Digiday+ Research: How programmatic shook out for publishers in 2024

This is according to Digiday+ Research surveys of close to 50 publisher professionals conducted in Q1 and Q3 of this year.

Digiday’s surveys found that the vast majority of publishers are getting at least a little bit of revenue from programmatic ads as the year comes to a close. Eighty-six percent of publisher pros said in Q3 that at least a very small portion of their revenue comes from programmatic, up slightly from 82% in Q1.

Digiday’s survey also found that more publishers are getting a larger amount of revenue from programmatic at the end of this year than they were in the beginning, albeit by a small margin. Thirty-six percent of publisher pros said in Q3 that they get a large or very large portion of their revenue from programmatic ads, compared with 33% in Q1.

But more publishers are also getting just a small amount of revenue from programmatic. A full quarter of publisher pros (25%) said in Q3 this year that they get a very small or small portion of their revenue from programmatic, up from 17% in Q1.

At the same time, fewer publishers said in the later part of this year that they’ll put a large focus on building their programmatic ads business in the next six months, while more said they’ll put just a small focus on building that part of their business. Forty-seven percent of publisher pros told Digiday in Q3 that building their programmatic business will be a large or very large focus in the next six months, down from 53% in Q1. Meanwhile, 16% said in Q3 they’ll put a very small or small focus on building their programmatic business in the next six months — a small percentage, sure, but a significant increase from the 7% who said the same in Q1.

It is worth noting that most publishers have plans to focus at least a little on building their programmatic ads business in the coming months: 84% of publisher pros said in Q3 that they’ll put at least a very small focus on that part of their business in the next six months, up slightly from 82% who said the same in Q1.

Of the publishers who make money off of programmatic ads, Digiday’s surveys found that the percentages who get at least a little revenue from both direct-sold programmatic ads and open market programmatic ads went up this year. In Q1, 80% of publisher pros said they got at least a very small portion of their programmatic revenue from direct-sold ads, compared with 90% in Q3. And 80% said in Q1 they got at least a very small portion of programmatic revenue from the open market, compared with 92% in Q3.

The open market rules when it comes to publishers’ programmatic revenue, though. The highest percentage of publishers who get revenue from open market programmatic ads said they get a large or very large portion of their programmatic revenue from that source (49% said this). Meanwhile, the highest percentage of publishers who get revenue from direct-sold programmatic ads said that source accounts for a very small or small portion of their revenue (40%).

However, Digiday’s surveys found that the percentage of publishers who make a lot of money from direct-sold programmatic ads has gone up significantly this year, while the percentage making a lot from open market programmatic ads has gone down. Thirty percent of publisher pros told Digiday in Q3 of this year that they get a large or very large portion of their programmatic revenue from direct-sold ads, up from just 17% in Q1. And 49% said in Q3 they get a large or very large portion of their programmatic revenue from the open market, down from 54% in Q1.

In other words, direct-sold programmatic ads are showing growth potential heading into 2025.