Machine-based ad trading is leading to fewer human interactions, but that hasn't stopped marketers from getting social. A new report notes that social ad buys represent nearly 30% of all exchange-based traffic. The data comes from Neustar's January 2015 media intelligence report, which analyzes over 121 billion ad impressions.

Advertising agencies are planning to increase their use of programmatic ad tech in 2015, but that doesn't mean they fully trust it. In fact, only about one-in-four agencies (24%) trust programmatic to properly execute ad orders, with one-third saying they are still "unsure" if they trust the tech.

The programmatic ad market took the oddest of steps this week when Time Inc. and MediaMath teamed to offer print ads via a programmatic platform that initially only facilitated digital ad trades. Programmatic ad tech is viewed as new, fast, efficient and the future. Print has been left for dead by some and is viewed as old and forever one step behind digital.

The anti-piracy program unveiled Tuesday by the ad industry group known as the Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG) serves as a reminder that the digital ad industry's quality concerns run deep. The group, which was launched by the IAB, ANA and 4As last year, is on a mission to help clean up digital advertising. They are calling the anti-piracy initiative the first part of a larger campaign against click fraud, malware and a general lack of transparency.

"Real-time marketing" at this year's Super Bowl was less about reacting to unplanned moments and more about preplanned mini campaigns -- or the launch of new campaigns entirely. According to Don Mathis, CEO of social marketing firm Kinetic Social, that was the plan all along. But at what point do the "war rooms" used become so elaborate, so filled with people, that it slows down a process that's meant to be fast? The rooms become more involved, but the end result is the same: a single tweet.

Twitter released its Q4 2014 earnings on Thursday, reporting advertising revenue of $432 million, nearly double what it was one year ago. And mobile ad revenue made up 88% of that $432 million (about $380 million). Twitter said on its earnings call that their exchange business doubled year-over-year, "so if last year 4Q was $12mm, then this quarter it is $24mm, which would be around 5% of total," remarked Brian Wieser, senior analyst at Pivotal Research.

For the vast majority of digital marketers, non-human traffic is not a debilitating problem. A new comScore study reveals that for 79% of digital campaigns, non-human traffic accounts for fewer than 5% of the ads bought and sold (with an average of 1%). For 14% of campaigns, non-human traffic makes up 5%-20% of the pool, and for the remaining 7% of campaigns, over 20% of the ads bought are delivered to bots. The data comes from comScore's most recent report: "The Value of a Digital Ad."

Google disabled over half a billion "bad ads" -- 524 million of them, to be exact -- from its networks and exchanges in 2014, according to a blog post the search giant published this week. That's nearly 200 million more than the 350 million "bad ads" Google removed from its systems in 2013, which was up from 220 million in 2012.

In Q4 2014, viewability rates for display ads bought and sold on networks and exchanges increased slightly to 42.6%, up from 36.7% a quarter before. It's better than going backward, but nobody is asserting "mission accomplished." While the rate of 42.6% in Q4 was better than Q3, it's still worse than Q2 (45.3%) and Q1 (51.3%) of last year. The data comes from Integral Ad Science's quarterly media report.

Rather than latching on to a single moment, each brand tried to create its own conversation during Super Bowl XLIX, and many were tied to a TV spot that had been purchased. Coca-Cola, for example, tried mightily to make #MakeItHappy happen. It was relatively successful, but it wasn't a slam dunk. Amobee, a mobile ad firm, analyzed social data from last night's game and found that Twitter users' sentiment around Coca-Cola was 60% positive. It was the second-most popular advertiser on the night, per Amobee.