ANA Study Finds Over $20 Billion In 'Efficiency Gains' Possible In Programmatic Advertising Spend

In a diplomatically worded report, on December 5, the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) published its updated study: "Programmatic Media Supply Chain Transparency Study: Complete Report." The report follows and updates its early 2023 "First Look" release on the same subject. The report paints a dark picture of the programmatic media supply chain, showing that, at most, 36 cents of every dollar spent on programmatic media by advertisers actually reaches the publisher. "Transaction costs" eat up about 29% of every dollar, while "loss of media productivity costs" account for roughly 35% – amounting to about $22 billion. The latter category consists of "Made For Advertising" (MFA) websites, non-viewable videos, theft, fraud, or other "non-measurable losses." This "loss of media productivity" is characterized as a shared problem of the entire industry. Advertisers are blamed for not having contracts that permit examination of log-level data that would allow them