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

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By Julia Tabisz • November 29, 2024 •

Ivy Liu

This research is based on unique data collected from our proprietary audience of publisher, agency, brand and tech insiders. It’s available to Digiday+ members. More from the series →

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Of the revenue sources from which publishers make their money , programmatic ads would be counted as one of the more volatile ones. And while programmatic ads have remained a significant source of revenue for publishers throughout 2024, it’s possible that in 2025 they could pull back from their focus on programmatic.

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 … Read More