by Laurie Sullivan @lauriesullivan, October 30, 2017

Some 32% of marketers plan to bring programmatic buying in-house, and more than 50% of marketers and agencies believe this complex job will ultimately become the responsibility of the brand.

Most advertisers see the benefits of programmatic buying in improved targeting, data, time and cost efficiencies — but concerns over fraud, brand safety and verification continue to rise, according to a new demand-side platform (DSP) Report from Advertiser Perceptions released Monday.

The findings suggest that 39% of advertisers cite fraud — up 12% from the October 2016 results, as the biggest concern. About 26% name brand safety, up 9%; and 25% cite verification, up 2%.

This could be the reason that seven of 10 brands still use agencies for programmatic buying, according to a new demand-side platform (DSP) Report from Advertiser Perceptions. The survey results compiled findings from more than 700 advertisers in June 2017, 52% from marketers and 48% from agencies, with 49% at the vice president level or higher.

When asked to name the companies that brands intend to work with during the next 12 months, Amazon and Google ranked at the top of the list above all, said Kevin Mannion, chief strategy officer at Advertiser Perceptions.

“When we asked brands participating in the study about who they use and intent to work with, Amazon and Google came to mind, Mannion said.

In fact, findings from the study suggest that Amazon — now the most preferred DSP by brands — leads with 39% compared with Google DoubleClick Bid Manager with 35%. Rocket Fuel and MediaMath follow, with 24% each. BrightRoll rounds out the top five with 22%.

Mannion said that in October 2016, brands looked at Amazon as more of a targeting partner. Now they view Amazon as more of a programmatic DSP partner with the ability to use the data across the company’s network of sites.

Advertisers primarily make the decision on the partners to work with based on audience reach, quality of post-campaign analysis, and ease of partnership. Google is perceived as providing the greatest audience reach and the most valuable campaign analytics and data, followed by Amazon and MediaMath, while Amazon and The Trade Desk are deemed the easiest to work with.

Overall, 80% of programmatic advertisers are accelerating or prioritizing programmatic ads. On average, brands use three DSPs.

Not all brands understand the functions of some companies providing DSP services. For example, 19% of advertisers recognize The Trade Desk as a DSP, although that is its sole function. And although they rely most on Google’s DoubleClick Bid Manager and the Amazon Advertising Platform, only 25% and 18% of advertisers, respectively, characterize these as DSPs.

MediaPost.com: Search Marketing Daily

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