Digiday+ Research: Who do marketers and publishers blame for the proliferation of MFAs?

Digiday+ Research surveyed brand, retailer, agency and publisher professionals in the second quarter to find out how the industry got here. What we found was that publishers definitively feel they don’t hold blame for the proliferation of MFAs, while a significant percentage of marketers admit that advertisers do have some responsibility in the matter.

Among the options given in the survey, Digiday found that publishers feel supply- and demand-side platforms are to blame for the growth of MFAs more than any other group. The largest percentage of publisher pros (60%) said they agree that SSPs are to blame for the proliferation of MFAs, followed closely by DSPs, which 58% said they agree are to blame.

It’s also worth noting that well over half of publishers (57%) said they agree that advertisers are to blame for MFAs’ growth in the industry. And nearly a quarter (21%) said they strongly agree that advertisers are to blame.

On the other hand, Digiday’s survey found that publishers definitely don’t feel they are to blame for MFAs’ rise in digital advertising. (We talked about publishers’ desire to distance themselves from MFAs in an earlier research article.) Just 29% of publisher pros said they agree that publishers are to blame for the proliferation of MFAs — publishers accounted for the smallest percentage of publisher respondents who agreed that they’re to blame for MFAs, putting publishers in a distant fifth place after the 47% who said they agree ad verification vendors are to blame.

In fact, more than half of publisher pros (53%) said they disagree that publishers are to blame for the proliferation of MFAs. And, breaking down the data a bit further, the largest percentage of publisher respondents fell into the “strongly disagree” category, with nearly a third (31%) saying they strongly disagreed that publishers are to blame.

Digiday’s survey found that marketer respondents are taking a bit more of a diplomatic approach to the topic, with no huge gaps to report between the percentages of marketers who agree each different group is to blame for the growth of MFAs. However, the largest percentage of marketers did say that they agree publishers are to blame.

Fifty-eight percent of brand, retailer and agency pros told Digiday they agree that publishers are to blame for the proliferation of MFAs, followed by SSPs, which 56% of marketers agreed are to blame. In both cases, though, marketers didn’t report feeling particularly strongly about either group’s role in the rise of MFAs. Forty-three percent of brand, retailer and agency pros said they agree only somewhat that both publishers and SSPs are to blame, while just 15% said they agree strongly that publishers are to blame and 13% agree strongly that SSPs are to blame.

Interestingly, the third-highest percentage of marketers agreed that advertisers themselves are to blame for the proliferation of MFAs, Digiday’s survey found. More than half of brand, retailer and agency pros (54%) said they agree that advertisers are to blame. Again, though, the marketers who agree only somewhat that advertisers are to blame make up most of that group — 39% of marketers said they agree somewhat that advertisers are to blame for the proliferation of MFAs, while only 15% said they agree strongly.