The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and the Data Center of Excellence released a forecast Wednesday that puts the amount marketers will spend on audience data, and solutions to
manage it, at about $19.2 billion in 2018.
“Programmatic advertising has taken a central role in the marketing landscape and this study shows how increasingly vital third-party data has
become as a result,” stated Orchid Richardson, vice president and managing director at the IAB Data Center of Excellence. “Third-party data provides insights — from geolocation to
interests and more — that can help brands deliver highly personalized messages to consumers and expand audience.”
The
State of Data 2018 was released at the IAB Data and Mobile Symposium in New York City on Wednesday.
The IAB pointed to programmatic advertising and identity management as part of the
catalyst for the 17.5% increase from the prior year. Companies are spending more money because it's easier to identify high-performing data, the report said.
Winterberry Group complied
the research. The forecast is based on primary research and analysis of financial information published by U.S. commercial data providers.
The IAB also released numbers that break down overall
spending and the growth. Digital is forecast to contribute $3.67 billion — up 36.9% — while terrestrial/PII will contribute $3.62 billion, up 2.5%. Transactional should contribute
$2.80 billion, up 3.5%. Specialty and engagement should contribute $1.02 billion, up 50.9%, and Identity about $0.85 billion, up 50.3%.
Platforms and technology that offer data activation help
to determine accuracy and the ability to take action on audience data, while providing contextual brand safety. The report analyzed these in two categories.
The first — data
management, processing and integration — rose 25.1% to $4.97 billion. The second — analytics, modeling and segmentation — rose 2.9% to $2.26 billion.