• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, October 3, 2016

Marketers will spend more to run ads through programmatic channels, but a study conducted in September shows a rise in the number who choose not to  transact programmatically: 24% in September 2016, vs. 22% in February 2016.

RBC Capital Markets on Monday released findings estimating that 13% of survey respondents spend more than 20%, and another 34% spend between 5% and 20% of their marketing budget through programmatic channels. The numbers are based on a survey of more than 1,000 advertising professionals.

When marketers were asked on which channels they will increase spending, programmatic and Facebook tied for No. 1, with 64% saying they would increase spending for each, down from 70% in February. Only 6% plan to “modestly decrease” or “significantly decrease” allocations to programmatic, up slightly from 4% in the February survey.

Some 51% of marketers say their return on investment from programmatic has "dramatically improved" or "somewhat improved" in the past six months, a decrease from the 55% in February 2016 and 58% in September ‘15 who saw the same improvements.

Only Facebook had a higher percentage of respondents who said ROI from ad spend had “dramatically” or “somewhat” improved by 60%, while other media came in lower, such as Google at 42%, YouTube at 29% and Twitter at 25%.

Marketers say ad blocking will have the most negative impact on the programmatic channel. Some 74% expect to see a "significantly negative" impact or "somewhat negative" impact, down from 78% in February. Just 10% believed that ad blocking could have any sort of positive impact, up from 8% in February.

The researchgauged the overall industry sentiment toward online advertising, showing that 64% of marketers said they will increase spending on Facebook; 52% Google; 45%, YouTube; and 26% on Twitter.