• by Tyler Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_tyler, September 11, 2014

At dmexco 2014 on Thursday, the IAB Europe announced that the programmatic market in Europe was €2.08 billion ($2.69 billion) in 2013 -- up 111% from €0.98 ($1.27 billion) in 2012. IAB Europe teamed with IHS Technology to conduct the research.

All Quiet On The Western Eastern (European) Front

The IAB Europe/IHS Technology report also notes that while almost one-fourth (23.6%) of Western Europe’s 2013 display advertising revenue came from programmatic, just 9.5% of Central & Eastern Europe’s display ad revenue did. Combined (Western, Central & Eastern), 21.3% of display ad revenue came via programmatic in 2013.

Video, video, and mobile driving growth

Not a mistake -- video is supposed to be there twice. Video programmatic has an expected compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 82% from 2012-2018, while video (all) has a CAGR of 38.3%. Mobile is third with a 37.9% CAGR, while display programmatic is at 32.8% and display (all) is at 6.9%.

What “programmatic” meant in the report

Perhaps one of the most important questions when dealing with reports about “programmatic” is determining what “programmatic” actually means in the scope of the report. If a transaction used one of these four models -- automated guaranteed, unreserved fixed rate, invitation-only auction or open auction -- it counted as a “programmatic” trade, per the IAB/IHS report, “irrespective of the inventory owner’s awareness of their involvement.” 

That disclaimer at the end is interesting -- and probably worth its own blog post -- but I think the general definition given in the report is fair, if heavy on the jargon: “Advertising revenue that is generated through transactional or workflow automation mechanisms embedded in an infrastructure that relies on set rules applied by software and algorithms, commonly known as 'ad tech'."

The European programatic industry has been on the map this week, with an earlier Adform report saying that advertisers in Europe spent 52% more on programmatic in Q2 2014 compared to Q1 2014.

The full IAB Europe/IHS Technology can be found here.