Digital Media Ad Spend Grew +18% in Q1 '24, the Biggest Quarter in Two Years, Fueled by Programmatic Buying

Guideline data shows Premium Programmatic deals were the fastest segment, nearly tripling the growth rate of Open Exchanges 

NEW YORK, May 23, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- In Q1 2024, large US advertisers expanded their overall ad spend +7% compared to the year prior. Digital Media carried that increase with +18%, the biggest quarterly growth since Q1'22.

That's according to new data from Guideline, the single source of truth for advertising spend and pricing data, which captures actual agency media investment from all major holding companies and most major independents.

Programmatic buying channels accelerated that trend, growing +33% in Q1 vs. direct-sold insertion orders at +12%. Within Programmatic channels, advertisers increased spending +19% on Open Exchanges over Q1 '23, while they added +52% to Premium Programmatic budgets, with Private Marketplaces (PMP) growing at a faster rate than Programmatic Guaranteed (PG) deals.

In Q1'22, Premium exchange transactions constituted 32% of the Guideline Pool's Programmatic ad dollars compared to 44% in Q1'24.

In conjunction with the release of this data, Guideline announced today the availability of Programmatic Marketplace intelligence, providing marketers with a holistic view into the entire programmatic marketplace.

"Advertisers continue to shift dollars from open exchanges and into premium programmatic deals in search of top-quality inventory, better targeting options, and safe environments for their brands," said Alberto Leyes, Head of Product Strategy, Data Solutions at Guideline. "As ad spend continues to proliferate across channels, the launch of our Programmatic Marketplace intelligence provides buyers and sellers with the transparent market view they need to trade in a growingly complex market."

Digital Video has been driving advertisers' shift to Programmatic ad channels. In Q1'22, 28% of OTT traded programmatically, compared to 43% in Q1'24. By comparison, in Q1'22 advertisers bought 36% of video ads in short-form content, "Online Video" (OLV), and a similar share, 38%, in Q1'24. The three biggest-spending advertiser Product Category Groups in Digital in Q1'24 were Consumer Packaged Goods (+23%), Tech (+7%), Pharma (+23%).

Guideline's ad spend and pricing solutions power deep levels of reporting granularity for both the buy and sell sides, including visibility into Publishers and Product Categories, and enabling a wide range of use cases for media owners, agencies, consulting companies, brands and financial investors as they optimize their media trading operations and drive new business.

To learn more about Programmatic Marketplace Insights, visit guideline.ai.

About Guideline 
Formed in 2020 as a partnership between Scott Knoll, David Hahn, Michael Iantosca, and GTCR, Guideline is the world's most trusted authority for accurate media data and collaborative planning tools to guide your advertising decisions. With the 2022 acquisitions of Standard Media Index and SQAD, as well as the 2023 acquisition of Mediaocean's Lumina, the company offers a single source of truth for advertising spend and pricing data that provides unprecedented accuracy and transparency across the media industry as well as a powerful centralized media planning platform that delivers collaboration, efficiency, and analysis across multiple global media teams and agencies in one interface. To learn more about Guideline, visit guideline.ai. Follow us on LinkedIn.

SOURCE Guideline