Report: B2B Marketers Are Using More Programmatic Ads in 2016

As B2B marketers look ahead to 2017, a new report designed to gauge their use of programmatic advertising shows that they are already turning to this tactic to achieve marketing goals.

The “Tipping Point for B2B Programmatic Advertising” study published by Dun and Bradstreet found that 65 percent of B2B marketers currently buy or sell advertising programmatically. This is up from 54 percent in 2015.

Looking ahead to 2017, nearly 70 percent stated that they intend to increase how much they spend on programmatic advertising, and 22 percent said they will do so by more than 25 percent.

However, B2B marketers recognize the challenges ahead of them in terms of utilizing programmatic advertising more frequently. More than half of respondents (59 percent) said they do not have a “really clear idea” of what programmatic ad buying is. Additionally, 35 percent of B2B marketers said they are unclear of how to use programmatic ads to identify and reach new prospects and customers.

“As programmatic buying becomes more common, B2B organizations will need to increase their in-house capabilities, bringing in marketers with more experience in buying and managing data-driven campaigns,” wrote the authors of the report.

How In-House Marketers Budget for Programmatic Ad Spend

Earlier this year, in-house marketers were forecasting a notable increase in their budget for programmatic advertising in 2016. The “Search Marketplace Report” from Hanapin Marketing discovered that 20 percent of in-house marketers expected their 2016 budgets to rise for programmatic.

Google (49 percent) and social advertising (22 percent) were also areas where in-house marketers predicted more budget increases this year.