The Economist reports on concerns over ad fraud and fragmentation in the overly crowded ad tech space noting that programmatic media buying and selling was supposed to make online advertising
easier. While in some ways, it has. In many ways, it's made the process more complex. "The trading of online ad slots is as complex as it is fiendishly fast. Thousands of firms jostle to analyse
consumer data and buy, sell and monitor ads. Middlemen repackage 'inventory' (as ad slots are known in the business), then sell it to other middlemen. An ad impression sold programmatically can change
hands 15 times before finally being bought by an advertiser, notes Peter Stabler, an analyst at Wells Fargo, a bank," states the report. The Interactive Advertising Bureau's Randall Rothenberg weighed
in as well: “We have an immature supply chain that is constantly evolving,” which brings both "innovation and headaches".
Read the whole story at The Economist »
