1. BENCHMARK REPORT
DIGITAL MEDIA BUYING
H1 2015
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

2. Table of contents
2
+ Executive summary 3
+ Methodology and respondent profile 4
+ Budgeting benchmarks 5
+ Programmatic buying benchmarks 7
+ Media buying by channel
- General trends 9
- Display 11
- Video 13
- Mobile 15
- Social 17
- Search 19
+ About Industry Index Research 21

3. Executive summary
+ The digital marketing mix is in flux: Traditional display media is giving way to
video and mobile from a budgeting standpoint, and programmatic buying is
growing across every channel, including offline mainstays such as TV.
+ Efficiency, targeting and value are the name of the game, which explains the
growth we are seeing in programmatic. These terms came up repeatedly when
respondents were asked to name the key benefits of programmatic buying.
Such benefits were offset by transparency, viewability and inventory quality
challenges.
+ In general, with video ad spending rising on the desktop and mobile and across
channels including social, viewability has emerged as a major issue for
marketers and a key potential roadblock to increased digital ad spending.
+ Marketers are taking a full-funnel approach to their digital media campaigns,
looking to drive awareness, consideration, purchase and customer retention.
However, respondents indicated loyalty is not yet a key objective for their digital
campaigns. 3

4. Methodology and respondent profile
+ An online survey was fielded to 192 marketers between June 3 and
July 5, 2015. All respondents were verified through the Industry Index
platform. Respondents who completed the survey were given $10
incentives.
+ 86% of respondents indicated they work for agencies; 11% said they
work brand- or client-side and the remaining 3% indicated they work
for a publisher.
+ All respondents who completed the survey purchase or influence the
purchase of digital media.
4

5. BUDGETING BENCHMARKS

6. Highlights: Budgeting benchmarks
+ Among the media buyers we surveyed, one-quarter said that display
was the media type they primarily purchase or influence. Accordingly,
display accounted for the largest share of digital media spending, at
32% of reported budgets.
+ Mobile, video and social look to be the engines driving growth in digital
media spending. All three channels are expected to see healthy
increases in the year ahead.
+ Marketers cited the ability to target consumers across multiple
connected devices as a critical media objective, with 90% of
respondents saying it was very important or important. Although 52%
said they were satisfied or very satisfied with their current partners’
delivery against this objective, there was still a 38-point gap, indicating
an area where solutions providers can improve their performance.
6

7. PROGRAMMATIC BUYING
BENCHMARKS

8. Highlights: Programmatic buying benchmarks
+ Programmatic has become a digital media buying mainstay. More than
three-quarters (76%) of respondents said they buy media through
programmatic channels or platforms.
+ A small albeit growing percentage of marketers have dedicated
programmatic budgets, but for the most part, programmatic buying is
drawing from existing media budgets.
+ Marketers cited several key attributes as very important or important
when evaluating programmatic solutions, including inventory quality,
transparency, fraud prevention, cross-channel capabilities and ability to
integrate with their existing ad-tech solutions. Satisfaction scores with
current partners on all these attributes revealed a sizable delivery gap.
+ Programmatic continues to struggle with balancing the perceived
benefits of efficiency with the challenges of transparency, inventory
quality and viewability. 8

9. MEDIA BUYING BY CHANNEL
GENERAL TRENDS

10. Highlights: General media buying trends
+ With the exception of search, branding and awareness were the leading goals
for all the media channels we evaluated. Search was unique for its focus on
purchasing, cited by 88% of respondents as their goal for the channel within
their marketing plan.
+ Despite the widespread availability of alternative pricing structures, the cost-
per-thousand (CPM) is still the leading choice of marketers across the
channels included in this study.
+ Marketers pointed to a host of obstacles preventing them from budgeting
more to digital. These varied by channel: Viewability dominated for display
and video; cookie limitations were the top challenge for mobile; attribution
topped the list for search and social.
+ Marketers apply a host of KPIs to assess the success of their digital media
campaigns. Engagement and video views were the top metrics overall. The
venerable click-through rate (CTR) continues to be relevant across all
channels. 10

11. MEDIA BUYING: DISPLAY

12. Highlights: Display
+ Marketers currently invest in a broad array of display categories, led
by retargeting, ad networks and rich media. Media attribution, data
management platforms (DMPs), analytics tools and demand-side
platforms (DSPs) are the categories in which they are most likely to
invest over the next 12 months.
+ Respondents indicated they divide their display budgets across a
range of categories, led by ad networks, at 19% of the total. Overall,
four (out of a total of 15) categories accounted for half of marketers’
total display ad spending.
+ Display vendors are meeting or exceeding expectations for nearly all
of marketers’ key evaluation criteria, with the exception of
performance and ROI, where delivery lagged slightly.
12

13. MEDIA BUYING: VIDEO

14. Highlights: Video
+ Marketers currently invest in a broad array of video categories, led by
mobile video and video ad networks. They cited smart TV advertising,
interactive video and video curation as the categories in which they
are most likely to invest over the next 12 months. Other potential
growth areas include social video, DMPs and content creation.
+ Ad networks represent 25% of respondents’ video ad spending.
Overall, three (out of a total of 13) categories accounted for half of
marketers’ total video spending.
+ On average, video eCPMs were significantly higher than those for
traditional display categories.
+ Video vendors are meeting or exceeding expectations for all of
marketers’ key evaluation criteria.
14

15. MEDIA BUYING: MOBILE

16. Highlights: Mobile
+ Cross-channel/device advertising, location-based advertising, ad
networks and mobile video are the top categories in which marketers
currently invest. Mobile audiences and DSPs are the top areas in
which marketers anticipate increasing their spending over the next 12
months.
+ Mobile budgets are divided across 14 categories, led by location-
based and cross-channel advertising, at 20% and 17% of the total,
respectively. Overall, four categories accounted for nearly two-thirds
of marketers’ total mobile ad spending.
+ Mobile vendors are exceeding expectations for all of marketers’ key
evaluation criteria.
16

17. MEDIA BUYING: SOCIAL

18. Highlights: Social
+ Social networks and ad platforms lead all other categories when it
comes to marketers’ current social media investments, with social
video a distant second. Potential growth areas over the next 12
months include social commerce, influencer programs, rich media
and video.
+ Not surprisingly, social networks accounted for the largest
components of respondents’ social ad spending, at 45%, making it
the single largest budgetary category by share of spend across any of
the channels included in this survey.
+ Average eCPMs for social ad networks were lower than
corresponding display, video or mobile ad networks.
+ Social vendors are exceeding expectations for all of marketers’ key
evaluation criteria. 18

19. MEDIA BUYING: SEARCH

20. Highlights: Search
+ Search is unique among the channels evaluated in this survey in that
respondents cited purchasing as far and away their leading goal for
search within their marketing plans. For all other channels, branding
and awareness were the top goals.
+ Search also is the only channel in this survey for which respondents
selected online sales as the leading KPI for their campaigns.
+ Respondents indicated they allocate approximately two-thirds of the
search ad budgets to the desktop and one-third to mobile
(smartphone and tablet). However, mobile search is projected to
increase at roughly three times the rate of desktop search over the
next 12 months.
+ Search vendors perform best when it comes to delivering ROI, but
marketers still see attribution as a challenge. 20

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