Reflecting On 2024 – Expert Insights on the Programmatic Industry
As the digital advertising landscape continues to evolve, programmatic advertising remains at the forefront of innovation, shaping the way brands…
As the digital advertising landscape continues to evolve, programmatic advertising remains at the forefront of innovation, shaping the way brands connect with audiences. The year 2024 is poised to bring a wave of advancements, challenges, and opportunities that will redefine the programmatic industry yet again.
To gain insight into what lies ahead, we’ve consulted top industry experts—leaders in ad tech, data analytics, and media buying—to share their perspectives on the biggest challenges, trends, fears and strategies that allowed them to thrive in programmatic advertising. Through the growing importance of AI and innovation, to the key success metrics, their views offer a comprehensive summary of 2024’s dynamic programmatic landscape.
We asked 6 questions:
- Looking back at 2024, what was the biggest challenge this year?
- How has the programmatic advertising landscape evolved for publishers in 2024, and what trends have had the biggest impact on your strategies?
- What are the biggest fears or concerns heading into 2025, and how are you preparing to address them?
- With the growing importance of AI, how do you see its impact on the ecosystem?
- What technological innovations do you think will define the next wave of digital publishing, and how are you preparing to leverage them?
- To measure your success, what key indicators have you been focusing on this year? Will that change in 2025?
Here are their thoughts.
Looking back at 2024, what was the biggest challenge this year? – Finding ways to keep-up our margin while the display media spends are generally stagnating. Also navigating through the complexity of programmatic media selling at the same time. In parallel we can feel that traditional media houses compete heavily with social media and the still increasing spend on these platforms.
How has the programmatic advertising landscape evolved for publishers in 2024, and what trends have had the biggest impact on your strategies? – Contextual advertising was one of our biggest focus areas. Offering alternatives to the slowly but surely signalless traffic. We have a quite high iOS traffic share in Switzerland, and were very early on forced to act. Now we offer Contextual & Data Cleanroom targeting.
What are the biggest fears or concerns heading into 2025, and how are you preparing to address them? – Traffic Decrease due to AI Agents – something we can’t have an effect on, [we address them by] changing User behaviour.
With the growing importance of AI, how do you see its impact on the ecosystem? – Currently I do not see too much impact on our industry – GenAi will change the Buy side and agency industry first – but rather on the creation/creative end of things, but also real time campaign optimisation. Once agents are good enough trading and reporting can also be effected.
What technological innovations do you think will define the next wave of digital publishing, and how are you preparing to leverage them? – I think the market will try to find effective ways to lower the overall take rate – more direct integrations by large advertisers through header bidding integrations. (Adnuntius, TTD Open Path, etc.) Curation is now a buzzword, and will grow in use, but there are many players that do not add much value – although the ones with good signals and data could build a business around it.
To measure your success, what key indicators have you been focusing on this year? Will that change in 2025? – We optimize our entire corporation towards EBIT – but this year and next year is going to be the year of our DACH expansion and growth. So we also look to increase revenues. We will focus on increasing Impressions through new valuable inventory, as well as increasing overall CPM through new formats and data (data clean rooms or retail media offering)
Looking back at 2024, what was the biggest challenge this year? – The biggest challenge in 2024 was adapting to changes related to user privacy protection, particularly in the context of implementing regulations such as the Digital Markets Act and replacing third-party cookies with technologies based on first-party data. Additionally, managing performance and monetization in a header bidding environment required investments in infrastructure optimization and the development of partnerships with trusted technology providers.
How has the programmatic advertising landscape evolved for publishers in 2024, and what trends have had the biggest impact on your strategies? – The programmatic market for publishers has been dynamically developing thanks to:
- Header Bidding 2.0 – further improvements in server-side integration (server-to-server) and latency reduction.
- Expansion of AI and ML usage – better real-time user value forecasting, which enhanced auction efficiency.
- Growth in the role of contextual targeting – due to personal data limitations.
- Retail Media – collaboration with retail networks in the context of programmatic advertising based on sales data.
Publishers’ strategies were based on diversifying revenue sources, investing in analytical technologies, and implementing hybrid monetization models that combined subscriptions and advertising.
What are the biggest fears or concerns heading into 2025, and how are you preparing to address them?
– Key challenges include:
- Fully transitioning to a post-cookie environment – developing new user identification methods that are both effective and compliant with regulations.
- Managing ad quality – addressing issues such as ad fraud and improving user experience.
- Inflation in technology costs – rising prices of servers and infrastructure impacting publishers’ margins.
Preparations involve:
- Testing alternative solutions, such as Google’s Privacy Sandbox and other platforms based on aggregated data.
- Educating teams and collaborating with technology providers on privacy protection.
With the growing importance of AI, how do you see its impact on the ecosystem? – AI is becoming a key tool in:
- Automating bidding decisions – AI enables the analysis of more data in real time, leading to better advertising decisions.
- Content personalization – ads are more tailored to user needs without relying on sensitive data.
- Revenue optimization – AI supports dynamic CPM forecasting and better utilization of ad inventory.
However, the growth of AI in 2024 has necessitated increased transparency in algorithms and the explanation of decisions made by machines.
What technological innovations do you think will define the next wave of digital publishing, and how are you preparing to leverage them? – Universal IDs and cookieless solutions – identification standards will be crucial in the post-cookie era.
- Growth of video and CTV (Connected TV) – new video ad formats are attracting larger advertising budgets.
- Development of edge computing technologies – minimizing latency in programmatic bidding.
- Increased platform interoperability – integrations between publishers, SSPs, and DSPs will become smoother thanks to next-generation APIs.
Publishers are preparing by investing in research and development to remain competitive.
To measure your success, what key indicators have you been focusing on this year? Will that change in 2025? – Key Metrics in 2024:
- Viewability and CTR as measures of user engagement.
- eCPM – optimizing revenue per 1,000 impressions.
- Fill Rate – effectiveness in selling ad inventory.
Shifting Priorities in 2025:
- Ad quality metrics – such as brand safety and user experience.
- User value analysis – leveraging lifetime value more effectively through first-party data.
- Sustainability – greater focus on the energy efficiency of advertising operations.
Looking back at 2024, what was the biggest challenge this year? – For publishers and their programmatic revenue – especially from open auctions – 2024 brought two significant challenges:
- The anticipated deprecation of third-party cookies.
- Changes in requirements and rules for in-stream video ad placements.
Both issues posed a threat to the efficiency of monetizing inventory within the current technological ecosystem.
How has the programmatic advertising landscape evolved for publishers in 2024, and what trends have had the biggest impact on your strategies? – In my opinion, the programmatic market in 2024 developed relatively predictably, maintaining typical seasonality. A slight deviation from this ‘predictability’ occurred in March, where there was a noticeable increase in video ad spending, higher than expected. The reason for this, in my view, lies in the fact that new rules for in-stream video ad placements were set to take effect on April 1, and there was some uncertainty about how they would impact campaign executions.
What are the biggest fears or concerns heading into 2025, and how are you preparing to address them? – I perceive 2025 as a year that should be relatively stable, without major market surprises (knock on wood!). From our perspective, we aim to continue developing our advertising product, offering advertisers an increasingly broader range of options – both in open auctions and in premium programmatic sales. We also want to stabilize our current advertising setup, both in terms of ad tech and the partners we work with.
With the growing importance of AI, how do you see its impact on the ecosystem? – At this moment, from the perspective of programmatic on the publishing side, I don’t see a game-changing impact of AI. Of course, these tools can be used to automate reporting or alert processes, which can indirectly have a positive effect on performance. Perhaps on the buying side, AI may have a greater significance at this stage.
What technological innovations do you think will define the next wave of digital publishing, and how are you preparing to leverage them? – In our case, we will focus on developing strategies based on first-party data, regardless of Google’s decision to delay the deprecation of third-party cookies. There is also an observable trend of using, or rather testing, so-called soft paywall solutions. Perhaps this is a direction that some publishers will pursue.
To measure your success, what key indicators have you been focusing on this year? Will that change in 2025? – Always, the main indicator that determines whether we are doing a good job is the RPM level. This metric and its determinants will remain under constant control and will be of the greatest importance for this part of our business.
Looking back at 2024, what was the biggest challenge this year? – Privacy Regulations and Data Protection One of the most significant challenges in 2024 has been adapting to increasingly stringent privacy regulations and the evolving landscape of data protection laws. As third-party cookie deprecation continues, publishers and advertisers are focusing on first-party data and new methods of tracking, such as server-to-server connections or using first-party data in innovative ways. Additionally, ensuring compliance with GDPR, CCPA, and other privacy laws across different regions while maintaining effective advertising strategies has been a complex issue.
How has the programmatic advertising landscape evolved for publishers in 2024, and what trends have had the biggest impact on your strategies? – The programmatic landscape has shifted toward more privacy-conscious and transparent practices. In 2024, there has been a noticeable move from third-party data reliance toward first-party data and a growing emphasis on first-party identifiers. This shift has led to increased interest in contextual targeting and data clean rooms as tools for maintaining ad performance while protecting consumer privacy. Publishers are heavily investing in building their first-party data assets and creating new ways of engaging audiences through owned content.
With the growing regulations, publishers are using cookieless targeting strategies, such as contextual and cohort-based targeting. The continued expansion of CTV and digital video ad budgets, along with the ability to serve targeted ads to more fragmented TV audiences, has created new opportunities for publishers.
What are the biggest fears or concerns heading into 2025, and how are you preparing to address them? – Despite advancements in ad verification and safety measures, ad fraud remains a growing concern. As fraud tactics evolve, it will be crucial to stay ahead of these threats through continuous investment in verification tools and ensuring transparency.
With the growing importance of AI, how do you see its impact on the ecosystem? – AI is revolutionizing programmatic advertising and digital publishing by providing more efficient ways to target and serve ads, optimize campaigns in real-time, and understand user behavior with greater precision. AI-driven algorithms are enhancing targeting, bidding strategies, and content personalization.
What technological innovations do you think will define the next wave of digital publishing, and how are you preparing to leverage them? – As AI and machine learning continue to evolve, they will drive automation, personalization, and smarter ad targeting. Publishers will increasingly use immersive formats to create more engaging advertising experiences that blend seamlessly with content, especially in e-commerce, entertainment, and gaming.
To measure your success, what key indicators have you been focusing on this year? Will that change in 2025? – With stricter privacy laws, consent rates and data opt-ins will be a more important metric to track. More advanced models that can better track cross-channel engagement will become critical as the ecosystem becomes more fragmented.
As green advertising becomes a priority, environmental and sustainability indicators will also begin to play a role in measuring success.
Tiago Costa Martins
Head of Digital Monetisation & Ad Operations, RTP (Portugal)
Looking back at 2024, what was the biggest challenge this year? – As someone new to the industry, I’d say one of the biggest challenges has been adapting to the rapid pace of technological advancements and understanding how to effectively implement them for growth.
How has the programmatic advertising landscape evolved for publishers in 2024, and what trends have had the biggest impact on your strategies? – In 2024, programmatic advertising has seen a surge in the adoption of video and native ad formats. The evolution of header bidding technologies and increased reliance on AI for optimization have significantly influenced publisher strategies, pushing us to experiment more and refine our approach.
What are the biggest fears or concerns heading into 2025, and how are you preparing to address them? – A key concern is keeping up with the continuous innovation in ad tech and ensuring our setup remains competitive. To address this, we’re focusing on improving operational efficiency, staying updated with emerging trends, and building strong partnerships with trusted solutions providers.
With the growing importance of AI, how do you see its impact on the ecosystem? – AI is proving transformative, helping publishers optimize ad delivery, improve user experience, and enhance ad performance. While I see AI as a game-changer, there’s also a need to ensure its implementation aligns with our overall strategic goals.
What technological innovations do you think will define the next wave of digital publishing, and how are you preparing to leverage them? – The next wave will likely be defined by advancements in video advertising, immersive ad formats, and more seamless integrations of ad tech platforms. We’re preparing by exploring new ad formats, testing innovative solutions, and continuously learning to adapt to changes in the landscape.
To measure your success, what key indicators have you been focusing on this year? Will that change in 2025? – This year, the focus has been on eCPM, fill rates, and overall revenue growth. In 2025, we aim to expand these metrics to include deeper insights into ad performance and audience engagement to ensure sustained growth.
By embracing new strategies, the future of programmatic advertising is full of opportunities for those ready to evolve with the landscape. Are you prepared to adapt and seize them in 2025?
