• by Larissa Faw , July 27, 2016

Programmatic attracts many headlines, but the reality is that media buyers are still primarily focused on ad networks and publishers, says ad company research platform, Thalamus, whose latest feature sheds light into behaviors of ad buyers in over 140 countries. 

The research portal's new analytics tool opens up all of its back-end data on aggregated media buyer behaviors, revealing the most searched keywords, popular ad vendors, and top pricing models on its platform.  

Some of the more interesting findings isolate behaviors by country: showing that mobile as a channel is surging in Australia; Performance (CPI/CPA) is the most important goal for ad buyers in China; Ad networks are the most popular type of vendor in Russia; and cost-per-acquisition is the most popular pricing model for ad buyers in Turkey. 

"Many times you have ad buyers that are looking to expand to a new country, and don't even know where to start," says Garrett Gan, co-founder/CEO, Thalamus. "We've taken data on the worldwide usage of media buyers on our platform, and have now made it available to everyone." 

The results provide both commonly known and new pieces of information. For instance, the top searches in Canada include the familiar, such as Amobee and xAd, as well as the less known Glispa and GlobalWide Media.  

The data is sourced through the over 30,000 media buyers that use Thalamus monthly, aggregating their usage across the research platform. 

Ad buyers with early access to the data say they are impressed with its actionable insights. "With global data from Thalamus, we have a better grasp on growing market trends and what potential partners are available in each new region." says James Peng, head of mobile acquisition, Match Group. "This tool is a source of truth to know if we're talking to the right parties to build the best localized strategy." 

One key challenge in collecting all of this data is presenting the information in an easy to navigate platform. To that end, Thalamus' data is displayed with user-friendly graphics. Above all, the information plainly states what real media buyers are really doing, versus what they say they are doing, or plan to do.  

"There is no tool that empowers buyers," says Gan. "We are dedicated to solving the needs of buyers, and as a corollary, the needs of the industry at large. The information in our global data tool changes with every user interaction, and so usage trends can evolve daily." 

Advertisers can access the platform here.