ADSCALE ANALYZER 2015: RETHINK ON THE SUPPLY SIDE

The level of programmatic buying is rising fast in Germany. On adscale, the high-reach marketer and supply-side platform for Germany, RTB accounts for 53 percent of sales on the desktop side and already 55 percent for mobile. A similar fast take-up rate is anticipated for video RTB. Moreover, the persistently high prices are leading to more advertising space being sold in automated trading. These are the findings of the current adscale Analyzer 2015, the purpose of which is to increase transparency on the market for online advertising.

Private marketplaces and open auctions share sales

Private marketplaces are driving the German market for digital advertising. These days, most publishers employ programmatic advertising – defined as the automated trading of digital advertising space – as an important sales channel. Website operators and marketers are making ever more inventory available for this purpose. Yet the breakdown is changing: while open auctions involving all bidders connected to the platform still accounted for 69 percent of sales in 2014 (first half of the year), this share now only totals 55 percent in 2015 (first half of the year). This means that private marketplaces already account for nearly half of all programmatic sales (45 percent) – as far as this relates to the Ströer Group, where adscale acts as the supply-side platform. The total sales from programmatic buying increased by one-third (33 percent) during the same period. This means that private marketplaces have expanded especially fast. So why are private marketplaces proving such a hit with publishers? This form of programmatic advertising is so popular because publishers retain control over their own inventory and can simultaneously make use of the efficiency of automated trading.

High take-up rates for mobile and video RTB 

Real-time bidding for advertising on mobile terminals (“mobile RTB”) only became established in Germany a few months ago. And yet mobile RTB already accounts for 55 percent of total mobile sales, which is even two percentage points more than on the desktop side. The fast take-up rate can be attributed to the high level of confidence that advertisers and publishers have in the technology (providers). For video RTB, adscale expects the RTB share of sales to reach a mid-double-digit percentage in just a few months. Video ads currently achieve very high full-view rates: between January and June, eight out of ten users watched the ad in full on the average (FVR 78.9 percent). The reasons are high-quality video inventory from publishers and emotional ads.

RTB gap closes

Prices on adscale are continuing to rise gently. It should be noted in this regard that the prices of campaigns booked via RTB and those purchased in the traditional way are converging. The reason for this is that the high prices achieved with RTB are pulling up those for conventional campaigns with them. Video advertising currently represents very good value for money on a CPC basis.

All the information about the development of the online advertising market is now available to download free of charge from www.adscale.de/en/analyzer. Selected charts from the adscale Analyzer 2015 can also be obtained upon request from [email protected].

Survey Method

The  calculation  presented  in  the  adscale  Analyzer  are  based  on  real-time  data  from  the supply-side platform’s database, which reflect both the supply and the actual bookings made on the exchange. As a result, the adscale Analyzer presents, for example, key indicators on the development of prices in the German online advertising market.  The survey brings transparency to the online advertising market and provides advertisers, publishers, and other market participants with comparison values and forecasts, as a service. The development within the SSP does not have to be identical to the development of the overall market. 

ABOUT ADSCALE

adscale is the high-reach marketer for Germany. As part of Ströer Group, a large provider of out-of-home and online advertising, this company offers advertisers and website owners a transparent exchange for digital advertising space with an extensive reach (display, video, mobile). Using the adscale supply-side platform, publishers can optimise their yield management through private deals and private auctions. By leveraging cooperation agreements with prestigious AGOF-affiliated marketers and by collaborating with all major media agencies, direct customers, and third-party suppliers, adscale combines reach with quality. In addition, business partners of the company benefit from different optimisation technologies (programmatic buying, targeting, data management platform) and a fair price/performance ratio. The adscale portfolio reaches 73.3% of internet users in Germany and 40.4 million unique visitors (comScore, July 2015) with online display advertising. For more information visit www.adscale.de/en