saw improved targeting as one of the main benefits of programmatic advertising. 

Spotify is an example of a platform that has benefited from the improved targeting of programmatic advertising to help it attract more subscribers. 

Spotify analyses user behaviour and music listening preferences data to deliver highly personalised programmatic ads to users. As of 2023, Spotify had an impressive 220 million subscribers, enjoying a year-on-year increase of 17%.

Continued Rise of Connected TV Programmatic Advertising

The number of people watching television and films via streaming on smart TVs or mobile devices has catapulted. Advertisers will therefore increasingly look to serve programmatic ads to CTV audiences in the best placements.

According to a report from IAB Europe in 2021, 19% of advertisers decided to allocate between 21-40% of their programmatic budget to connected TV ads.

Growth of Programmatic Audio Advertising

Programmatic audio advertising is set to continue to grow. Podcasts have grown in popularity in recent years, there are over 464 million podcast listeners worldwide, this is a large engaged audience for advertisers to connect with.

Programmatic podcast ads will continue to expand and advertisers will take advantage of its enhanced targeting and personalised advertising capabilities.