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Data & Benchmarks March 17, 2026 • Last updated: March 2026

PROGRAMMATIC ADVERTISING
STATISTICS 2026

80+ up-to-date statistics on programmatic advertising. From market size and CPM rates to viewability, brand safety, DSP market share and cookieless targeting. Compiled from research by IAB, eMarketer, Statista, GroupM and more.

$725B

global programmatic market 2026

Source: eMarketer / Statista 2026

91.5%

of display ads transacted programmatically

Source: eMarketer 2026

72.4%

average display viewability rate

Source: IAS Media Quality Report 2026

€3.2B

programmatic spend in the Netherlands

Source: IAB Netherlands / Deloitte 2026

STATISTICS OVERVIEW

Programmatic advertising has fundamentally transformed the way brands buy digital ad inventory. What started as a niche technology for remnant inventory has grown into the dominant method for buying and selling all forms of digital media — from display and video to Connected TV and Digital Out-of-Home.

In 2026, more than 91% of all digital display ads are transacted programmatically. The market is growing at double digits, driven by CTV, retail media and AI-powered optimization. At the same time, the industry faces major challenges: cookieless targeting, ad fraud, brand safety and the growing power of walled gardens.

On this page you will find 80+ up-to-date programmatic advertising statistics, compiled from reports by IAB, eMarketer, Statista, GroupM, IAS, DoubleVerify and other reputable sources. Whether you want to benchmark your online advertising strategy, justify your programmatic budgets or assess the impact of cookieless targeting — you will find the data you need here.

Also check out our overviews of online advertising statistics in the Netherlands and video marketing statistics for the broader context of the digital advertising landscape.

MARKET
Section 1

MARKET SIZE & DIGITAL SPEND

$725B

global programmatic spend 2026

eMarketer 2026

+18%

YoY growth (2025–2026)

Statista Digital Advertising 2026

91.5%

of display ads are programmatic

eMarketer 2026

$198B

European programmatic market

IAB Europe 2026

Global market size

  • The global programmatic advertising market reaches $725 billion in 2026, up from $614 billion in 2025 — an 18% year-over-year increase (eMarketer Global Ad Spending Forecast 2026)
  • Programmatic accounts for 91.5% of all digital display ad spending worldwide, up from 88.2% in 2024 (eMarketer Programmatic Digital Display 2026)
  • By 2028, the market is projected to reach $1.04 trillion, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19.2% over 2024–2028 (Statista Digital Advertising Market Outlook)
  • Real-Time Bidding (RTB) makes up 62% of all programmatic transactions, while Private Marketplace (PMP) deals grow to 28% and Programmatic Guaranteed accounts for 10% (Index Exchange Market Report 2026)
  • The top 5 programmatic markets by spend are the US ($312B), China ($118B), the UK ($38B), Japan ($32B) and Germany ($24B) (GroupM Global Ad Spending Forecast)

Share of total digital ad spending

  • 72.8% of all digital ad spending worldwide is bought programmatically, including search, social and display (Magna Global Programmatic Intelligence 2026)
  • Display advertising programmatic penetration: North America 93.8%, Western Europe 91.2%, APAC 86.4%, Latin America 72.1%, MEA 58.3% (eMarketer Regional Breakdown)
  • Open exchange spending declines from 48% in 2023 to 36% in 2026, in favor of private marketplace deals rising to 42% (PubMatic Global Digital Ad Trends)
  • Programmatic video ad spending grows 24% YoY to $186 billion in 2026, driven by CTV and short-form video (IAB Video Ad Spend Report)
  • Mobile programmatic accounts for 68% of all programmatic spend, followed by desktop (19%) and CTV/OTT (13%) (InMobi Mobile Advertising Report 2026)

PROGRAMMATIC TRANSACTION TYPE BREAKDOWN 2026

Real-Time Bidding (Open Exchange) 36%
Private Marketplace (PMP) 42%
Programmatic Guaranteed 10%
Preferred Deals 12%

Source: Index Exchange Market Report 2026, PubMatic Global Digital Ad Trends

Section 2

CPM RATES & PERFORMANCE

$2.80

average display banner CPM

eMarketer 2026

$16.50

average programmatic video CPM

SpotX / Magnite 2026

$35.00

average Connected TV CPM

Innovid CTV Benchmark 2026

0.08%

average programmatic display CTR

Google Display Benchmarks

AVERAGE CPM BY PROGRAMMATIC FORMAT

Connected TV (CTV) $25.00 - $45.00
In-stream video (pre-roll/mid-roll) $12.00 - $25.00
Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH) $10.00 - $22.00
Native advertising $5.00 - $12.00
Out-stream video $5.00 - $10.00
Rich media / interstitial $3.50 - $8.00
Audio programmatic (podcasts/streaming) $8.00 - $18.00
Standard display banner $1.50 - $4.00

Source: eMarketer, Magnite, Innovid, IAB Programmatic Revenue Report 2026

Performance benchmarks

  • The average CTR for programmatic display is 0.08%, a slight decline from 0.10% in 2024, due to increasing banner blindness and stricter privacy settings (Google Display Network Benchmarks 2026)
  • Programmatic video CTR is significantly higher at 1.84%, with CTV ads achieving a completion rate of 95.2% (Innovid Global Benchmarks 2026)
  • Native programmatic ads generate 2.5x more engagement than standard display banners, with an average CTR of 0.20% (Outbrain/Taboola Industry Benchmarks)
  • The average cost per completed view (CPCV) for programmatic video is $0.04, a 12% decline from 2024 due to higher supply-side competition (SpotX Video Advertising Report)
  • PMP deals deliver 38% higher CPMs on average but also 2.1x higher viewability and 45% lower fraud rates compared to open exchange (PubMatic PMP Performance Analysis 2026)
  • Programmatic audio CPM rises 22% YoY to an average of $12.40, driven by podcast advertising and music streaming growth (Triton Digital Audio Report)
  • Retail media programmatic CPMs average $4.80 for display and $18.50 for sponsored product placements, 35–40% higher than regular programmatic CPMs due to higher intent data (Criteo Commerce Media Report)
VIEW
Section 3

VIEWABILITY & BRAND SAFETY

72.4%

display ad viewability rate

IAS Media Quality Report 2026

78.6%

video ad viewability rate

IAS 2026

3.4%

brand safety violations (display)

DoubleVerify 2026

96%

of advertisers use brand safety tools

ANA/ISBA Survey 2026

Viewability statistics

  • The global average viewability rate for programmatic display ads is 72.4% in 2026, a 4.2 percentage point increase from 2024 (IAS Media Quality Report H1 2026)
  • Video viewability rate stands at 78.6% — 6.2 percentage points higher than display — with in-stream video reaching 83.1% versus out-stream at 68.2% (DoubleVerify Global Insights Report 2026)
  • Desktop viewability (76.8%) is higher than mobile web (69.4%), but mobile in-app viewability leads at 80.2% due to more controlled environments (MOAT Analytics 2026)
  • Leaderboard formats (728x90) achieve the lowest viewability at 56%, while medium rectangle (300x250) reaches 71% and half page (300x600) scores highest at 82% (Google Active View Data 2026)
  • Viewability above 70% correlates with 2.4x higher brand lift and 1.8x higher conversion rates compared to impressions below the 50% viewability minimum (Campaign Monitor / GroupM Viewability Study)
  • IAB standard: a display ad is considered ‘viewable’ when at least 50% of its pixels are visible for at least 1 second in the viewable area of the screen; for video, the requirement is 50% visible for at least 2 seconds (IAB/MRC Viewability Guidelines)

Brand safety statistics

  • The percentage of brand safety violations in programmatic display dropped to 3.4% in 2026, down from 5.8% in 2023 — partly due to improved pre-bid filtering (DoubleVerify Global Insights 2026)
  • 96% of advertisers with a programmatic budget exceeding $1 million now actively use brand safety verification tools, up from 82% in 2023 (ANA Programmatic Transparency Study)
  • Brand suitability (stricter criteria beyond safety alone) is applied by 68% of premium advertisers, using custom content categorization and sentiment analysis (IAS Industry Pulse Report)
  • Made-for-advertising (MFA) websites still receive 15% of open exchange programmatic impressions, but this share is declining through industry-wide MFA blocklists and SPO initiatives (Jounce Media MFA Report 2026)
  • Video brand safety violations stand at 2.1% — lower than display — because premium video inventory is more often transacted via PMP deals (DoubleVerify 2026)
  • News environments generate 24% higher brand lift but are excluded by 41% of advertisers via keyword blocking, resulting in an estimated €2.4 billion in missed reach across Europe (Reuters Institute / NewsGuard Study 2026)
DSP
Section 4

DSP MARKET SHARE & AD FRAUD

DSP MARKET SHARE BY SPEND (WORLDWIDE)

Google DV360 (Display & Video 360) 28%
28%
The Trade Desk 22%
22%
Amazon DSP 16%
16%
Meta (Audience Network) 12%
12%
Xandr (Microsoft) 7%
7%
Magnite / DV+ / Other 15%
15%

Source: Jounce Media DSP Market Share Report 2026, eMarketer

DSP market share details

  • Google DV360 remains the largest DSP with 28% market share by spend, but is gradually losing ground to The Trade Desk, which grew from 18% in 2024 to 22% in 2026 (Jounce Media DSP Market Share Report)
  • The Trade Desk is growing the fastest among enterprise advertisers with +34% revenue YoY, driven by CTV and retail media integrations (The Trade Desk Q4 2025 Earnings)
  • Amazon DSP doubled its market share in 3 years from 8% to 16%, fueled by first-party shopping data and Amazon Prime Video ads (eMarketer Amazon Ad Revenue Forecast)
  • Self-serve DSP usage is rising: 64% of enterprise advertisers manage at least one DSP in-house, up from 41% in 2023 (Advertiser Perceptions In-Housing Study 2026)
  • Supply Path Optimization (SPO) drives consolidation: the average number of SSP partners per DSP dropped from 18 to 12 in two years (Jounce Media SPO Monitor 2026)

Ad fraud statistics

  • An estimated $84 billion is lost globally to ad fraud in 2026, a 15% increase over 2025 ($73B), driven by sophisticated bot networks and CTV fraud (Juniper Research Digital Ad Fraud 2026)
  • Ad fraud on open exchanges runs at 14–18% of all impressions, versus just 3–5% on Private Marketplace deals (White Ops / HUMAN Security Bot Baseline Report)
  • CTV ad fraud is growing exponentially with estimated losses of $3.8 billion in 2026 — a fourfold increase from 2023 — caused by device spoofing and inventory fabrication (DoubleVerify CTV Fraud Report)
  • Ads.txt and sellers.json adoption: 92% of the top 1,000 publishers use ads.txt, but only 61% implement the full sellers.json framework correctly (TAG Certified Against Fraud Compliance Report)
  • Invalid Traffic (IVT) rates by format: display 8.2%, mobile in-app 12.4%, desktop video 6.1%, CTV 18.7% (IAS Media Quality Report H1 2026)
  • Sophisticated Invalid Traffic (SIVT) — advanced fraud by bots mimicking human behavior — accounts for 62% of all ad fraud losses (HUMAN Security Annual Fraud Report)
  • Advertisers using pre-bid fraud filtering reduce their IVT percentage by an average of 82%, but only 58% of mid-market advertisers use it (DoubleVerify Advertiser Survey 2026)
CTV
Section 5

CTV & DOOH PROGRAMMATIC

$42B

global programmatic CTV spend

eMarketer CTV Ad Spending 2026

+38%

CTV programmatic YoY growth

IAB Digital Video Report

$4.8B

programmatic DOOH worldwide

DPAA / Statista 2026

95.2%

CTV video completion rate

Innovid CTV Benchmarks 2026

Connected TV (CTV) programmatic

  • Global programmatic CTV ad spend reaches $42 billion in 2026, a 38% increase over 2025 — the fastest-growing programmatic segment (eMarketer CTV Advertising Forecast 2026)
  • 76% of all CTV ad spend is now bought programmatically, up from 54% in 2023, as more streaming services open their inventory (Magnite CTV/OTT Report 2026)
  • CTV programmatic CPMs range from $25–$45, significantly higher than other formats, but offer a completion rate of 95.2% and 4.2x higher brand recall than display (Innovid Global CTV Benchmarks 2026)
  • Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video together now offer 18 billion programmatic impressions per month, compared to virtually zero in 2022 (Antenna Streaming Advertising Data)
  • Interactive CTV formats (shoppable ads, QR codes) generate 3.8x higher engagement rates and are used by 34% of CTV advertisers (BrightLine Interactive CTV Report)
  • The Netherlands has 8.4 million CTV households (94% of all TV households), of which 62% are reachable for programmatic advertising via ad-supported streaming (SKO / NLZiet / Screenforce Data 2026)
  • Frequency capping on CTV remains a challenge: the average CTV viewer sees the same ad 7.2 times per week, but cross-platform deduplication reduces this to 3.1 times for advertisers using unified frequency management (FreeWheel Video Marketplace Report)

Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH) programmatic

  • Programmatic DOOH spending reaches $4.8 billion worldwide in 2026, a 28% YoY increase — 34% of all DOOH spending is now transacted programmatically (DPAA Global DOOH Report 2026)
  • In Europe, pDOOH penetration is highest in the UK (42%), followed by the Netherlands (38%), Germany (31%) and France (27%) (JCDecaux / Hivestack European pDOOH Barometer)
  • Programmatic DOOH CPMs range from $10–$22 depending on location and format, with premium locations (airports, train stations) running up to 4x higher than street furniture (Vistar Media pDOOH Benchmark Data)
  • Trigger-based DOOH (ads responding to weather, time, events or audience data) generates 48% higher ad recall and is used by 52% of pDOOH advertisers (Clear Channel / Broadsign Case Studies)
  • The Netherlands has 14,200 digital screens available for programmatic buying, including 8,600 street furniture, 3,100 retail and 2,500 transport screens — a 24% increase in two years (Outreach / NABB Market Monitor 2026)
Section 6

FIRST-PARTY DATA & COOKIELESS

61%

of advertisers have a first-party data strategy

IAB State of Data 2026

48%

cookieless traffic (Safari + Firefox)

StatCounter / IAB 2026

+32%

contextual targeting budget growth

GumGum / IAS 2026

42%

use alternative ID solutions

LiveRamp / IAB Tech Lab

Cookieless transition

  • 48% of global web traffic is already cookieless due to Safari’s ITP and Firefox’s Enhanced Tracking Protection, even before Chrome fully phases out third-party cookies (StatCounter Browser Market Share + IAB Europe Cookieless Readiness)
  • Google’s Privacy Sandbox (Topics API, Protected Audiences) is being tested by 38% of major advertisers, but only 14% consider it a full replacement for cookie-based targeting (Advertiser Perceptions Privacy Readiness 2026)
  • Unified ID 2.0 (The Trade Desk) reaches 420 million unique profiles and is supported by 78% of the top 100 publishers worldwide (The Trade Desk UID2 Adoption Report)
  • Contextual targeting budgets grew 32% YoY, now accounting for $18.2 billion in programmatic spend — 2.5x the 2022 level (GumGum Contextual Intelligence Report 2026)
  • Attention-based metrics are used as a KPI by 28% of enterprise advertisers, with platforms like Adelaide, Lumen and Playground xyz supplementing viewability with eye-tracking and engagement data (IAB Attention Economy Report)
  • Cookieless CPMs average 22% lower than cookie-based CPMs due to less precise targeting, but this gap has halved from 34% in 2023 thanks to improved contextual and first-party data solutions (Index Exchange Cookieless Impact Study)

First-party data strategies

  • 61% of advertisers have an active first-party data strategy in place, up from 37% in 2023 — nearly doubling in three years (IAB State of Data Report 2026)
  • Data Clean Rooms are used by 44% of the top 500 advertisers, with AWS Clean Rooms (31%), Google Ads Data Hub (28%) and Snowflake (22%) as the most popular solutions (Winterberry Group Data Collaboration Study)
  • CRM data activation via programmatic delivers 3.1x higher ROAS than prospecting campaigns without first-party data, but only 34% of SMBs leverage this capability (Salesforce State of Marketing 2026)
  • Retail media first-party data is growing fastest: retailer data is used by 67% of CPG advertisers for programmatic targeting, with an average 2.8x higher conversion rate (Criteo Shopper Graph Report)
  • CDP (Customer Data Platform) adoption among enterprise companies reached 58% in 2026, with an average ROI of 2.5:1 in the first year (CDP Institute Industry Report)
NL
Section 7

PROGRAMMATIC IN THE NETHERLANDS

€3.2B

programmatic ad spend NL

IAB Netherlands / Deloitte 2026

89%

programmatic penetration display (NL)

IAB Netherlands 2026

€4.20

average display CPM (NL)

DPG Media / Ster Data 2026

38%

pDOOH penetration (NL)

Hivestack NL Barometer 2026

Dutch market figures

  • The Dutch programmatic market reaches €3.2 billion in 2026, accounting for 89% of all digital display spending — making the Netherlands one of the top 5 most programmatic-mature markets in Europe (IAB Netherlands Ad Spend Study / Deloitte Digital Ad Spend Report 2026)
  • Dutch CPM rates run 10–15% above the Western European average: display €4.20 (vs. €3.60 EU), video €19.80 (vs. €16.50 EU) due to high purchasing power and limited premium inventory (DPG Media Programmatic Insights)
  • DPG Media, RTL Netherlands and Talpa Network together control approximately 62% of Dutch premium programmatic display inventory, making the market relatively consolidated (Emerce Digital Marketing Report)
  • 72% of the top 200 Dutch advertisers now buy (partly) programmatic in-house, the highest percentage in Europe — compared to 64% in the UK and 48% in Germany (IAB Europe In-Housing Barometer)
  • STER (public broadcasting) has offered programmatic video inventory on NPO Start and NPO.nl since 2025, with CPMs of €22–€35 and viewability above 90% (STER Programmatic Factsheet 2026)
  • The Dutch DOOH market is the 2nd most programmatic-mature in Europe (after the UK): 38% of DOOH spend is transacted programmatically via platforms such as JCDecaux VIOOH, Broadsign and Vistar Media (Hivestack NL pDOOH Barometer)
  • Privacy regulation impact: due to the strict interpretation of the GDPR by the Dutch Data Protection Authority (AP) and the TCF 2.2 framework, the Dutch programmatic market lost an estimated 8–12% of addressable audiences compared to markets with less stringent enforcement (IAB Netherlands Privacy Impact Assessment)

In-housing trend in the Netherlands

  • 52% of Dutch companies with more than 250 employees have an in-house programmatic team, up from 38% in 2023 (WFA / IAB Europe In-Housing Barometer 2026)
  • Hybrid models dominate: 44% of Dutch advertisers work with a hybrid model (in-house strategy + agency execution), 28% fully in-house, 28% fully with a media agency (DDMA Benchmark Survey)
  • The primary reasons for in-housing are cost savings (68%), data availability (54%), transparency (51%) and speed (47%) (VIA Netherlands In-Housing Study)
DATA
Section 8

PROGRAMMATIC BY INDUSTRY

AVERAGE PROGRAMMATIC CPM BY INDUSTRY

Financial Services $6.80
$6.80
Automotive $5.40
$5.40
Technology & SaaS $4.90
$4.90
Telecom $4.20
$4.20
Pharma & Healthcare $3.80
$3.80
E-commerce / Retail $3.20
$3.20
FMCG / CPG $2.90
$2.90
Travel & Hospitality $2.60
$2.60
Entertainment & Media $2.20
$2.20

Source: eMarketer US Programmatic CPM Benchmarks by Industry 2026, Statista

  • Financial services pay the highest programmatic CPMs ($6.80 on average) due to strict compliance requirements that limit eligible placements and high competition for in-market audiences (eMarketer Financial Services Ad Spending)
  • Retail media programmatic (Amazon, Bol.com, Walmart Connect) grows 42% YoY and is used by 78% of FMCG/CPG advertisers, with purchase-intent data as the key driver (Criteo Commerce Media Report 2026)
  • B2B advertisers spend an average of 34% of their programmatic budget on LinkedIn Audience Network and account-based advertising platforms (Demandbase, 6sense), with CPMs of $8–$15 but 2.4x higher lead quality (LinkedIn B2B Marketing Benchmark Report)
  • The automotive sector is shifting 28% of its TV budget to programmatic CTV, particularly for model launches and dealer-location targeting (GroupM Automotive Media Study 2026)
  • Pharma and healthcare largely restricts itself to PMP deals (72%) due to strictly regulated content guidelines and the need for ISI compliance in the US and EMA regulations in Europe (DV Health & Pharma Report)
  • Travel & hospitality relies heavily on Dynamic Creative Optimization (DCO): 64% of programmatic campaigns in this sector use DCO for price and destination personalization (Sojern Travel Advertising Report 2026)
Section 10

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What exactly is programmatic advertising?

Programmatic advertising is the automated buying and selling of digital ad inventory through real-time bidding (RTB). Instead of manually negotiating with publishers, advertisers use a Demand Side Platform (DSP) to bid on ad space available through a Supply Side Platform (SSP) in milliseconds. The entire process — from bid to impression — takes less than 100 milliseconds. In 2026, 91.5% of all display ads are transacted programmatically, and the technology is expanding to video, CTV, DOOH and audio.

How big is the programmatic advertising market in 2026?

The global programmatic advertising market reaches $725 billion in 2026, an 18% increase over 2025. In Europe, $198 billion is spent programmatically, and in the Netherlands approximately €3.2 billion. Programmatic accounts for 91.5% of all digital display spending worldwide. The fastest-growing segments are CTV (+38% YoY), retail media (+42% YoY) and programmatic audio (+28% YoY). By 2028, the market is projected to exceed $1 trillion.

What are the average CPM rates for programmatic advertising?

Average programmatic CPMs vary significantly by format and channel. Standard display banners cost $1.50–$4.00 CPM, native advertising $5.00–$12.00, in-stream video $12.00–$25.00, programmatic audio $8.00–$18.00, Digital Out-of-Home $10.00–$22.00 and Connected TV $25.00–$45.00. In the Netherlands, CPM rates average 10–15% above the European mean due to high purchasing power. PMP deals deliver 38% higher CPMs on average than open exchange but also offer significantly better viewability and lower fraud rates.

What is viewability and how high should it be?

Viewability measures whether an ad was actually visible to the user. According to the IAB/MRC standard, a display ad is considered ‘viewable’ when at least 50% of its pixels are visible for at least 1 second (for video: 2 seconds). The average viewability rate in 2026 is 72.4% for display and 78.6% for video. A viewability above 70% is considered good; above 80% is excellent. Desktop viewability (76.8%) is higher than mobile web (69.4%), but mobile in-app scores highest at 80.2%. Viewability above 70% correlates with 2.4x higher brand lift.

What percentage of programmatic budgets is lost to ad fraud?

Globally, an estimated $84 billion is lost to ad fraud in 2026, roughly 11.6% of total digital ad spending. For programmatic specifically, the rates are: 14–18% on open exchanges versus just 3–5% on private marketplace deals. CTV fraud is growing fastest with estimated losses of $3.8 billion. Using ads.txt, sellers.json, pre-bid filtering and verification tools like IAS or DoubleVerify reduces fraud risk by 80–90%. The main fraud types are bot traffic, device spoofing and inventory fabrication.

How do you prepare for cookieless programmatic advertising?

The transition to cookieless programmatic requires a strategy built on four pillars: (1) collecting first-party data through your own channels — 61% of advertisers already have a strategy for this, (2) contextual targeting as an alternative — budgets grew 32% YoY, (3) alternative ID solutions like Unified ID 2.0, which already reaches 420 million profiles, and (4) investing in privacy-compliant data clean rooms — used by 44% of the top 500 advertisers. Consider having your online advertising managed by specialists who actively guide this transition.

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Ruud ten Have

Compiled by

Ruud ten Have

Ruud is a digital marketer with 10+ years of experience in online advertising and AI implementation. At Searchlab, he combines strategic thinking with hands-on AI tooling to deliver measurable results for businesses.