Programmatic Is Way Forward for Brands, According to New IAB ReportHow are things evolving for programmatic mobile advertising?

Well, it’s liked — even though too few are taking the plunge, according to a new Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) study.

“Even though there has been a considerable trend toward programmatic online ad purchasing that has continued for several consecutive years, only a limited number of mobile marketing firms have used this media buying strategy,” explains Mobile Commerce News (MCN).

About 200 marketing executives were surveyed as part of the research conducted by Ovum.

The IAB report — “Marketer Perceptions of Mobile Advertising” — is the third annual report of its kind. This was the first time, however, that mobile marketing firm execs were queried on their opinions and usage of programmatic buying.

“Among the mobile marketing executives, 76 percent stated that they found programmatic buying to be important,” noted MCN. “Another 41 percent said that they believed that programmatic buying would assist them in being able to reach a certain targeted audience. This is a notably larger figure than the percentage that actually purchased mobile advertising programmatically, which was only 27 percent.”

“It was a little bit of a surprise to us, given the enthusiasm for buying mobile programmatically, that relatively few marketers are actually doing it today,” said IAB Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence senior director, Joe Laszlo.

Laszlo’s recommendations?

“One of the primary reasons that these marketers are not investing into programmatic ad buying is that there isn’t a broad range of different automated ad formats that can be purchased,” adds MCN. “The most popular ad type to buy in mobile programmatic is banner ads, and those don’t have very much draw to creative advertisers. To encourage greater purchasing, marketers need to be able to select from a greater range of options including video and rich media.”