“Advertising in a cookie-free mobile app environment where users spend much of their digital time is complicated and difficult,” said Eric Haggstrom, forecasting analyst at eMarketer. “Social networks prove to be the major exception. They’ve made it relatively easy to target audiences at scale in an in-app environment.”
Since our April 2019 forecast, we’ve increased our estimates for social as a portion of total programmatic thanks to stronger-than-expected performance from social networks, such as Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat, and ongoing expectations that advertisers will continue to seek out social networks and other walled gardens over the next 24 months.
“These sites have the scale and identity capabilities that advertisers want,” said Lauren Fisher, principal analyst at eMarketer. “That matters, particularly as we enter into a world where privacy restrictions are making it harder for advertisers to track, target and measure.”
For more on our latest US programmatic ad spending estimates for mobile and video—or to get more information on how programmatic investment breaks down across the open markets, private marketplaces or programmatic direct—listen to this episode of "The Ad Platform," the advertising-specific segment of our "Behind the Numbers" podcast.