Demographics remains strongest targeting segment in Programmatic

The data relates to the German market. According to the data, demographic target group segments still account for 55 percent of the total revenue generated with data purchases. Far more specific interest segments account for only 28 percent. There is also still a lot of potential in the so-called custom segments. These are segments in which a target group is put together individually for a campaign on the basis of specific characteristics. Even though they are technically very easy to implement, they have not yet played a major role in programmatic advertising (10 percent). For the Programmatic Data Report, Emetriq analyzed the total revenues of all DSPs marketing Emetriq segments in the period from July 2018 to June 2019.

Stephan Jäckel, Managing Director at Emetriq: "Programmatic advertising has grown rapidly in recent years. The industry raves about customer centricity, hypertargeting, and micromoments, but our analysis shows that the opportunities for this are far from being exhausted. The still-popular broad demographic targeting segments have their uses, of course, but it's worthwhile for media planners to test alternatives. As the report shows, there is still an almost untapped playing field here and thus an opportunity to gain competitive advantage." 

Media planners primarily target age and gender

The evaluation shows that a lot of potential is still being wasted in the selection and purchase of targeting data: the targeting repertoire of most media planners is limited primarily to the age and gender of users, i.e. demographic segments, or to occupational or marital status. Targeting on families (with children) is also popular among many planners. However, the diversity of interest segments around hobbies or leisure activities is far from being exploited for campaign management.

Service providers are frontrunners in demographic bookings

For agencies and advertisers, the ratio between demographic and interest bookings is 50 to 30 percent and 46 to 39 percent respectively. For marketers, the gap is even wider: more than three quarters (79 percent) of bookings in the analyzed period were in demographic segments, and only 17 percent in interest segments. Programmatically targeted advertising is aimed almost exclusively at consumers. 93 percent of the data is used for B2C marketing. However, programmatic advertising is also finding its way into B2B communication. Seven percent of the data sales of all buyers were in B2B segments. Agencies and marketers book the lion's share. Only 14 percent of B2B advertisers are active themselves. This outsourcing is due to a lack of resources and specialist know-how.

Overall, agencies in particular are increasingly focusing on programmatic campaigns and driving the topic forward in the market. However, the German programmatic market remains intransparent. "There are only a few valid figures that we can use to clearly assess the status quo. As Germany's largest collaborative data pool, we feel it is our responsibility to counter this and provide orientation," explains Jäckel. "Based on the new findings, we outline current benchmarks. The report is intended to help media planners discover the many as yet untapped opportunities that programmatic and the right data offer."